# Lator vintage military style chronograph Diver



## Drongo Drib (Jun 19, 2021)

Can anyone give me some information about this watch please.


----------



## spinynorman (Apr 2, 2014)

Drongo Drib said:


> Can anyone give me some information about this watch please.


 Some introduction would be polite before asking a question, and it is impossible to answer without some pictures of the watch.

http://xflive.thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?/topic/103087-how-to-post-a-picture-on-the-forum-using-a-third-party-host-new-for-2016/&do=embed&comment=1527692&embedComment=1527692&embedDo=findComment


----------



## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Yes, it would be nice to know you a bit better...

I just wondered if, given your description, the watch in question is one of these:









This particular example is on the online site "The Vintage Jeweller", priced at £875. It is in stainless steel with a 37 mm case, and I have seen the identical model on YouTube being serviced and it is powered by a Landeron 248 hand-wind chronograph movement.

Here is another example of a vintage mechanical Lator military style dive chronograph (pics from PistonHeads) from an owner who wants to know more about Lator:

























I can tell you that Lator has two registrations listed on Mikrolisk. The first of these brand name registrations is by Florimont SA in Neuchâtel, Switzerland (in 1951) and the second is by Gunzinger Frères SA/Technos SA (in February 1972) of Welschenrohr and Neuchâtel, Switzerland.

There are a number of other vintage Lator watches extant online, and interestingly, the brand name has evidently been in use in more recent times, but with the word "Calibre" placed after the Lator name. There are a number of these quartz watches, branded "Lator Calibre", for sale online, dating post-2000.

I am sure that other knowledgable Forum members will be able to fill in more details about the history of Lator watches, including my colleague @spinynorman who has already indicated that some decent pictures of your watch would be more than helpful in answering your query in full.


----------



## Drongo Drib (Jun 19, 2021)

Sorry if my question was a little direct with no background of myself, I am new to forums and on reflection can see how I came across rude. I have always liked watches as far back as I can remember but after becoming very ill at the beginning of 2018 I had a lot of time at home recovering and found myself falling down the rabbit hole of online you tubers and could not shake the monkey. My first purchase was a Certina DS Action Diver powermatic 80 and since then have acquired another four automatic watches, a quartz CWC SBS and just recently the self winding Lator. Purely unintentionally my collection is of a Diver watch genre. In around three and a half years my tastes have changed (sold a couple on the way)and feel like I have come full circle to that first automatic purchase. I am subscribed to a lot of online you tubers and spend a lot of time(to my wife's annoyance) watching them. I thought I might branch out and try a forum but feel I might have got off on the wrong foot. All I use is my android phone and did try to send a picture but unsuccessfully. My Lator is almost identical to the pictures you sent Always"watching", as in the top picture mine has the 17 jewels text at the bottom but has the bezel of the lower pictures. It has an engraved circle at 12 o'clock rather than a indent for pip. The case back is also similar to the bottom pictures but the words are within a circular border and it has 20ATM in the centre of the case back. Thanks for replying.


----------



## Drongo Drib (Jun 19, 2021)

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ntyjpqaQxu1KBMxS9


----------



## spinynorman (Apr 2, 2014)

Drongo Drib said:


> Sorry if my question was a little direct with no background of myself, I am new to forums and on reflection can see how I came across rude. I have always liked watches as far back as I can remember but after becoming very ill at the beginning of 2018 I had a lot of time at home recovering and found myself falling down the rabbit hole of online you tubers and could not shake the monkey. My first purchase was a Certina DS Action Diver powermatic 80 and since then have acquired another four automatic watches, a quartz CWC SBS and just recently the self winding Lator. Purely unintentionally my collection is of a Diver watch genre. In around three and a half years my tastes have changed (sold a couple on the way)and feel like I have come full circle to that first automatic purchase. I am subscribed to a lot of online you tubers and spend a lot of time(to my wife's annoyance) watching them. I thought I might branch out and try a forum but feel I might have got off on the wrong foot. All I use is my android phone and did try to send a picture but unsuccessfully. My Lator is almost identical to the pictures you sent Always"watching", as in the top picture mine has the 17 jewels text at the bottom but has the bezel of the lower pictures. It has an engraved circle at 12 o'clock rather than a indent for pip. The case back is also similar to the bottom pictures but the words are within a circular border and it has 20ATM in the centre of the case back. Thanks for replying.


 Welcome to the forum, it's really good to see you have an interest in watches. Apologies for my less welcoming post earlier, but we get a lot of people who ask a question, which often takes research to answer, and then never post again, even to say thank you. Your photo is hosted on Google, which sometimes is a problem for anyone who isn't signed in with a Google account to access, so I hope you won't mind that I've copied the relevant part so I can post it here for easier reference. If you're planning to stay, I suggest signing up for the forum gallery, which makes posting photos a whole lot easier. https://thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?/subscriptions/









If you plan to stay (and I can't guarantee it will any less annoying for your wife than Youtube :biggrin: ) you could put an introduction in the relevant section, which more people will see and you'll get a wider welcome. https://thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?/forum/26-introduce-yourself/

Your Lator watch looks fantastic. I don't know if you've looked inside, but you should find it has a Landeron mechanical chronograph movement, probably a 148, or 248. These movements, based on the Landeron 48, were in production from the late 1930s until 1970 and were used by a lot of different manufacturers. Earlier versions went into gold plated dress watches (I have one badged Sultana), while dive watches similar to the Lator include the Rotary Aquaplunge, a photo of which I've borrowed from Ebay.


