Stauffer, Son & Co.

Copyright © David Boettcher 2005 - 2023 all rights reserved.

The watchmaking company Stauffer, Son & Co. was established by Charles Philip Stauffer and his son Julius in Switzerland in 1830 with an office in Geneva and a factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds. A London office was opened by Julius soon after to import watches from the Swiss factory and sell them into the British market and the British Empire. Stauffer, Son & Co. became one of the largest, if not the largest, importer of Swiss watches in Britain, also importing watches made by Patek Philippe, Le Coultre, IWC, Fontainemelon and Eterna.

The Stauffer name is not uncommon in Switzerland, but it appears that there were only two generations of this Stauffer family involved in the company; father and son. The son Julius Stauffer (1808 - 1884), who set up the London branch of the company in the 1830s, his father was Charles Philip Stauffer as recorded on Jules Stauffer's marriage certificate. There was some association between Julius Stauffer and Robert Stauffer, Son & Co. but this is not clear; it may be a family relationship that helped Jules get established in London.

The name of the parent company registered in Switzerland was Stauffer, fils et cie. The name of the London company officially registered at Companies House in England was Stauffer and Co. (S & Co.) with a single “S”, rather than Stauffer, Son & Co. (S S & Co.) with two “S”s. This was because it was Julius Stauffer, the son referred to in the name of the Swiss parent company, who founded the London branch. The London branch usually used the trading name "Stauffer, Son & Co." on letterheads and in advertisements.

Jules Stauffer, who also used the more English sounding Jules, initially retailed watches directly to the public from a shop in which he was a partner with two others, and also acted as an importer and wholesaler, initially selling watches made in the Stauffer “Atlas” factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds. The wholesale side of Jules business grew and the retail side was closed down.

The wholesale business grew in size to became one of the largest and best known watch importers in Britain. By 1885 the Atlas factory was making 60,000 watches a year, but the London company could sell more watches than the Atlas factory could manufacture, so it also imported and wholesaled watches from other Swiss manufacturers including Patek Philippe, Le Coultre, IWC, Eterna and Fontainemelon.

Watches made in Stauffer's Atlas factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds carry one of their registered trademarks, which are discussed in a later section. The mark shown here with SS&Co under three triangles is frequently seen on early wristwatches. Initially this mark was reserved for use on Stauffer's highest quality movements. At one time it was thought that this trademark was used exclusively on movements made in Stauffer's own factory, but Fontainemelon calibres are also seen stamped with this mark.

Because of the size and financial power of the London operation, when Stauffer ordered watches from other manufacturers they could require that Stauffer's own trademarks be put onto the watches. The best known of these are the second trademark shown here, the initials S&Co under a crown inside and oval, the name "Peerless", and a symbol of the upper torso and head of a ram. These Stauffer trademarks were put onto watches made by IWC, Eterna and Fontainemelon.

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Stauffer & Co., London

Soon after Stauffer, Son and Co was established in 1830, Julius Stauffer formed a London company to act as importer for the products of the Swiss factory, changing his name to the more English sounding Jules.

Shenton (Alan Shenton - Pocket Watches of the 19th and 20th century) states that "... by the 1860s Stauffer, Son & Co. had established a London branch, Stauffer & Co., to import watches to Britain". This text has been copied and repeated widely as the founding date of the London business, perhaps most notably by Kathleen Pritchard in “Swiss Timepiece Makers, 1775-1975”. However, Shenton does not say when he thinks this branch was first established. It was certainly much earlier than 1860, although to be fair he does not state that 1860 was the date the company was founded, just that it was founded "by", i.e. before, 1860.

Jules Stauffer married Anne Rogers Blewitt from Bristol in 1837. Jules must have been resident in England long enough before this to meet and fall in love with an English woman. This shows that Jules Stauffer was operating in London as importer and agent for Stauffer watches well before the date of 1860 quoted by Shenton. In February 1837 a reward of two pounds was offered in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette for the return of “A flat Gold Geneva Horizontal watch, with Expansion Curb, and jewelled in 8 holes. Stauffer, à Genève, Silver Dial, and engraved back to the case.” The London office must have been set up within a few years after the company was founded in Switzerland in 1830.

Stauffer & Co. London became a trading partnership between Jules Stauffer and Francis Claude (1826 - ?), at 12 Old Jewry Chambers. It is not known when Claude joined the business. Pierre François Victor Claude, aka Francis Claude, was born in Switzerland in 1826.

The London company used the name Stauffer, Son & Co. as a trading name on their letter heads and advertisements, as shown in the picture here, but though this wasn't the officially registered name of the London company. This is quite common, when a company has to register a name but preferred to use a different trading name that has “goodwill” built up in it. When the London company imported watches from outside companies, they had them stamped with the logo of the London company S&Co. rather than the SS& Co. of the Swiss factory. This can give an important indication as to who manufactured a particular watch, and can also cause confusion. It is discussed in more detail below.

Jules Stauffer left the business in 1869. The dissolution of the partnership between Jules Stauffer and Francis Claude on 10 February 1869 was recorded in the London Gazette, with Claude carrying on the business, recorded as Swiss watch manufacturers with addresses at 12 Old Jewry Chambers in the city of London and Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

At some time after this, Charles Nicolet became a partner. Following the retirement of Francis Claude in 1879, ownership of the company passed to Charles Nicolet.

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Stauffer & Co. and IWC

Stauffer, Son & Co. (SS&Co.) was a much older company than the International Watch Company of Schaffhausen, Stauffer having been founded in 1830 whereas IWC was founded in 1868. From 1894 the London company Stauffer & Co. (S&Co.), started to import watches made by IWC. These IWC watches carry Stauffer trademarks “S&Co.” and “Peerless”. Because of this it is sometimes erroneously assumed that all watches with Stauffer trademarks were made by IWC, which is often not the case. See the section Stauffer and IWC on my IWC page for a discussion of the relationship between Stauffer & Co. and IWC, and how to identify an IWC movement.

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Jules Stauffer

Jules Stauffer married Anne Rogers Blewitt from Bristol on 9 December 1837 in London at the parish church in Bloomsbury. Jules must have been resident in England, even if not permanently, for long enough before this to meet and fall in love with an English woman, and was presumably acting as representative and import agent for watches made in the Stauffer factory. This shows that the London office must have been set up within a few years after the company was founded in Switzerland in 1830.

