A Brief History of Record Watch Co.
1950s Record Datofix / Credit: Black Bough
You may have noticed the Longines ‘Records’ for sale online or perhaps Longines’ modern re-issue of the ‘Record’. But the history of Record goes back far before it was ever linked to Longines, starting in a small town in the Jura mountains over 100 years ago.
Record was founded in 1903 by a group of businessmen looking to sell the ‘Sector Watch’, a triangular pocket watch with retrograde. An unusual but fairly popular pocket watch in the 1900s. This was followed by a merger in the 1910s that saw them become Record Dreadnought. In the 1920s they evolved into producing wristwatches with in-house movements, becoming one of the top Swiss watch brands in the early 20th century.
This was followed by the production of high-quality chronographs in the 1930s. Chronographs that were comparable not only to Longines but also to the likes of Patek Philippe and others. Most famously, Record was one of the ‘Dirty Dozen’ watches selected by the British military to make ‘W.W.W.’ watches for their soldiers in WWII – delivered in 1945! Today we think of these watches as being extremely collectable but even then, the strict specifications of the British Ministry of Defence made them desirable!
1900s Record ‘Sector Watch’ / Credit: Bukowskis
Shortly after, in 1949, Record released a watch that is pretty popular among vintage enthusiasts today: the Datofix. A complicated calendar moonphase watch made in-house. They were in a small group of watchmakers capable of producing such a complication in-house, in the company of Audemars Piguet, Vacheron Constantin, and Jaeger-LeCoultre…You’re probably starting to get the idea that Record Genève (as it was called) was the real deal, with high-end in-house movements and military watch provenance. And maybe even interested in getting one…so what happened?
Record was acquired by Longines in the early 1960s and continued to operate as an independent brand under the umbrella of Longines. However, as Longines became part of the Swatch Group in the late ‘80s and Record was struggling, the operation was shut down in 1991. Today, Record is barely in the hearts and minds of young watch collectors, but there is a treasure trove of Record watches to acquire out there; from the affordable 1970s dress watches to the 1940s split-seconds chronographs.
By: Andres Ibarguen