ETA

ETA dates itself to 1793, the year the watch manufacture Benguerel & Humbert was set up at Fontainemelon in the Val-de-Ruz; the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland records that the firm had counters at Bordeaux and New Orleans and about 120 workers, half of them at home.^1, 2, 3

Fontainemelon grew into a large ébauche works: the Historical Dictionary counts one million ébauches made by 1,030 workers in 1913, two million in 1940 and six million by 1,175 workers in 1962.³

The name ETA comes from Grenchen, and its date is given three ways: the Historical Dictionary records that Theodor Schild ran the ébauche firm Eta from 1924 and that Eterna was divided into Eterna SA and Eta in 1932; Wikipedia calls ETA Eterna’s movement branch and dates it to 1896.^{10, 11, 12}

Eterna itself began as the ébauche works Girard & Schild, which Urs Schild and Josef Girard bought in 1856; the Historical Dictionary says Schild began making ébauche parts by machine in 1861.^11, 13

In 1926 A. Schild and A. Michel of Grenchen and the Fontainemelon works founded the holding Ebauches SA, which ASUAG controlled from 1931; the Historical Dictionary calls César Schild the driving force behind it.^4, 14

The holding’s companies merged into ETA in the crisis: A. Schild in 1978, the management of Ebauches SA in 1982, the Fontainemelon works in 1984. ETA says it became a single company in 1985, after years as a group of ébauche factories each with its own speciality, from simple men’s watches to chronographs and small ladies’ movements.^{1, 3, 4, 15}

Wikipedia says ETA also absorbed the movement makers Valjoux, Peseux and Lemania, and that Ernst Thomke, who ran ETA from 1978, became the first chief executive of SMH.¹²

ETA worked at the limits of thinness. A Europa Star fair report of 1979 credits Ebauches SA and ETA with a Concord watch whose gold case served as the mainplate, and the Historical Dictionary credits Eterna with the thinnest analogue quartz wristwatch of 1980.^11, 16

The Historical Dictionary links the Swatch of 1982 to ETA. From 1985 Swatch Ltd ran the brand from Biel/Bienne while ETA managed its production in Grenchen.^{17, 18, 19}

The Historical Dictionary records that the Swatch Group gathered production at Grenchen and kept direction and marketing in Biel/Bienne.²¹

Its mechanical calibres went into watches of many brands. Wikipedia names the automatic 2824-2, the thinner 2892-A2 and the Valjoux 7750 chronograph, developed by Edmond Capt in 1970, and says that once the patents expired others made copies, among them Sellita in Switzerland and Tianjin Seagull in China.¹²

In July 2002 ETA told its customers it would stop selling ébauches from 2006. The Competition Commission held it to supplying them, under settlements of 2004 and 2013, until the end of 2019, and in July 2020 imposed no new obligation but found ETA still dominant in Swiss-made mechanical movements, most of which it sold inside the group. The case is told under The ETA supply dispute.^{5, 6, 7, 22, 23}

ETA makes quartz, mechanical and Swatch movements. It lists its headquarters and several works in Grenchen and others at Moutier, Boncourt, Fontainemelon, Villeret, Sion, Riazzino and Mendrisio.^1, 2

The regulating parts come from a sister company: the Competition Commission names Nivarox-FAR as the Swatch Group’s maker of assortments.²³

swissinfo gives ETA’s workforce in 2004 as 8,000.²⁵