The 1851 Census shows Jules and Anne Stauffer living at Courland House, Wandsworth Road, Clapham. Jules is aged 42, his occupation described as a Watch Manufacturer born in Switzerland. For some reason the census enumerator has added "Retired" to the occupation after the entry was first written. The family has three children aged 7, 5 and 3, and a servant. On 3 January 1857 Jules Stauffer was recorded in The Times as speaking at a meeting of Swiss nationals in London. Jules and Ann had at least 6 children; Julius Blewitt, Edward Reynold, Evelina, Marie Louise, Josephine, and Victoria Ann. The eldest son, Julius Blewitt, was born in 1840 and emigrated to America in 1869.

Julius Stauffer retired from Stauffer, Son & Co on 10 February 1869 leaving Francis Claude as sole owner.

Julius Stauffer's death on 4 May 1884 in Brussels aged 76 was reported in The Times. His addresses were given as No 12 Old Jewry Chambers and Clapham, Surrey. Evidently none of Jules' children entered the business and so his retirement in 1869 was the end of the Stauffer family involvement in Stauffer, Son & Co.

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Francis Claude

Peter Francis Eugene Claude, known as Francis Claude, was born in Switzerland in 1826 and became a partner in Stauffer & Co.

The date that he joined Stauffer in London as a partner is not known, but in the 1861 census he is recorded as a “Watch Manufacturer” living in St. Mary, Islington, London, with his wife Mary Ann nee Hewitt, originally from Bury in Lancashire.

Francis Claude retired from Stauffer, Son & Co on 1 January 1879.

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Charles Nicolet

Charles Nicolet (1853 - 1940) was a Swiss national who settled in London during the 1870s after spending three years in the horological school at La Chaux-de-Fonds. In Switzerland in 1883 his name was given as Charles Nicolet-Sandoz, indicating that his Swiss wife Marie's family name was Sandoz. An obituary published in the Horological Journal in 1940 said that throughout his business career Charles Nicolet had been connected with Stauffer, Son & Co.

Charles Nicolet entered into a partnership with Francis Claude as joint owners of Stauffer, Son & Co. Francis Claude retired on 1 January 1879 and Charles Nicolet assumed sole control of the companies in London and La Chaux-de-Fonds. Shenton states that Charles Nicolet took over the business in 1874 but that is incorrect; it is most likely the date on which Nicolet became a partner. He was not a partner in 1869 when Julius Stauffer retired, but he was a partner in 1879 when Francis Claude retired.

In January 1883, it was recorded that Alfred Nicolet-Rossel, from Tramelan (Bern), residing in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and Charles Nicolet-Sandoz, residing in London, had incorporated in La Chaux-de-Fonds a general partnership, begun before January 1, 1883, under the name Stauffer fils & Cie. The type of Business was Manufacture, purchase and sale of clocks and watches with offices at No 24 Rue Jaquet-Droz, La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Under the direction of Charles Nicolet, the Stauffer factory became an important producer of chronographs used at sporting events, including supplying the chronographs used during the Gordon Bennet Cup series of motor races. The London branch of the company also began to buy watches from other Swiss manufacturers including IWC, Eterna and Patek Philippe. The name Stauffer, Son & Co. was well known in British markets. Watches from IWC and Eterna, unknown names at the time, were stamped with Stauffer trademarks and were to all appearances Stauffer products, which has caused confusion amongst collectors. Patek Philippe watches were never branded as Stauffer products, Stauffer acted only as agent for the famous Geneva company.

The company name was formally changed in Switzerland from 1 January 1890 from Stauffer, fils & cie to Nicolet fils & cie, successeurs de Stauffer fils & cie (Nicolet, Son & Co, successors to Stauffer, Son & Co). The partners were Charles Nicolet, domiciled in London, and Georges Nicolet, domiciled in La Chaux-de-Fonds, both from Tramelan (Bern). The company gave power of attorney to Alfred Nicolet-Rossel. It was noted that the company would continue the business in London under the old company name of Stauffer, Son & Co.

It appears that Nicolet wanted to establish the company in his own family name, but that the long established Stauffer name was too valuable to allow this, because in Switzerland in 1905 the name was changed to the Anglicised Stauffer, Son & Co.

The change of management also seems to have been the start of a change of direction for the Stauffer manufacturing operation. They went into making high quality split seconds chronographs. Later the Stauffer manufacturing side seems to have been wound down and watches were bought in from other manufacturers, including IWC amongst others - a very familiar business model.

Pritchard gives Charles Nicolet's lifetime as 1856 - 1944. This is at variance with an obituary in the British Horological Institute's Journal of June 1940 which reports the death of Charles Nicolet at Montreux, Switzerland at the age of 88. The obituary reports that he had been in poor health for some time prior to his death, and since his retirement the business of Stauffer Son & Co. had been controlled by his son George Nicolet. The 1911 census gives Charles Nicolet's birth year as 1853, which agrees with the HJ obituary.

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Alfred Nicolet-Rossel

In July 1894 the British Horological Institute's Horological Journal reported the death at La Chaux-de-Fonds on the 27th June of Mr A Nicolet-Rossel, late senior partner of the Swiss firm Stauffer Son & Co.

George Alfred Nicolet

George Alfred Nicolet was born to Charles Nicolet and his wife Marie in June 1881 when they were living at 4 Northampton Street, Islington, London. The family moved before 1885 to The Hollies, Pierrepoint Road, Springfield Park, Acton, Middlesex, and then at some time between 1890 and 1900 to a very large house called “Glenhurst” on Burbage Road, Camberwell.

George joined the business, presumably as soon as he left school. It appears that after the death of Charles Nicolet, the company under the management of George Nicolet gradually withdrew from manufacturing and became a purely an import, logistics and sales operation by the nineteen twenties or thirties.

Considering that Stauffer Son & Co. were a large and successful Swiss watch manufacturer with a modern factory in 1885, and a major British watch importer, recipient of Kew and other observatory trial winnings and suppliers of chronographs used at many large sporting events, it is strange that they seem to have disappeared without trace.

The Stauffer name seems to have been dropped from the Swiss watch making operation in the 1920s in favour of Atlas Watch Co, although the London firm continued to use the name Stauffer Son & Co.

