DULUX
Dulux Watch Company
History
The first official notice we have about Dulux watches as a brand is a registration dated 20 June 1933 by Rene Ginrat/Montres Dulux based at Tramelan in Switzerland. However, although Dulux as a word brand name was used only from 1933, the name Dulux as a company title for the producers of Dulux branded watches first occurs back in 1908. In fact three brand names were registered for Ph. Gindrat-Mathey/Rene Gin[d**]rat; Dulux SA in 1908, when the firm is listed as being a supplier of both watches and watch parts. These names are Illico-Watch, Mirador and Parure. The next year, 1909, another brand name was registered, Prosit, with the firm now titled as Rene Ginrat/Montres Dulux/Philemon Gindrat-Mathey, based at Tramelan-Dessus, Switzerland. This same partnership, still engaged in watches and watch parts, introduced another brand name in 1912, Tisbe-Watch.
Shortly before Philemon Gindrat-Mathey seems to have left the Dulux watch company, the brand names, Horeb and Leria, were registered (1929) and by the first registration of Dulux as a word name on watches in 1933, the firm was known as Rene Ginrat/Montres Dulux and from about this time focused on completed watches. The Dulux watch company continued to register new brand names - Zena in 1935, Aida in 1941, Horizon in 1943, and Égalité in 1945 - with Rene Ginrat’s name tending to be left off the Dulux company registration title. Registrations then go through a blank phase until, in 1977, Fabrique d’Horlogerie Dulux SA registered the name, Rila, with the firm still headquartered at Tramelan, in the Canton of Berne, Switzerland - note that in 1973, the firm had been listed for “levers.” As a final note on registrations marking the long history of the Dulux watch company, at some time, the name Gindrat was also registered as a brand name by the Dulux company.
The Dulux watch concern was clearly very active prior to World War 2, and continued in unbroken production after the War, probably until at least the mid-1980s. An illustrated document from The Swiss Watch Fair of 1967 shows two Dulux ladies’ watches, one of them cased in 18 carat gold, and from the surviving watches branded Dulux, we know that the company was active post-War until relatively recent times. Fortunately, I have managed to locate a short document from “Chronologie jurassienne” which states that on 23 December 1986, “La manufacture d’horlogerie Dulux SA décide la fusion avec Willy Choffat SA, manufacture d’horlogerie montres Rita.” It would seem that this merger represented the swan song of the Dulux watch concern and events from this time concerning the company are somewhat confusing.
It would appear that the Dulux watch company entered liquidation soon after 1986, with the name still remaining on the register, and for the post-1990 period, my main sources are Swiss FOSC and “Tagebuch” documents. In March 2002, there appears to have been an attempt to restart the brand/company, at the request of the liquidator, on the basis that the liquidation had not yet been fully completed, and at this time the firm was described as being involved in the “fabrication, achat et vente de L’horlogerie.” Certainly there are some problematic quartz watches branded Dulux that seem to postdate 2002, with souk.com (based in the UAE) being the main online seller of these pieces, but there was probably little likelihood of reforming and invigorating the Dulux watch company itself at this time, especially as a manufacturer/assembler of watches, and the post-2002 watches, that also have been produced in more recent years, merely represent the temporary acquisition and use of the brand name. Finally, in 2007, with no reinstatement of the Dulux watch company as a going concern, the liquidation finally went ahead and the company was removed from the Swiss register of commerce.
Although we can now trace a pretty good historical record for Dulux watches and the Dulux watch company, it is still confusing as to just how much manufacturing the company undertook. Dulux was probably the company’s main or most significant brand name, but as we have seen, a number of brand names were registered and in use by Dulux throughout the history of the company. There are references to a factory, and the company being involved in watch manufacture, so I think we can assume that the Dulux firm was more than just an “emboitier,” at least for some parts of its history. There is no evidence that Dulux made watch movements although it may have been involved in the manufacture of certain watch components rather than merely acting as a wholesaler of parts. The original Dulux watch company, from its inception until about 1990, produced mainly mechanical watches but there are some quartz examples dating from the last phase of the concern, up to about 1990.
Although we can now trace a pretty good historical record for Dulux watches and the Dulux watch company, it is still confusing as to just how much manufacturing the company undertook. Dulux was probably the company’s main or most significant brand name, but as we have seen, a number of brand names were registered and in use by Dulux throughout the history of the company. There are references to a factory, and the company being involved in watch manufacture, so I think we can assume that the Dulux firm was more than just an “emboitier,” at least for some parts of its history. There is no evidence that Dulux made watch movements although it may have been involved in the manufacture of certain watch components rather than merely acting as a wholesaler of parts. The original Dulux watch company, from its inception until about 1990, produced mainly mechanical watches but there are some quartz examples dating from the last phase of the concern, up to about 1990.
Credit - https://thewatchforum.co.uk/index.php?/topic/123575-dulux-watches-better-than-watching-paint-dry/
Models
Dulux Antimagnetique Chronograph
Features
- Circa 1950s
- chromed case, steel screw caseback
- Landeron movement
- blued hands
- 26.5mm width ex crown
- 17.7mm lug width
drilled lugs
