Eterna

Eterna was founded on 7 November 1856 in Grenchen, in the canton of Solothurn, when physician Josef Girard and teacher Urs Schild founded a workshop producing rough movements ("Dr. Girard & Schild"). In 1866 Girard retired and Schild became sole owner, starting production of complete watches; the name "Eterna" appeared on dials from the 1870s to the 1890s and became the company's official name in 1905. In 1932 movement production was split off from watch production, giving rise to ETA SA, which would become one of Switzerland's largest movement manufacturers — its name itself a contraction of "Eterna".

The turning point came in 1948, when Eterna introduced the Eterna-matic: an automatic winding rotor supported by five tiny ball bearings, drastically reducing friction and wear compared to the friction-based systems used until then. The invention quickly became the standard adopted by much of the Swiss watch industry for automatic movements, and the five balls have identified the company's logo ever since. Riding this technical reputation, in 1958 Eterna launched the Kon-Tiki line in tribute to the Eterna watches worn in 1947 by the crew of explorer Thor Heyerdahl during their crossing of the Pacific on the Kon-Tiki raft.

In the postwar decades Eterna alternated sporty and dress collections — from the dive-oriented Kon-Tiki to the ultra-thin Centenaire launched in 1956 for the company's centenary — later continuing with innovations such as the Eterna-matic 3000 Dato of 1962 and more recent in-house calibers such as the Calibre 39 of 2013. Having passed through various owners over time (the group that would give rise to the Swatch Group in the 1980s, the Porsche family in the 1990s, the Chinese Citychamp group since 2011), the brand still keeps its historic headquarters in Grenchen and its explicit link to the 1948 invention that made it a well-known name throughout Swiss watchmaking.