Adverts by Stauffer Son & Co. were still appearing in the Horological Journal until June 1964, then they abruptly stop, There is no editorial explanation in the Horological Journal of the final events surrounding the company.

Information from the daughter of a man who worked for George Nicolet in the London offices of Stauffer in Clerkenwell as a watchmaker and repairer indicates that the company was dissolved in 1963/4.

It appears that George lived in the same house on Burbage Road all his life and never married. In 1964 he would have been 83. Being a bachelor would mean that there was no immediate family to inherit or take over the business, so it appears that he simply decided to close it down and disperse of the assets. George Nicolet was a wealthy man, leaving an estate valued at £127,192 at the time of his death in 1967.

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Sponsor's Marks

In the middle 1870s a practice had begun of sending unfinished watch cases from Switzerland to be hallmarked, to be returned to Switzerland for finishing and to made into completed watches.

An item cannot be accepted at a British assay office for hallmarking unless it carries a sponsor's mark which shows under whose responsibility it is submitted. This meant that meant from around 1874, agents for Swiss manufacturers began to register sponsor's marks at British assay offices so that they could submit Swiss made watch cases to be assayed and hallmarked.

There is more about this at Foreign Watches with British Hallmarks.

CN: Charles Nicolet

On 1 March 1877, Charles Nicolet trading as Stauffer, Son & Company, importers of foreign cases at 12 Old Jewry Chambers, entered a sponsor's mark, the initials CN incuse with no surround, at the London Assay Office so that the company could submit items for assay and hallmarking. Further sponsor's mark punches were entered at the London Assay Office under the name of Charles Nicolet in 1881, 1885 and 1887.

The British hallmarking of imported watch cases was effectively stopped from 1 January 1888 by the 1887 Merchandise Marks Act and did not recommence until 1907. Despite this, a further mark was entered under Charles Nicolet's name in 1896. The use of this marks is not known.

British law was changed from 1 June 1907 to require that all foreign gold and silver watch cases be assayed and hallmarked in a British assay office with British Import Hallmarks.

Sponsor's mark punches such as the one that made the mark in a watch case shown in the image here, the initials CN in cameo within a rectangular surround, were entered at the London Assay Office under the name of Charles Nicolet in 1905 and 1907. A similar punch was entered at the Chester Assay Office on 13 December 1906.

Note that in Philip Priestley's books, Charles Nicolet's family name is spelt incorrectly as Nicholet.

GN: George Nicolet

The GN sponsor's mark shown in the small image was entered by George Alfred Nicolet of Stauffer, Son & Co. after the retirement of his father Charles Nicolet (see above). The mark is taken from an IWC hermetic wristwatch with Glasgow Assay Office import hallmarks for 1929 to 1930.

The larger image shows marks in a nine carat gold Borgel case of a watch sold on eBay. This also has Glasgow Assay Office import hallmarks for 1929 to 1930. This case also has the trademark of a dog sitting upright with "The Mark of Confidence". This trademark doesn't appear in the case of the IWC watch, which suggests that it was introduced in circa 1930.

George Alfred Nicolet trading as Stauffer, Son & Co. entered two sets of marks at the London Assay Office; the first "GN" in a rectangle with cut corners, the second GN in a rectangle. Both appear to have been registered on 2 February 1933, the address given was 13 Charterhouse Street, London.

The date of the IWC hermetic wristwatch with George Nicolet's sponsors mark is earlier than the date given for the registration of his mark at the London Assay Office, implying that he registered his mark at Glasgow first. Unfortunately the records from the Glasgow Assay Office, which was closed in 1964, are very incomplete and the actual date of registration is unknown.

A similar GN mark was registered at Edinburgh in 1955 by British Watch Cases Ltd. This was entered under the name of George Alfred Nicolet trading as Stauffer, Son & Co. The company British Watch Cases Ltd. registered marks at the Edinburgh Assay Office for a number of other companies. These punches were used on cases made by British Watch Cases Ltd that were submitted for assay and hallmarking under the responsibility of the sponsor identified by the punch, even though they played no part in making the case. This again illustrates why it is wrong to refer to a sponsor's mark as a “maker's mark”.

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Stauffer Trademarks

Trademarks have a long history and Stauffer, Son & Co. used several trademarks from the founding of the company in 1830, but at the time there was no register of trademarks in Switzerland or Britain. The British Merchandise Marks Act of 1862 made it illegal to forge or counterfeit any trademark, or falsely to apply any such trade mark, with intent to defraud, but there was at the time no register of trademarks, which made it difficult for a manufacturer to know whether a trademark was already in use, and also to carry out a prosecution.

The British “Registration of Trade Marks Act” was passed in 1875, enabling registration of trademarks by the Patent Office for the first time. The Swiss horological trademarks register, the Archives de l'Horlogerie, was established in 1880.

The Stauffer trademarks shown here, with the registration numbers 316, 317, 318 and 319, are recorded in the first volume of the Archives in 1880. All three marks were registered together on 27 November 1880 at 8 o'clock in the morning (8 heure du matin), but this does not record when the individual marks were first used. The company of Stauffer, Son & Co. was formed in 1830 and it is clear that all of these trademarks were in use well before 1880.

The first three trademarks illustrated here registered to "Stauffer Fils & Cie" (Stauffer, Son and Co.) state that they are “fabricants” (manufacturers) in La Chaux-de-Fonds, which we know is a true statement from a letter by a Mr J. Lecluse describing a visit to the Stauffer factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds that appeared in the journal of the British Horological Institute in September 1885 and which is discussed in detail elsewhere on this page.

The order in which the marks appear in the Archives is not the chronological order of their first use. The discussion that follows puts their use into chronological order.

Trademarks No. 317 and 318

The Stauffer trademarks with the Swiss registration numbers 317 and 318 are the oldest; much older than the date implied by their entries in the first issue of the Archives de l'Horlogerie in 1880.

In Clock and Watch Trademark Index of European Origin, Karl Kochmann recorded that these trademarks were shown in the first volume of the British trademark register published on 11 January 1876, with a note that they had been used for 45 years before that date.

Forty five years prior to 1876, or 1875 when the list would have been compiled, would take the first use of these marks back in time to the date of the formation of Stauffer, Son & Co. in 1830.

