Timepieces Trade Market

Angelus : History

Product variety was the particular strength of Angelus, a business which the Stolz brothers brought into being in 1891 selecting the up-and-coming Jura town of Le Locle as company headquarters.

By 1914, the jury of the Swiss national exhibition in Bern had awarded the Angelus Company a Grand Prix.
The collection then already comprised pocket-watches as well as wristwatches, including some with additional functions.

In 1942 the company introduced its own column-wheel chronograph for the wrist, which was distinguished by a date hand and a month / day indication.
The new "Chronodato" established Angelus as a real trend-setter at that time wrist-chronographs were fairly rare.
During the next 10 years the Chronodato, in different cases and dials, turned out to be the company's top money earner.

In 1957, Angelus undertook the development of an automatic quarter-repeating wristwatch.
The management hoped that this world première, based on the AS 1580 caliber would bring a new boost to the company.
However, the construction, which had the striking work under the dial, never got past the trial stage.

To test the market the "Tinkler" initially appeared in a small series of 100 pieces in steel.
And that is as far as it got, for success was limited by its high price.
Which makes the Tinkler an interesting collector's item today.

However, Angelus was not discouraged, for in 1978 the company, although on its knees, launched a hand-wound, modularly constructed five-minute repeating wristwatch on an ETA 2801 chassis.
The development of this large-diameter repeating mechanism was subcontracted by the Kelek Company in 1975 to the movement specialist Dubois Dépraz of the Joux valley.

However this timepiece failed to ward off the company's looming demise.

The quartz boom claimed and got its sacrifices.
One of them was Angelus.