----------



## spinynorman (Apr 2, 2014)

@Always"watching" has looked into the ownership of the "Lator" brand, but I can expand on that a bit. The first registration was by Gilbert Schaldenbrand fils of Neuchâtel, in October 1951.









In May 1953 Gilbert Schaldenbrand and (I think) his son Marius Schaldenbrand merged their separate watchmaking businesses to form Fabrique d'horlogerie Florimont S. A. (Florimont Watch Limited). The directors of the company were Marius Schaldenbrand (President) and Gilbert Schaldenbrand, junior - so it looks like Gilbert senior took the opportunity to retire. In 1955 Florimont Watch ran several adverts in the journal of the British Horological Institute, looking for "reliable agents" in the UK. This was their advert in the 1961 edition of the Swiss trade directory Davoine.









In June 1966 the "LATOR" and "LATORA" brands owned by Florimont were sold to E. Gunzinger & Cie of Neuchâtel. This company, a watch wholesaler, was formed in May 1964 by Erhard and Liv Gunzinger and was in financial difficulties by 1977, liquidated finally in 1983. I don't know what relationship, if any, it had to Gunzinger Freres, Uhrenfabrik Technos.

Gilbert Schaldenbrand (senior), incidentally, first appears in Swiss commercial records in 1933 as Production Manager of Eros Watch Co in Porrentruy. During the 1930s and 40s his name turns up amongst the senior management of Eros, Phenix Watch Co and Manufacture d'Horlogerie Précimax.


----------



## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Dear @spinynorman, with reference to the later history of the Lator watch brand, which I mentioned in my post but didn't go into, I have found that the Lator brand has a presence on facebook. It mentions that Lator watches revised their profile picture on 6 October 2019 but it seems that no actual photograph has been used and the facebook entry seems pretty defunct. Clicking on the website given on facebook (lator-watches.com) brings you to a dubious congratulatory site concerning the domaine name - nothing about any Lator watch company. Oddly enough, another related facebook page is for a business called "La'Tor Vintage Expressions" selling jewellery and watches, but this also seems to now be inactive.


----------



## Drongo Drib (Jun 19, 2021)

Thank you for the information on Lator, very in-depth (great).

Will take your advice on the gallery and introduce myself in the relevant section.

Wanted to attach one more picture.

Thanks again.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4CdUMcpVAcyw1cuW7

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4CdUMcpVAcyw1cuW7


----------



## spinynorman (Apr 2, 2014)

Always said:


> Dear @spinynorman, with reference to the later history of the Lator watch brand, which I mentioned in my post but didn't go into, I have found that the Lator brand has a presence on facebook. It mentions that Lator watches revised their profile picture on 6 October 2019 but it seems that no actual photograph has been used and the facebook entry seems pretty defunct. Clicking on the website given on facebook (lator-watches.com) brings you to a dubious congratulatory site concerning the domaine name - nothing about any Lator watch company. Oddly enough, another related facebook page is for a business called "La'Tor Vintage Expressions" selling jewellery and watches, but this also seems to now be inactive.


 I looked up lator-watches.com in the Whois database and it's hosted on OVH, the major French internet company, but the ownership details have been redacted. So very mysterious. There's also lator-watches.ch, but that is the same. One of the sellers of Lator Calibre watches on Ebay said he bought it in a bankruptcy sale.

I'm now wondering who was responsible for these Landeron dive chronographs by Lator. My guess would be E. Gunzinger & Cie post 1966, but their company statute says "purchase and wholesale of watches", so they most likely bought them in. I think Mikrolisk just picked the wrong Gunzinger.

I've just remembered where I've seen E. Gunzinger before - they owned Swiss Emperor, which was a stalwart of Littlewoods catalogues. 

Just found the trademark owner of Lator Calibre - UK trademark, 00003464406, Christopher Jackson, 17 Brookside View, Oswaldtwistle, ACCRINGTON, Lancashire, BB54SH. He also owns Talis Co, which keeps coming up in my Ebay Talis search, and he attempted to register Chronographe Suisse, but was turned down. :hmmm9uh:

https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmowner/page/search?id=1154962&domain=1&app=0&mark=UK00003464406


----------



## spinynorman (Apr 2, 2014)

@Always"watching" More on the current staus of LATOR, which I would never have looked into if you hadn't mentioned it. :biggrin: I don't think lator-watches.com has any connection to LATOR CALIBRE, which appears to be a UK venture and probably defunct. As of March 2021 the trademark LATOR is registered with WIPO by Maximilien Triquigneaux, who also holds the trademark in France and Switzerland. This gentleman appears on Linkedin as Director General, China at William L. 1985, which looks like the sort of microbrand @Bricey might soon introduce us to, if he hasn't already and I missed it.  In the past Triquigneaux has worked for B.R.M. Chronographes and The Montrichard Group, the name of which rings a bell from previous investigations. He also claims on his Linkedin profile to be an entrepreneur with his own independent watch company, but gives no further details. He owns a number of trademarks and seems to have a particular penchant for chronographs. Maybe a new LATOR chronograph is in the offing. https://trademarks.justia.com/search?q=Maximilien+Triquigneaux


----------



## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Thanks for that research, @spinynorman. Very interesting and shows how long and intricate the story of a brand name can be, and yet all we are sometimes looking at is a name. We must be mad? :biggrin:


----------