The first volume of the British Trade Marks Journal was published in January 1876 after the passage of the Registration of Trade Marks Act in August 1875. This presented the first opportunity to register trademarks that were already in use, which is the reason for the note about the marks being used for 45 years prior to that publication.

Trademark number 317 comprises the letters “SSc” within a knight's shield shaped surround. The initials are sometimes misread as SS because the c overlaying the second S is small and difficult to see. Number 318 is simply “Stauffer Cx. de Fonds”, which sometimes read from watch movements as “Stauffer, X-De-Fonds” or “X-De-Fonde”.

In "Swiss Timepiece Makers 1775 to 1975" Kathleen Pritchard has taken the 1880 date of registration of these marks as being the date of their first use, which is incorrect.

Trademark No. 316

Trademark No. 316, with “S & Co” under a crown in an oval, was used by the London branch of the company, Stauffer & Co. (S&Co. - note: there is only one "S").

This mark was stamped on the movements of watches supplied directly to Stauffer & Co. in London by other Swiss manufacturers such as Le Coultre, IWC, Fontainemelon and Eterna.

In Clock & Watch Trademark Index, Karl Kochmann records that this mark was entered in the first volume of the British trademark register published on 11 January 1876, with a note that it had been used for 10 years before that date, so from about 1865.

The entry for No. 316 in Archives de l'Horlogerie includes the name of the Swiss parent company Stauffer Fils & Cie. and the details "fabricants" (makers) and "mouvements de montres"(watch movements). This refers to Stauffer, Son & Co., who did make watch movements and were the party who registered the mark in Switzerland, it does not mean that the London branch, Stauffer & Co., made watch movements.

The entry in the British trademark register shows that it was in use well before 1894 when IWC started applying it to the movements of watches they supplied to Stauffer.

Although the S&Co logo is shown following a curved path in the registration in the Archives de l'Horlogerie, in practice it is more often seen with the it straight as in the photograph shown here, and in an advert from September 1886 further down in this section.

Trademark No. 319

The trademark No. 319 to the right is stylistically similar to No. 316 with the use of an oval to contain the initials "S S & C", and is therefore might be contemporary with it.

This mark says "Boîtes de montres" i.e. watch cases, rather than watch movements (mouvements de montres) as the three other trademarks registered at the same time. In a letter that appeared in the journal of the British Horological Institute in 1885, discussed in detail below, Mr J. Lecluse mentions that watch cases were manufactured in Stauffer's Atlas factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

Trademark No. 1603: Three triangles

Trademark No. 1603 dated June 1886, has the initials "SS&Co." underneath 3 small triangles or pyramids. The advert from The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith of September 1886 reproduced here explains the origin of this mark. The mark represents Stauffer's “third quality” watches, hence the three triangles. This mark was originally intended to be used in addition to the earlier trademarks, but eventually became very widely used on its own.

At first sight it appears to be rather a mystery why Stauffer would want to make such a song and dance about their “third quality” watches. A native English speaker might think that it would be better to promote one's first quality products, perhaps offer the second quality at a bit of a discount, and keep rather quiet about third quality items.

However, it is abundantly clear that something has got lost in translation from Swiss/French to English and that, rather than being inferior to some not mentioned first and second quality watches, Stauffer Third Quality Watches are actually their best, the top of their range, achieving “very great success”. In this reasoning, first quality models would be the basic ones, second quality would be better, and the third quality would be the best; "extra-extra-extra-good". Perhaps in Swiss/French this would be “trés bon” which was somehow inadvertently translated literally into English as third quality.

Stauffer had previously started to use a similar mark with three stars rather than triangles but as the advert says they soon discovered that a very similar mark had already been registered. Although not mentioned in the advert, the mark with three stars had been registered by Baume, the importers of Longines watches. Baume must have been following the same reasoning, that three stars indicated high quality. In fact, the same reasoning is still used today; the highest accolade awarded by the Michelin Guide is three stars.

This trademark was not used exclusively on movements made in Stauffer's own factory; Fontainemelon calibres have been seen stamped with this mark. The same calibres are also seen with the “S&Co” under a crown in an oval trademark. It is not clear why or when the different marks were used, but the use of the “SS&Co.” under 3 small triangles does not definitively identify a watch made in Stauffer's own factory. Perhaps it shows that a movement from one of the ébauche factories such as Fontainemelon was inspected and cased in the Atlas factory.

The Atlas brand

The name Atlas had a long history with the Stauffer company. The factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds was called Atlas and in the nineteenth century lever watches produced there were called "The Atlas Watch" and the adverts in the Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith from September 1886 reproduced above stated that this was a registered trade mark. The announcement or warning reproduced below states that "Atlas" was registered as a trademark in London in 1885.

For a period from 1892 after Charles Nicolet took over the company was renamed Nicolet Fils & Cie, although it appears to have continued to use the well known Stauffer, Son & Co. as a trading name.

Some time in the 1920s the brand name Atlas Watch Co. was revived, although the English branch of the company continued to be called Stauffer & Co. The picture here shows an Atlas brand from an Eterna movement with the bridge and finger shapes customised for Stauffer as described in the section below about Stauffer and Eterna. The three small triangles used by Stauffer are in the centre of the mark.

In 1927 La Fédération Horlogère Suisse reported results of watch trials at Le Locle and recorded that "Comp. des Montres Atlas, La Chaux-de-Fonds" had received one first class certificate endorsed "particularly good", and another ordinary first class certificate.

The announcement shown here appeared in La Fédération Horlogère Suisse in 1928, warning that the Atlas Watch Co. is the only company authorised to use the brand Atlas belonging to Stauffer Son & Co., filed in London in 1885, Switzerland in 1892, and registered internationally.

The "Peerless" Brand and the Stauffer Ram

The trademark of a picture of a ram together with the word Peerless was first registered in the UK in 1896. An entry in the Trade Marks Journal shows that it was registered by Stauffer Son & Co. on 27 February 1896. It was later also registered in the Swiss trademarks register alongside the other marks discussed above.

This ram mark sometimes appears on the bottom plates of movements supplied by IWC to Stauffer & Co. placed below the foot of the balance cock where it is not normally visible, unlike the S&Co. under a crown inside an oval mark that is clearly visible on movements purchased by Stauffer from IWC and other makers.

