Watch Brands Of Yesteryear: Whatever Happened To The Heroes?
I wrote this article after hearing a 1977 punk/rock song on the radio and reading an introduction to a new watch. The song “No More Heroes” from British band The Stranglers asks, “Whatever happened to all the heroes? All the Shakespearoes?” The song was still playing in my head when I read an introductory article somewhere about a new watch from the French brand Herbelin. The name stirred up some memories, not of a specific yesteryear’s Michel Herbelin watch but, rather, of the brand as part of a world I started to discover in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It was a fascinating universe in which brands like Ikepod, Dubey & Schaldenbrand, DeWitt, and Manufacture Royale had my full attention. It got me wondering what they are up to nowadays.
The watch that partly inspired this article was the new cushion-shaped Herbelin Newport Héritage Diver. According to the brand, which stopped using its founder’s first name in 2022, the watch takes inspiration from the iconic dive watches of the 1970s while embracing the spirit of the original 1988 Newport. That sounds a bit confusing, and it does lead to a bit of a mishmash watch. The 42mm Newport Héritage Diver seems to be the offspring of a forced polygamous marriage between a Cartier Pasha, Panerai Radiomir, and an unknown but very familiar-looking dive watch with a day/date indication. Anyway, at least the watch designed, assembled, and regulated in Herbelin’s Charquemont atelier in the Franche-Comté region made me reminisce about some truly remarkable watches and interesting brands I don’t hear from anymore. Whatever happened to my heroes?
Dubey & Schalenbrand Aerodyn Duo — Image: Analog:Shift
Watch brands of yesteryear: Dubey & Schaldenbrand
Two things fascinated me about Dubey & Schaldenbrand when I first gained an interest in mechanical watchmaking. The first was the name. How do you pronounce a name with a first part that seems to be French and the second part German? It leads to confusion in the brain and mouth. Let’s stick to a soft start and a firmer ending and pronounce it like “DOO-bay ay SHALL-den-brand.” The “ay” is actually the French word “et,” and that’s because Dubey & Schaldenbrand hails from the historical and UNESCO-protected watchmaking town of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the French-speaking canton of the same name — only 25 kilometers away from the Herbelin workshop on the other side of the Jura.
Dubey & Schaldenbrand Spriral Rattrapante
Inventors of the split-second chronograph
The second thing that fascinated me about Dubey & Schaldenbrand was that it was founded in 1946 by the inventors of the split-second chronograph, Georges Dubey and René Schaldenbrand. The two watchmakers created a double chronograph named Index-Mobile, with a movement featuring a coil spring connecting two overlapping seconds hands. This allowed one hand to stop and catch up to the other within 59 seconds. One pusher resets both the chronograph’s seconds hands to zero. The split-second chronograph, or rattrapante, has always been an object of fascination and desire for me. IWC’s famous Doppelchronograph is nothing short of a grail watch, and I also remember the Girard-Perregaux Rattrapante ref. 9014 with a crown-integrated pusher very well.
Girard-Perregaux Rattrapante ref. 9014 — Image: Tahoma Watches
The same goes for the 2005 Dubey & Schaldenbrand Spiral Rattrapante. Apart from a split-second chronograph function, the watch features a blue ISOVAL balance spring, and the 40mm case has, thanks to its mobile lugs, a 46.5mm length. Not only is the rattrapante a homage to the 1946 invention, but so are the distinct lugs that were en vogue at the time, making the Spiral Rattrapante a lavish-looking watch with real pedigree.
Dubey & Schaldenbrand Aerodyn Duo — Image: Watch Collecting
The 1998 Aerodyn Duo is not a rattrapante, but it’s still attractive. It is a dual-time watch with an Art Deco-inspired tonneau-curvex case. Inside it beats an automatic ETA 2892-A2-based movement that powers the main handset, another 12-hour hand, a 24-hour indicator, and a calendar. The Arabic numerals and the way the brand name sits on the lower part of the dial are irresistibly charming. You could label it a Franck Muller alternative, but I prefer this “DOO-bay ay SHALL-den-brand.”
Hemipode Chrono — Image: Craft + Tailored
Hip to be round: Ikepod
Yes, Ikepod is still up and running, but it isn’t the Ikepod I once knew. The brand says it itself: “Same design, new price.” When Ikepod debuted in 1994, it quickly became one of the hottest names in watchmaking. Its founding fathers are famed Australian designer Marc Newson, who in 2015, designed the Apple Watch, and Swiss businessman Oliver Ike — he’s the “Ike” in the name, and the “pod” part stems from Newson’s 1986 design for a large, 60mm watch to be worn over the sleeve. I remember being blown away by the modern, rounded creations that, unlike the current ones, didn’t look like they belonged in a museum gift shop. Instead, they looked like contemporary watches that took their rightful place in the evolving world of traditional watchmaking.
