Ceas de buzunar Leonidas militar Ceas 20

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Un ceas extrem de rar care a fost in dotarea armatei Marii Britanii. Stare conform foto.

already understood that there was a connection between Leonidas and Heuer, and my very similar Heuer and Leonidas stopwatches bea witness to that link. What I didn't expect to find was that while Heuer/TAG Heuer is richly provided for in terms of textual and illustrative history, Leonidas has almost vanished without trace in the record books, apart from the surviving watches, many of which are of good quality and highly collectible. This lack of written history is undoubtedly the result, in part, of the fact that the Leonidas company faded out of existence from the mid-1960s, merging with Heuer before being finally swallowed up by a newly formed TAG Heuer.
A rare steel-cased Leonidas chronograph pocket watch from the 1920s-1930s powered by a hand-wind movement stamped, "LEONIDAS" and "4782"
So here is what I have found out about Leonidas:

The brand name, Leonidas, is taken from ancient Greek history – Leonidas I was king and military leader of Sparta 489-480BC and was killed, aged 60, at the Battle of Thermopylae, in the latter year.

The Leonidas Watch Company (originally with an acute accent on the 'e') was formed by Julien Bourquin at Saint-Imier, Switzerland, in 1841 – Saint-Imier being located in the French-speaking Bernese Jura. Watches of affordable quality formed the mainstay of production, but Borquin himself, developed an intense interest in the technology of measuring short intervals of time and he introduced this aspect of watchmaking to the company.
A rather beautiful if worn Leonidas 25J automatic dive watch with 38mm (excl. crown) steel case and enclosed bezel (pics from vintage-portfolio.com):
In 1912, Leonidas was purchased by Constant Jeanneret-Droz, one of the three sons of Jules Frédéric Jeanneret, who himself was involved in the early history of the Excelsior Park concern. The Jeanneret family of watchmakers are probably important in connection with Leonidas, and Borquin's interest in time measurement, from about this time on, so I will digress briefly here.

The connection between Leonidas, the Jeanneret family, and Excelsior Park originates in the founding of that strangely named movement company by Henri Jeanneret-Brehm. In 1911, Henri bought the Magnenat-LeCoultre factory in Saint-Emier with the financial assistance of the Gallet company. He had already registered the Excelsior name, then added “Park” at Gallet's suggestion, in order to make the products more acceptable to English-speaking buyers.
A 1950s Leonidas hand-wind chronograph with 35mm (excl. crown) plated metal case and steel back; powered by a 17J Landeron 48 movement (pics from images.antiquesatlas.com):
Production of ebauches commenced in 1918 at Excelsior Park, and the firm was to manufacture a variety of stopwatches, branded watches, and movements right through until 1983, including ebauches for Gallet, Girard-Perrigaux and Zenith. The company focused on timing movements, including stopwatches and chronographs, and was quite successful in the post-War period – its closest rivals being Martel and Universal. Excelsior Park did not survive the quartz crisis, and although the name was transferred to the German, Flume Company, it proved impossible to revive.

I am not aware of any direct connection between the Excelsior Park concern and Leonidas. However, one would expect a flow of expertise into Leonidas via the Jeanneret family link, and it is the case that both Leonidas and Excelsior Park were respected and known for their expertise in chronographs and other timing devices. At Leonidas, Bourquin had started the ball rolling, and Constant Jeanneret-Droz would no doubt have contributed additional expertise to the Leonidas concern concerning chronographs and timers.
A fine quality Leonidas dive chronograph wristwatch with 38mm case, bi-directional bezel, and screw-down steel caseback, powered by a hand-wind Landeron movement and water resistant to 20 ATM. This watch is difficult to date but is certainly after the merger with Heuer in 1964 (pics from Ashton-Blakey at cdn.shopify.com):
Leonidas was not solely a watch company, although it consistently produced a variety of wrist and pocket watches, including chronographs, alarm watches, and watches of a simpler type. In fact, the firm also manufactured a variety of instruments in the automotive and aerospace fields including clocks for car and aircraft instrument panels. Government departments in various countries such as Germany, Italy, Britain, Japan and the USA, obtained specialised pieces from Leonidas made in the company's workshops - during World war Two, leonidas was a major supplier of watches to the German armed forces.

In 1964, after lengthy negotiations, a merger contract was signed by Leonidas Watch Factory in 1964 with one of its competitors, the Heuer company, and the new firm was listed as Heuer-Leonidas S.A. The watches were now sold under the name, HEUER LEONIDAS, for a while, and the Leonidas brand name was used, somewhat sparingly, on various watches. One model that Leonidas brought to Heuer at the merger was the Budeswehr (BW) chronograph used by the German air force. This watch had a flyback function whereby on resetting the watch to zero, it immediately started timing the next section again without any intervening delay.
Another Leonidas watch, with 35mm (excl. crown) gold plated case with similar complications to that here above, also from the 1950s - a type of watch that Leonidas seems to have made quite a number of from the later 1940s and in the 1950s; this example having an ETA 1100 hand wind movement
In 1985, Heuer was taken over by Techniques d'Avant Garde, together with British businessman Ron Dennis, and the company was renamed, TAG Heuer. By this time, little was left of the Leonidas influence and the name of that once illustrious company was dropped altogether.

As a final ironic note, I have to say that leaving aside possible early Leonidas watches, I have not encountered a Leonidas watch in preparing the illustrations or this topic that actually uses an ebauche manufactured by Leonidas. This specialisation in the Swiss watch industry was evidently commonplace, as it still is, and apart from certain modifications made by watch companies, base movements have been generally the province of ebauche manufacturers. Oh and don't forget the simple Leonidas timekeepers - obviously, for the purposes of this article, I have tended to focus on the more complex machines so redolent of the Leonidas company, but there are many simple yet collectible Leonidas watches out there.
A Heuer-Leonidas chronograph with 36mm stainless steel case and hand-wind Venus movement.
he celebrated 1960s Leonidas Bund flyback chronograph - this particular example is the original version, developed by Leonidas prior to the merger with Heuer and issued to the Italian army. Later, Heuer also had their own Bund watches, based on the Leonidas original, and these watches are found with one of three different hand wind Valjoux column-wheel movements (pics from production-fratellowatches.netdna-ssl.com):
The amazing if not completely reliable Leonidas (Heuer-Leonidas) Easy-Rider chronograph introduced in 1971 and current until 1974/5. This watch, which came in a variety of styles/colourways, had a one-piece fibreglass case that opened from the front. It was powered by a hand wind EB8420 17J pin-lever caliber made by Ebauches Bettlach, part of ETA (pics from calibre11-wpengine.ndna-ssl.com):

Data anunt: 01 noiembrie 2019 Actualizat: 25 octombrie 2022 Vizualizari: 0
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