The Stauffer ram is similar to the IWC registered trademark of the “Schaffhausen bock” (also a ram) and it appears possible that Stauffer registered their own version IWC trademark in the UK for some reason, perhaps after taking over the IWC Agency for Britain.

It is sometimes thought that this ram is actually an IWC trademark, but it was also used on movements purchased by Stauffer from from Eterna - see below.

Peercee, Peertone, etc.

Stauffer, Son & Co. (SS&Co.) registered the brand names "Peercee", "Peertone" and "En Tout Cas". Peercee seems to have been fairly widely used from the late 1920s or perhaps 1930s onwards when the relationship with IWC was coming to an end. I have seen it most often on watches supplied to Stauffer & Co. by Eterna. Peertone and En Tout Cas are seen only occasionally, but this may be because all the watches that carry these brands are later than the period I normally look at.

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Stauffer and Other Watch Manufacturers

Stauffer & Co. were a large and important Anglo-Swiss company importing large quantities of watches from their own factory in la Chaux-de-Fonds and from many other Swiss manufacturers. Pritchard records that in 1973 "Stauffer Fils & Cie, La Chaux-de-Fonds (Suisse)" was a trade mark belonging to the Atlas Watch Co. (Atlas Montres SA) of Morges St-Jean on Lake Geneva. Pritchard says that Atlas was registered in Morges St-Jean in 1986.

If you have any questions or comments, please don't hesitate to contact me via my Contact Me page.

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Stauffer, Son & Co., La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland

There is little recorded about the Stauffer factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, but the following letter from Mr J. Lecluse appeared in the journal of the British Horological Institute in September 1885. I think it is very interesting, so I have transcribed it and you can read the full letter by clicking on the link in the picture caption.

In the letter Lecluse describes Stauffer, Son and Co.'s "Atlas" watch factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, in the Swiss Jura mountains. The factory has steam heating, steam power from a 30 horse power steam engine, and makes its own gas for melting and soldering etc. It also appears to generate its own electricity, but Lecluse is not specific about this. The factory has 300 machines which produce rapidly all the various pieces of the 60,000 or more watches produced annually.

Starting from raw material, Lecluse describes machines cutting, punching, stamping, drilling, turning and dressing watch components with little human intervention, including machines to file steel pieces, executing with precision work difficult to do by hand. He describes in detail jewelling machines that set all the jewels of a plate, small or large, thin or thick, without once taking off the plate in the course of the operation. For watches with jewels set in gold chatons there are several machines, each of which can produce at least 300 jewel-holes per day. In another part of the factory watch cases are made, their parts pressed into shape by large machine presses. In another workshop the keyless mechanism is fitted and in another the escapement in made. Watches then pass to the finishing and regulating department, from which they emerge ready to be worn.

Lecluse does not describe in detail the watches that are being made, concentrating on the machinery. He does however in the final paragraph mention that watches with lever escapements are made, and for the English market watches with full plate and three-quarter plate movements. At the time the typical style of an English lever was full plate, with the balance above the top plate and pivoted in an elaborately engraved cock, very reminiscent of a verge watch but adapted to take a lever escapement. The alternative three-quarter plate movement had part of the top plate cut away so that the balance could be brought down closer to the bottom plate and the balance cock brought into the same plane as the top plate. This allowed the watch to be made thinner.

In 1891 a Stauffer gold tourbillon chronometer No. 136862 won first prize and honours for the highest results at the Neuchâtel Observatory, beating all records, and the same watch attained 91.6 marks at the Kew observatory trials, the highest mark that had been recorded. The watch was made throughout at Stauffer's own factory at La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

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An early Stauffer movement

Here is the movement of a pocket watch produced in the Stauffer Son & Co. Chaux-de-Fonds factory. I have called it an early Stauffer movement because it has a cylinder escapement and is key wound and set. The Stauffer trademark on this movement was in use from the formation of the company in 1830 and I would guess this movement was made before 1850. The Stauffer factory moved on to making keyless watches with lever escapements while other Swiss factories continued to make cylinder escapement movements.

Do not fall into the trap of assuming that any and all movements that look like this were made by Stauffer; most were not. This layout of Swiss bar movement with cylinder escapement was manufactured by many different companies and they all look very much alike, and many are anonymous. Movements made in the Stauffer factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds are marked as such; if you have a movement with different markings, or more likely one with no markings at all, then it was made by another manufacturer.

I don't know when it was made, there were no hallmarks because I bought it without a case, which was no doubt removed and melted down for its bullion value. You can see straight away that even though it is a fairly simple Lépine movement, it is nicely made and finished. Some salient features are:

• Cylinder escapement with three arm brass balance, no temperature compensation
• Going barrel - no fusee - standard Lépine arrangement
• Cocks and bridges, no top plate, unlike the full and three-quarter plate movements described by Lecluse.
• Key wound and set, with hand setting from the rear by the Lépine friction centre post
• Jewelled to the third wheel with clear jewels, probably clear sapphires that were cheaper than red rubies
• Frosted and gilded plates and bridges, blued screws

Swiss cylinder escapement watches were rather looked down upon by the English watchmakers, who considered that only the English lever escapement was capable of good timekeeping, and that cylinder escapements wore out quickly. But the Swiss made watches with hardened steel cylinders and escape wheels that were not only good timekeepers but also lasted well. They were able to sell these at a price that the British public liked, undercutting the expensive English watchmakers, who continued to look down their noses as their trade was taken away.

The movement is marked "Stauffer Cx De Fonds" for Stauffer Son & Co. Chaux-de-Fonds and has the trademark SS&C within a knight's shield shaped surround. At one time I thought that these trade marks originated at the time of their registration in 1880, and so I assumed that this movement was made after 1880. However, as I discuss above, these marks were in use long before the registration scheme was introduced and their use dates back to the formation of Stauffer, Son & Co. in 1830, so this watch could have been made at any time after 1830, and in fact it dates from closer to 1830 than to 1880.

Dr. Ranfft describes this layout as "Lépine-Calibre IV", with a bridge for the centre wheel instead of a cock, and says that this layout was used from 1835-1850, after 1850 a layout with the barrel bridge a straight bar and the cocks arranged more in parallel was used. However, I have seen a watch with an identical layout in a Swiss case with English hallmarks for 1880 to 1881, so production of this style of movement carried on after 1850, although not by Stauffer who by then had moved on to making lever escapement movements.

