Eterna Watches

The beginnings of the Eterna Watch Company were in 1851. By the 1900s wristwatches were starting to become fashionable, and Schild Fréres, as the company was named at the time, began production of Ladys wristwatches based on small pocket watches. Then in 1905 the company changed their name to Eterna. In 1932 Eterna set up a subsidiary company named ETA for the purpose of making movements for itself and other fine Swiss watch companies. Also in 1932 Theodore retired and passed on control of the company to his nephew Rudolf Schild. Even though he was retired, Theodore remained on the board of directors until his passing in 1950. Eterna has made many innovations in their history, with the smallest production wristwatch containing a Baguette movement in 1930, and an 8 day alarm watch in the 1930s and then they introduced their first automatic watch in 1938. Probably Most well known of their line-up was Eterna-matic which was launched in 1948. The design of their automatic winding was one of Eternas greatest designs. The weight ran on small ball bearings which made it very efficient and began the trademark of 5 ball bearings. The Eterna-matic has continued in various styles and was still available in 1998, and was also later launched again. In 1995 Eterna was bought by F.A.P. Beteiligungs GmbH.