# E S A On The Dial



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

I've always had a fascination for watches with only the movement maker's name on the dial...probably because they are scarce and served a specific purpose: a training watch or a demonstration watch. I don't mean companies like LIP or Hamilton who made both movements and sold watches; I mean companies like ESA/ETA who normally did not make watches, only movements.

Picked up another one of these ESA watches a few weeks ago...the gold plated case is in a terrible state but it houses a Landeron 4751 --- an ESA company and a rare movement. So here are my three watches with the ESA on the dial and with three very different ESA movements.

First, the Landeron 4751 from about 1962:










Next, I only have the dial and movement, no case, but its a Dynotron ESA 9150, the first transistorised balance wheel movement from about 1967:










Lastly, a tuning fork ESA 9162 from about 1971:










Anyone know of any others? :huh:


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## watchnutz (Jan 18, 2008)

I see it arrived. All the more interesting with the 4751 on the dial. I hadn't noticed that before. Is the case pretty generic so you could use one from another watch?


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## dombox40 (Oct 20, 2008)

Well done for that one Paul was the movement working or did you have to repair it, bargain price as well. :thumbsup:


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## bjohnson (Oct 2, 2007)

Silver Hawk said:


> Anyone know of any others? :huh:


One of the regulars on another forum that I'm not allowed to mention has a watch with an AS cartouche on the dial


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## mjolnir (Jan 3, 2006)

Paul, it might be a silly question but what does the ESA logo represent. To my eyes it seems a strange shape and I wondered if there was a particular resason for it.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

mjolnir said:


> Paul, it might be a silly question but what does the ESA logo represent. To my eyes it seems a strange shape and I wondered if there was a particular resason for it.


No idea Rob...but ETA are still using it today. http://www.eta.ch/


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## bjohnson (Oct 2, 2007)

Silver Hawk said:


> mjolnir said:
> 
> 
> > Paul, it might be a silly question but what does the ESA logo represent. To my eyes it seems a strange shape and I wondered if there was a particular resason for it.
> ...


From what I understand, it's not specifically and ESA cartouche unless it contains the letters "ESA". It's the symbol that surrounds marks of makers and is restricted to those from Switzerland.

That same symbol surrounds ETA, AS, ST, F, and FHF marks for instance.


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## watchnutz (Jan 18, 2008)

Maybe this attachment will help. In Switzerland there are different types of watch producers. There are complete producers, there are ebauche and there are finishers. Finishers use parts from different manufacturers to produce a watch with their name on it. One of the parts suppliers is the ebauche or movement makers. The shield like logo was a makers mark to identify his work. Such marks,of different designs are common in many other artisan fields such as silversmiths and potters.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

bjohnson said:


> That same symbol surrounds ETA, AS, ST, F, and FHF marks for instance.


Thanks..and looking at Watchnutz's scan, it would seem to be a symbol used by all Ebauches SA affilates.


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

Excellent find Paul, it's this kind of thing that "adds knowledge to the database" as it were. Although a tad "off-topic", Timex Demonstrators, and Timex Sample watches are the same, items that were never intended to "escape" to the general public :yes:

These are pieces that tell a story just by their very existence, but - Oh, how much better it could it be if watches could talk and tell us their adventures over the years! :to_become_senile:


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## mjolnir (Jan 3, 2006)

Thanks guys. The page of Swiss ebauche makers is interesting.

I thought there might be an obvious reason why they chose that particular shape to encompass the company initials and assumed i'd missed the reference somewhere.


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## tomshep (Oct 2, 2008)

It is some kind of heraldic shield. I'm not sure that it is solely used by ESA companies as I suspect that the shield device pre-dated the formation of ESA. That said, The only ones I can find that are not in the above list are Standard and Landeron, both of which were almost certainly part of ESA at one time.


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