The terms "Lépine movement" or "Lépine calibre" are not a brand name or maker, they describe a type of movement invented in the eighteenth century by Jean Antoine Lépine of Paris and describe the type of movements made in huge numbers by many ébauche makers in France and Switzerland during the 19th century. They were mostly anonymous, it is unusual to be able to tie one to a particular manufacturer.

It might be thought that key winding watches were not produced after keyless winding was introduced in about 1850, but Lecluse's letter of 1885 refers to key winding watches, amusingly he calls them "non-keyless", and in fact key wind watches were produced in Switzerland and England into the 20th century. This kept the cost down, and was also a more reliable system. .

This type of watch, with a key wound and set movement and cylinder escapement, was made in the millions in Switzerland in the nineteenth century, ranging from good quality such as this one to basic. This one was probably a fairly early Stauffer product and they soon moved on to making lever escapement watches such as the one shown further down this page.

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Stauffer Waterproof Watch

In a letter published in the BHI Horological Journal of December 1884, Stauffer described a "hermetically sealed" or "dust-tight" watch case, illustrated with the image reproduced here.

The letter discusses the problems caused by dust stopping watches, saying that sometimes watches have to be cleaned for a second time within a week of cleaning if their owner is engaged in "dusty pursuits", or that watches in "countries of the torrid zone" are ruined as a result of dampness finding its way inside the case, and that these considerations, besides the danger of accidental immersion in water or exposure to clouds of fine dust, have led to the patented invention shown in the picture.

The letter says that the chief difficulty in making an impervious case is sealing the aperture through which the winding stem passes. The illustration shows a short section of screw thread on the stem below the crown and explains that after winding the watch a "slight turn" of the crown brings it into contact with the end of the pendant and seals the opening.

It is said that with the crown screwed down onto the pendant like this, repeated trials have shown that the watch may be immersed in petroleum or warm water with impunity. The choice of petroleum as the first test fluid was probably because it wouldn't damage the mechanism if it did get inside the case. I don't know why warm water was used; perhaps whoever performed the test didn't want to get his hands cold.

When I first read the letter in the Horological Journal I assumed from the way it was worded that it was Stauffer that had patented the invention, but a search through British and Swiss patents failed to reveal any such patent. Then I realised that the design is identical to the "l'Imperméable" (The Impermeable) design patented by Alcide Droz & Fils, British patent 2624 26 May 1883 and United States patent 307027 21 October 1884. The dates tie in nicely, the short piece of left hand thread on the stem shown in the image in the Horological Journal is identical to thread shown in the Droz British patent, and the way that the crown screws down onto the end of the pendant is the same as the Droz invention.

The entry from a directory in The Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith of June 1885 shown here lists Stauffer Son & Co. of 12, Old Jewry Chambers and La Chaux-de-Fonds and says that they are Manufacturers of the "Waterproof" watch and the "Atlas" Machine-made levers.

The Atlas name for lever watches was a Stauffer trademark, registered in London in 1885, but the reference to Stauffer being manufacturers of the waterproof watch, when taken together with the similarities in design of the Droz l'Imperméable and the illustration accompanying the letter, implies (to me at least) that Stauffer were manufacturing waterproof for Droz watches to the design in the Droz patent.

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Stauffer in the 1880s

In the July 1886 issue of the Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith, Stauffer Son & Co. had a full page advertisement for "watches of every description", fine and complicated watches, Specialties in Atlas levers made by machinery on the gauged and interchangeable principle including Atlas chronographs, Railway Atlas, and four-in-hand Atlas. Atlas was a registered trademark, and watches with Class "A" Kew certificates were in stock, and could be supplied with the customer's own name on the certificate at a few hours notice.

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Kew Trials

The Kew trials had been started in 1884 to rate watches for makers or members of the public on a similar basis to the observatories at Geneva and Yale that rated watches for Swiss, French and American watchmakers.

The intention no doubt was to demonstrate the high quality of English watches and presumably cock a snook at the pesky foreigners. However, Swiss watch manufacturers were not slow to spot an opportunity to gain credibility in one of the their most important export markets, so they started to enter watches for the trials.

For the first years the results to the end of October were reported in the following January, but from 1892 results to 31 December the previous year were usually reported in March. The 1893 report was delayed to May by the untimely death of Mr Whipple.

In the trial period ending 31 December 1891, a Stauffer going barrel tourbillon chronometer No. 136862 won first prize and honours from the Council of State of the Canton of Neuchâtel for the highest results at the Neuchâtel Observatory, beating all previous records.

The same watch attained 91.6 marks at the Kew observatory trials of 1891 beating all other watches entered and all previous records. Stauffer were not going to let a red-letter day like that pass without comment and the advert reproduced here appeared in the British trade press. The advert includes a quote from a letter by Mr. G. M. Whipple stating that the watch had obtained the highest mark that had been recorded to that date. An editorial in the same paper recorded that the watch was entirely made at Stauffer's own factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

In the 1892 trials at Kew, of the 852 watches of all kinds that were awarded certificates, 460 were manufactured by Stauffer.

In the 1896 trials at Kew, the first place was taken by Messrs. Stauffer, Son, & Co., London, with a keyless, going-barrel chronometer-watch, No. 147,545, with the "Tourbillon" escapement, which obtained 89·4 marks out of a maximum of 100.

When Swiss watches started to take the top places in the trials, English watch makers took decisive action; they ignored the foreigners and pretended they didn't exist.

In Smith & Sons Ltd. "Guide to the Purchase of a Watch" there is an extract from The Times of London of 5 November 1898 over the caption "The record in watch making" reporting one of Smith's watches gaining a Class A certificate endorsed especially good with the "extraordinarily high marks of 88.1". The report is careful not to claim that this is record result rather than just a matter of record, but anyone reading the article could be forgiven for gaining that impression. There was no mention in the report of any Swiss entry, or the high marks gained by Swiss watches such as the Stauffer watch that seven years earlier had gained 91.6 marks.

The letter shown to the right is quite interesting. It is dated June 4th 1897 and addressed to Dr Charles Chree at the Kew Observatory, Richmond.

