Zeno Watches

Jules Godat founded a small pocket watch manufacturing company named Godat & Co. at La Chaux-de-Fonds, the hub of Swiss watch manufacturers. They built pocket watches with solid silver cases and also manufactured lady pendant watches. Jules ran a small business that was later taken over by A. Eigeldinger & Fils, in 1920. Eigeldinger ran a family business that specialized in manufacturing wrist watches for the military. Their arrays of watches were available in stainless steel, silver, gold, and platinum; some of these had mechanical movements up to 43mm. The company had three registered brands: Zeno, Strand, and Slovex. The Zeno brand was launched by Andre-Charles Eigeldinger, the son of Eigeldinger. He chose the name after the Greek philosopher, Zeno. The word originates from 'Zenodopolus', which means 'Gift of Zeus'. Zeno watches were first manufactured in 1922. Each piece bore the Swiss cross on the back of its casing. The Zeno line of watches was exhibited at the Swiss Watch Fair in Basel for the first time in 1949. Dr. Peter Atteslander and Eric Enggist took over Zeno watches in 1966, and later sold the company to Mr. Felix W. Huber in 1973. By then, Huber had worked for nearly a decade at the company. Zeno gained worldwide recognition in 1969 with their innovative 'Spacemen' watch and the vacuum driver watch 'Compressor'. They also acquired other well-established Swiss watch factories. One of the most popular Zeno watch series is the 'Pilot Classic' collection. Till date, Zeno manufactures models that resemble the vintage Zeno pilot basic 1965 original. Zeno produces a huge line of watches such as mechanical and quartz technology wrist watches with analogue display, collectors' wristwatches, pocket watches, military, scuba diving watches or sport chronographs in every combination of materials. It is one of the few remaining independent Swiss watch manufacturers and traditional companies in the world, today.