Ikepod Seaslug GMT from the brand’s Vintage Corner
The monobloc watches were exclusive and costly. They also bore fantastic names, like Hemipode, Megapode, and Seaslug. The creations introduced a new design language for watches, and although design-driven collectors embraced the brand, that wasn’t enough to sustain it. In 2012, Ikepod shut down. The current brand is a 2018 reboot. The watches are more affordable than ever, but they have lost a significant portion of their original magic. Luckily, on the Ikepod website, some magic is still available in the Vintage Corner.
DeWitt WX-1 concept watch
Namedropping: DeWitt, Emperor Napoléon, King Jérôme of Westphalia, and King Léopold II of Belgium
When Baselworld was still the biggest watch fair, a temporary space outside the big exhibition hall housed high-end independent brands, and two of the ones I enjoyed visiting were DeWitt and Manufacture Royale. It must have been my fascination with history. Let me explain. DeWitt’s founder, Jérôme de Witt, a man with a passion for music, mathematics, and mechanics, is a direct descendant of Emperor Napoléon, King Jérôme of Westphalia, and King Léopold II of Belgium. Haute Horlogerie brand DeWitt, founded in 2003, immediately stood out with a case built with so-called imperial pillars around the outside.
DeWitt Academia Endless Drive
In true Haute Horlogerie fashion, the brand launched a plethora of traditional complications, as well as something unique, the telescoping WX-1 watch, a groundbreaking mini miracle of micromechanics. But my favorite DeWitt model is a later creation. The Academia Endless Drive was presented during the 2018 Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie (SIHH). The watch is powered by the in-house, 320-part caliber DW1653 featuring a rotating endless screw visible at the center of the dial, which reminded me of an owl’s face. The helical screw connects to the watch’s winding mechanism. As the 59-hour power reserve depletes, the screw rotates. When you rewind the watch, the screw shifts along its longitudinal axis, a fascinating sight.
Today, DeWitt’s HQ is in Meyrin-Satigny, Geneva, and it includes a museum dedicated to the brand and its founder. In 2015, that museum was in the news because it was the victim of a break-in. The robbers stole most of the museum’s collection, leaving two watches in a broken display and dropping another.
Manufacture Royale ADN
Enlightened watchmaking
Manufacture Royale is a brand with links to the Age of Enlightenment and the famous philosopher Voltaire. I recently cycled past the Château de Voltaire near the Swiss-French border. The place, constructed in Ferney-Voltaire near Geneva between 1758 and 1766, was home to one of the most renowned philosophers of the Enlightenment for two decades. For a brief moment, I thought of Voltaire supporting the watchmaking ateliers in the area, leading to the establishment of Manufacture Royale in 1770, but I soon forgot about it again. Thanks to The Stranglers, it all came back.
Modern-day Manufacture Royale was revived in 2010 by Arnaud Favre. In 2013, the brand was bought by GTN Luxury Holding SA, as announced by the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry. Today’s ownership situation is hazy since no information confirms the status of the two entities beyond the 2013 announcement. The brand does have a website, which was launched in 2024, so Manufacture Royale may still be producing watches today.
Manufacture Royale Opéra Répétition Minutes Tourbillon No. 01 — Image: Ineichen Auctioneers
A watch like an opera house
I think back to Manufacture Royale’s watches, sculpted creations with standout cases featuring tubular shafts enclosing a round frame. Extravagant, complicated, and not for everyone, they were certainly interesting and very much in the spirit of the 2000s, when wild technicality and out-of-the-box designs went hand in hand. The 2017 ADN, with its 46mm-wide, 67-part case housing Manufacture Royale’s caliber MR09, its ninth in-house movement, is quite something. The movement’s offset tourbillon is mounted on ceramic ball bearings and uses a silicon escapement wheel and pallet. It also displays two individual time zones.
The Opéra Répétition Minutes Tourbillon No. 01 is even wilder. This watch, featuring the MR01 caliber developed for Manufacture Royale by the Fabrique du Temps complications atelier, has a 50mm fold-out, bellows-type case that is nothing short of a spectacle. And, yes, “Opera” links to the watch’s design cue, the famous Sydney Opera House.
Manufacture Royale Opéra Répétition Minutes Tourbillon No. 01 — Image: Ineichen Auctioneers
Whatever happened to the heroes? A possible explanation
So, what happened to my watch heroes? They seem to operate in the shadows nowadays, not in the same limelight that lets high-end brands like De Bethune, Urwerk, and MB&F shine. This is remarkable because the extravagant and exuberant creations from Manufacture Royale and DeWitt are in the same spirit. Other factors must be at play, such as distribution, communication, and not being part of a powerful conglomerate. Luxury watchmaking is a field in which brands risk losing relevance due to economic downturns, rising competition, and shifting consumer preferences. Geopolitical instability also doesn’t help, nor does a lack of innovation or engagement with younger audiences.
Some of my heroes of yesteryear could not adapt to these structural and cultural shifts and faded into irrelevance. Should we make an effort to make them relevant again? Do you see yourself wearing a new version of the Art Deco-inspired Aerodyn Duo, for instance? Let me know in the comments below, and please share some of your forgotten heroes.
