# Titus Watches



## dombox40

Hi I know quite a few of you lads own Titus watches with the F300 movements and very nice they are to(must get one), my question, is their a link between Titus and the modern day watches made by Sovil et Titus. I own a 1936 Manual wind Titus(sse pics) which has the same motif as your F300 and a couple of modern day quartz branded Sovil et Titus see pics,I assume titus no longer exists as a company.


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## Stuart Davies

On the case-back of my F300 is says Sovil et Titus so i guess they are one and the same.


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## dombox40

Stuart Davies said:


> On the case-back of my F300 is says Sovil et Titus so i guess they are one and the same.


Thanks for that Stuart I suppose at some time they must have amalgamated with a company called Solvil, the wind up I have is only marked Titus and is from 1936. Cant say I,ve ever seen a Solvil watch though but I expect someone will pop up with one from somewhere.


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## watchnutz

This is what I found about Solvil et Titus.

"Solvil et Titus is a affortable Swiss watch company that is owned by City Chain. City Chain operates stores in Hong Kong, Macau, China, Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore."

The question is, I guess, when did this occur. I would guess it is like a lot of old watch company names that have been bought up and now used by others to capitalize on previous reputation. Certainly the tuning fork ones have to be old stock movements since I doubt that technology is cost effective to fake. Certainly the wreath logo is the same on the old and new watches.


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## dombox40

Hi bill I was just looking at a Titus chronograph from the 1950s and I see they were using a valjoux movement in that, just wondering if they were watchmakers who made no movements of their own but just bought in what they wanted,even mine is only marked swiss made.


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## watchnutz

The most common method of watch making (especially Swiss) is ebauche. That is to say a manufacturer makes unfinished movements only, for use by a finishing company. That is why your will find some marques that have different movements in different years. That started with the Swiss and led to the demise of the American watch companies that manufactured complete watches, such as Hamilton etc.. ESA was originally a group of individual Swiss movement makers and of course you find their movements in just about every Swiss watch. Of course today the Chinese and Japenese also have suppliers of movements.


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## dombox40

watchnutz said:


> The most common method of watch making (especially Swiss) is ebauche. That is to say a manufacturer makes unfinished movements only, for use by a finishing company. That is why your will find some marques that have different movements in different years. That started with the Swiss and led to the demise of the American watch companies that manufactured complete watches, such as Hamilton etc.. ESA was originally a group of individual Swiss movement makers and of course you find their movements in just about every Swiss watch. Of course today the Chinese and Japenese also have suppliers of movements.


So how does that fit in with my Titus which has a british made dennison gold case did they just buy in the movement and case and just put their dial on it. or was it dennison buying the movement and dial from Titus.


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## watchnutz

I can't address your particular watch, but yes it is not uncommon for finishers to buy cases just as they do movements. this was especially true with vintage watches. Even Hamilton, here in the states, used a few different case makers with Star being perhaps the largest.


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