Vulcain
Brand history
Vulcain was born in 1858 in La Chaux-de-Fonds as the Manufacture Ditisheim, founded by the Ditisheim family. In its early decades the manufacture made its name with complicated watches, winning international awards at the 1889 Paris World's Fair and the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. In 1898 the company name Ditisheim & Cie was changed to Fabrique Vulcain, the name under which the brand entered the 20th century; in 1919 a new production facility was opened, and in 1929 came the Grand Prix at the Barcelona International Exposition, an award the brand would celebrate decades later by dedicating an entire collection to it.
The decisive breakthrough came in 1947, when Vulcain presented the Cricket, the first wristwatch with a mechanical alarm loud enough to be truly audible: a result achieved thanks to a second barrel dedicated solely to the alarm and a perforated double caseback acting as a resonance chamber, amplifying the "chirp" of the internal hammer — hence the calibre's name. The Cricket won the chronometry competition of the Neuchâtel Observatory in 1948 and quickly gained a fame that went beyond watchmaking: in 1953 the White House News Photographers' Association gave a gold one to President Harry Truman, starting a tradition of presidential gifts that in the following decades would include Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson (who became a keen advocate, going as far as having about 200 bought as official gifts) and, more recently, Barack Obama in 2009: hence the nickname "The President's Watch".
In 1961 the Cricket found a second, underwater life with the Nautical, developed with input from diving specialists such as Hannes Keller, Max-Yves Brandily and Arthur Droz: a 42 mm case, huge for the time, housed the same alarm mechanism adapted to alert divers to ascent and decompression times. After a period of commercial eclipse, the brand was relaunched in 2002 with headquarters in Le Locle, resuming in-house production of the Cricket calibre; in 2005 it presented the Imperial Gong, a tourbillon with alarm, and in 2012 it began a collaboration with musician Herbie Hancock, a new chapter in the brand's ties with prominent public figures.