Dr Charles Chree F.R.S. (1860-1928) was Superintendent of the Kew Observatory at Richmond in Surrey, England, from 1893 to 1925, a remarkably long service of 32 years. The letter asks Chree if he will exchange an enclosed certificate for "one made out in a gold case", explaining "we omitted to alter the original certificate before sending it in for transfer." The certificate in question would be one of the famous “Kew Certificates” that were awarded to watches that successfully passed a series of tests at Kew. These certificates were highly regarded and watch manufacturers could request Kew to reissue them in the name of a retailer or even the final purchaser of a watch.

Swiss Reports of Kew Success

In 1891 the following editorial appeared in the "Feuille D'Avis De Neuchâtel", a Neuchâtel newspaper.

Watchmaking. - A watch factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds, the firm Stauffer Son and Co., has just achieved at the Kew Observatory in England, a serious success. One of their watches, a pocket chronometer, observed in this institution, earned 91.6 points out of 100 which is the maximum. That matches the highest known in the observatory, or the figure of 89.1 points obtained by British manufacturers which had not been exceeded up to now.

The watch entered by Stauffer, Son & Co, London, for the Kew A trial in 1891 was number 136,862, a watch with a chronometer (detent) escapement and single overcoil balance spring mounted in a revolving tourbillon cage and a going barrel mainspring.

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Chronographs, Counters, Split Seconds

The notice reproduced here appeared in the Swiss trade journal "La Fédération Horlogère Suisse" in 1905. It records Stauffer, Son & Co. as taking 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in the "chronograph compteur et rattrapante" category of the 1905 Kew trials.

The first chronographs had only seconds hands to show elapsed seconds. A chronograph compteur or counter chronograph is one that can record minutes and sometimes hours by additional indicators on the dial.

A rattrapante (pronounced rattrapont) or "split seconds" chronograph has two chronograph seconds hands that allow two separate events to be timed. When the timer is started, both seconds hands move together. In a race, when the winner crosses the line one of the hands can be stopped, and then the other hand stopped when the second placed competitor crosses the line. This allows the time of both first and second places to be read off. This of course requires duplication of much of the chronograph mechanism, making for a very complicated movement.

The letter in the Horological Journal in 1885 by Lecluse does not mention watches with complications. The highly automated factory Lecluse describes is turning out large quantities of high quality standard watches that would have a wide appeal. However, in the 1890s, complicated watches, including repeaters and chronograph were added to the Stauffer range. This coincided with the change in 1892 of the company name to Nicolet Fils et Cie.

The Horological Journal for December 1900 contains an advert by Stauffer, Son & Co. for "The Best Chronograph in existence" which mentions several patents, 4821/15, 10582 and 14531. These number all refer to Swiss patents as follows:

• CH 4821 of 7 March 1892 granted to Georges Nicolet of la Chaux-de-Fonds for Perfectionnement apporté aux mécanismes de chronographes-compteurs (Improved mechanism of counter chronographs). Patent CH 4821/115 granted 18 June 1892 claimed some additional improvements to the mechanism.
• CH 10582 of 26 July 1895 granted to Nicolet Fils & Cie for Montre-chronographe. (Chronograph watch) This patent is for a chronograph watch in which the pusher which serves to actuate the chronograph mechanism is diametrically opposed to the pendant of the watch, which greatly simplifies the work of manufacturing the chronograph watch and ensures the regularity of operation of the chronograph mechanism, which is thus removed from the winding mechanism and setting the time of the watch movement.
• CH 14531 of 5 July 1897 granted to Nicolet Fils & Cie for Mécanisme de compteur-enregisteur. A mechanism to record on a toothed wheel the number of turns of any axis, and more particularly the number of minutes in the chronograph watches

The chronograph watches that are the subjects of these patents are described as “As testified at Kew, by the remarkable result of 6, in running numbers, passing Class A with 65.4, 60.3, 77.6. 80.9, 67.5, 84.2 marks, two with “especially good.” With or without Kew Certificates. With or without Split Seconds. Perfect mechanism. Unfailable action. As supplied for the Admiralty.”

The remark “running numbers” means that the serial numbers of the movements were sequential, that is a batch of six watches made all together one after the other.

The Georges Nicolet of the first patent could not have been the son named George of the London based Charles Nicolet, because the British 1911 Census records that George Nicolet's birth year as 1882, so he would have been only 10 in 1892 when the patent was granted. Since the Nicolet family was of Swiss origin, the Georges Nicolet in question could have been a Swiss relative or family member.

Greg Steer, the well know IWC collector and historian, has a Stauffer Split Second Chronograph pocket watch that is stamped on the movement with the patent number 4821 and engraved Stauffer and Peerless on bridges. Writing in 2004 Greg had doubts that this watch was made by Stauffer, but there really can't be any question that it was.

The Horological Journal advert also mentions "The Best low price Repeater. Machine made. As worn by most of the leading Generals and Officers now engaged in War in South Africa."

In 1908 the Horological Journal noted that “Mr. Nicolet (Stauffer, Son, and Co.) was agreeably surprised, when recently in the north, to learn quite by accident that his firm's Gordon-Bennett chronographs, which were used in the speed trials of H.M.S. Dreadnought, were also used for timing the famous ships the Lusitania and Mauretania.”

Henri Onésime Stauffer

A Stauffer, Son & Co. 1901 patent CH 24,577 "Mécanisme de chronographe" is itself quite interesting, not just from a technical viewpoint. This entry from a December 1902 edition of La Federation Horlogere Suiss refers to the same Patent CH 24,577. It seems that Stauffer Son and Co. ayant cause de l'inventeur (successor of the inventor) acquired the rights to this patent from Henri Onésime Stauffer of Ponts-de-Martel - another relative presumably. The name which appears on the published patent is Stauffer Son & Co., so Nicolet must have acquired the rights between registration and publication.

Henri Onésime Stauffer founded his own watch making company in 1850, and won Honourable Mention for finished watches at the 1881 National Exhibition of Horology in La Chaux-de-Fonds. He seems to have specialised in repeating watches, so the patent CH 24,577 may be one that he decided that he didn't want to pursue and made it over to Stauffer Son. and Co. who did make use of it.

Les Ponts-de-Martel is a municipality in the district of Le Locle, and Jaquet and Chapuis mention that "This district has long been known for its highly complicated watches, and for excellent watches in general". Henri Onésime Stauffer was granted many Swiss and US patents, including for repeating and chronograph watches. His 1887 patent for a repeating watch was improved by Charles Meylan of New York, whose 1888 patent US 390,501 was used in the third model of repeating watch produced by Waltham. The Waltham Watch Company remains the only American watch manufactory that produced a repeating watch, made in very small numbers.

