Teddy Baldassarre
Counting Down the 15 Oldest Watch Brands in the World
Watchmaking is a trade that goes back to the 16th Century, and building mystique and legitimacy on a long, historical legacy is a common theme we find in many companies that make watches today - particularly those whose roots reach back for a century or more. But which companies have really been making watches the longest? In a way, it’s a sticky question, one that can lead one into a minefield of semantics and trivia. Jaquet Droz, for example, claims a founding date of 1738 but the modern version of the company was established in 2000 when Swatch Group acquired the name. A. Lange & Söhne carries on the tradition of the original company founded in Saxony in 1845 but has really been in operation only since 1990 (and to be fair, the company is very transparent about this). The Swiss-based Graham brand traces its legacy all the way back to the London atelier of British watchmaker George Graham in 1695 but has no connection to it other than design inspiration. In assembling the following list of the oldest watch brands still making watches today, I went with the companies that, in my judgment, can legitimately claim a direct lineage to the original founding, even allowing for ownership changes and periods of dormancy along the way. Without further ado, here is a countdown of the 15 oldest watch brands in the world today; you may be surprised by who is included as well as by who is excluded. 15. Zenith (1865) Zenith's founder Georges Favre-Jacot was only 22 when he founded...
