Have you ever seen an Eagle hallmark on your vintage wristwatch? This so called tête d’aigle poinçon is a sign of your watch case being made in France. But aren’t most vintage watches Swiss made? Isn’t the brand on the dial a Swiss brand? Does this mean my watch is not fully original? As always with vintage watches, the answers to these questions are not straightforward. Maybe you have heard about french cases before, maybe not. Let’s find out what it all means.
The french cases were introduced to comply with regulation in France during world war II, french cased watches can be found until deep in the 1970’s though. The French government forbade the buying of gold from any source except the state, furthermore it was forbidden to import any finished articles of gold. This included watch cases and so a relatively small number of watches from this period can be found bearing french hallmarks. The manufacturers in Switzerland would ship their movements, dials and hands to France, where the watches were cased and finished. Sometimes we even see copper indexes and hands instead of gold.
What is interesting about the French watches is that the cases could vary from those used in the manufacturing process in Switzerland. As the french would not have the exact same machinery used by the factory of the brand. In addition, the style the french were looking for differed from what was presented by the brands. The French gold smiths often went with a more ornate style, especially during the 1940’s and 1950’s. If you think this was limited to small obscure brands, think again. French cases can be found on watches produced by and limited to the following brands: Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin, Rolex, Audemars Piguet, Longines, Omega, Movado and many more. We can therefore find watches from brands such as Rolex that look totally different from what we are used to. Have you ever seen a Datejust without an Oyster case? It actually exists. The quality of the french cases is very high, and often they will be heavier than their Swiss counterparts. High crystals, ornate lugs and solid gold crowns are some examples of what makes the French cases unique. They increase the variety of vintage watches available, which to me is absolutely a plus. It also increases the chances of encountering a watch you have never seen before. The french cases are romantic and charming, they possess that magical french allure.
Apart from an eagle hallmark, we can often find a poinçon on the case indicating who made it. During this period there was a very large number of case makers active. These makers hallmarks allow us to find out more precisely who exactly made it. As I said before, once you submerge yourself deep in the world of vintage, it becomes interesting to look past a brand into the seperate parts that make up a watch. The casemaker is very important for the final look of a watch.
French cases do not always case Swiss watches of course, we can also find french cases on brands that are actually french. Examples are Boucheron and Chaumet. Often these watches would still use imported swiss movements though. A now famous example is the Boucheron Reflet. It’s case made in solid gold in France. It even has several french patents for its closure systems. The movements for the Boucheron watches would be sourced mainly from Omega. However we can also find Eterna, Frederic Piguet and Ulysse Nardin movements inside. We will definitely dive into the world of vintage Boucheron in a separate article soon, as this is one of the brands I personally love the most.
Some collectors see the French cased watches as an inferior product or even go as far as saying they are not completely original. As these vintage watches are not produced in Switzerland and following the manufacturers instructions. In the past this has even led to watches being dismounted to save the movement and dial, while melting the cases. I am among a growing group of collectors that oppose this view though. The French case watches tell an important part of history, which is what the collecting is all about. It also offers a rare opportunity to see what designers outside of Switzerland had in mind with certain watches. In addition the product is not inferior, as I indicated before the quality of the cases is extremely high. The argument that the watches are not completely produced by the brand does not make a lot of sense to me. Whether produced in Switzerland or France, cases were always produced by third party suppliers. So a vintage watch was never completely produced in house to begin with. As I said before, this was one of the reasons the Swiss watch industry was so innovative during the last century. It can be seen over the course of history that when people get more freedom to focus on one specific task, this improves the eventual outcome. Nowadays everyone wants to have their watches produced completely in house. This actually makes the big brands turn inwards, and loose the connection with their environment. They create a bubble in which they keep following their own direction. This is one of the reasons collectors are so unhappy about the current production models of these brands. Of course independent watchmakers form the exception. They actually come back to this old way of producing on a small scale, using the most talented people for every single part of watch.
To come back to the subject, diversity should be celebrated. Different watches fit different styles, which creates a niche for every single collector. Nowadays in collecting it seems like people are looking for a universal truth about what is beautiful and what is not. A lot of collectors follow each other in trends, of course style evolves over time, but it cannot be that everyone evolves his style in the same way. This creates a boring market trend hopping from one hot item to the next. This exhausts the market for certain pieces and makes prices skyrocket in very short cycles.Therefore it is completely okay that there is different views on the French cases. I just try to show why they matter historically. I like them, others may not. If you have a french case watch in your possession that you would like to sell or get more information about, please send me a message trough the form on the website.
Omega French Case chronometer on its original and impressive gold bracelet