The early Waltham repeaters are thought to have used Swiss designs and parts by George Aubert of Vaud. The repeating mechanisms, after having been acquired abroad, were then fitted to the movements by the New York agents for Waltham. Whether Henri Onésime Stauffer supplied parts for the movements made to the Charles Meylan patent is not known, but would appear unlikely, he probably just provided the inspiration for Meylan, although he may have received some payment for the use of his patented design.

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Later History of the Swiss Company

The Watchmaker Jeweller and Silversmith reported watches, chronometers and repeating watches exhibited by Stauffer & Co. at the 1885 Inventions Exhibition in London.

The firm moved to 13 Charterhouse Street, Holborn, London, on 23rd Feb. 1887.

In 1889 Charles Nicolet was recorded in report in The Times concerning some stolen watches as "Charles Nicolét trading as Stauffer & Co. Charterhouse Street."

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The Gordon Bennett Cup Races

The 1892 and subsequent patents seem to mark the entry into the world of high quality complicated chronograph watches by Nicolet Fils et Cie, trading as Stauffer Son & Co of La Chaux-de-Fonds and London. The first major sporting event to which they supplied split second counter chronographs for timing to that I have been able to find evidence of was the 1903 Gordon Bennett cup race held in Ireland, and the subsequent 1904 and 1905 races held in Germany and France respectively.

The Gordon Bennett cup for motor racing was one of three trophy cups created by James Gordon Bennett, Jr. (1841 - 1918). Gordon Bennett was publisher of the New York Herald newspaper, which had been founded by his father, James Gordon Bennett, Sr, and was extremely wealthy. He was educated primarily in France, and emigrated there in 1877 after an incident in New York which gave rise to the saying Gordon Bennett! as an expression of incredulity. The story goes that Bennett arrived drunk at the home of his fiancée's parents one evening and proceeded to urinate into either the fireplace or the grand piano (versions differ) in full view of all those present. When he sobered up and realised what he had done, Bennett exiled himself to France.

The Gordon Bennett cup races of 1900, 1901 and 1902 were held as part of races between major towns on public roads over one day. After the 1901 Paris-Bordeaux race, in which at least eight people had been killed, and severe accidents during the 1903 Paris-Madrid race, which had to be halted at Bordeaux because there had been so many accidents, the 1903 and later Gordon Bennett cup races consisted of competitors completing three timed laps of closed circular course. This required much more precision in timing than the city to city dashes, where the first to arrive was the winner. For the 1903 race, Stauffer Son & Co. supplied 91 split second counter chronographs, which were highly praised by the chief timekeeper and others after the race.

This must have been quite a red letter day for Stauffer because after the race the La Fedération Horlogère Suisse published the editorial shown in the image here, which reads:

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The Gordon Bennett Cup

A correspondent in Sydney Australia sent me this picture of a mark in the back of a watch from his late father's collection - a Stauffer/Nicolet split second silver chronograph in excellent working condition. The mark is of the Gordon Bennett motor racing cup, shown in the picture to the right.

As The Times, Friday, Jan 30, 1903 described it: "it is not a cup at all, but a model of a motor car carrying two figures in anything but motor costume." The two figures are in fact female, balancing very precariously on a motor car and clad in very unsuitable (at least unsuitable for motor racing) diaphanous dresses. The current whereabouts of this trophy appear to be unknown.

Stauffer Son & Co. registered a picture of the trophy as a trademark on 17 August 1905. The entry in the Archives de l'Horlogerie states "Stauffer Son & Co (maison principale à Londres) fabricants Chaux-de-Fonds Toutes pièces d'horlogerie. This indicates that London was the company's headquarters.

Subsequently Stauffer Son & Co. supplied split second counter chronographs for the 1904 and 1905 Gordon Bennett cup races, and may other sporting events, and they also entered chronographs for the Kew Observatory time trials with success. In 1907 the La Federation Horlogere Suisse published the following editorial:

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Denouement

So what happened to the company of Stauffer & Co.?

This advert from the 1920 edition of the Indicateur Davoine states that Stauffer, Son & Co. are manufacturers of chronographs which have won first prizes and first class awards from Kew, Neuchâtel and Geneva, and been adopted by the English Admiralty. The telegraphic address is the factory name Atlas, Chaux-de-Fonds. The advert refers to Systèmes Brevétes, or patented systems.

Considering that Stauffer Son & Co seems to have been a large and successful Swiss watch manufacturer with a modern factory in 1885, and a major British watch importer, recipient of Kew and other observatory trial winnings and suppliers of chronographs used at many large sporting events, it is strange that they seem to have disappeared without trace.

The Stauffer name seems to have been dropped from the Swiss watch making operation in the 1920s in favour of Atlas Watch Co, although the London firm continued to use the name Stauffer Son & Co.

Adverts by Stauffer Son & Co. were still appearing in the Horological Journal until June 1964, then they abruptly stop, There is no editorial explanation in the Horological Journal of the final events surrounding the company.

Information from the daughter of a man who worked for George Nicolet in the London offices of Stauffer in Clerkenwell as a watchmaker and repairer indicates that the company was dissolved in 1963/4. There is more about this in the entry about George Alfred Nicolet.

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Ephemera

The theft in 1842 of five watches being exported to India by a well known clock and watch retailer, A B Savory & Sons, of Cornhill London, was reported in The Times. The report stated that three of the watches were marked with the maker's name A B Savory and Son, and in the remaining two the maker's name was Stauffer. It is clear that the two watches were imported by Stauffer & Co. from their Swiss factory and supplied wholesale to Savory. A reward of £50 was offered for information about the theft. A B Savory & Sons later traded under the name of Goldsmiths Alliance, and then were incorporated into The Goldsmiths & Silversmiths Company Ltd.

In 1892 the editor of the Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith visited Stauffer's premises in Charterhouse Street. Amongst other things he was shown was a letter from a customer asking if the could supply a watch similar to one that he had purchased over fifty years ago (i.e. before 1842) which was still keeping accurate time. The reason for the letter was that the gentleman wished to buy a similar watch for his grandson!