6 replies to this topic

[skyway]

Hi.

Recently whilst clearing out my mother in laws stuff we found this very nice Swiss Emperor watch which turned out to be my wifes Grandfathers.

I have tried to find information about them on the 'net but apart from a few turning up on ebay at wildly fluctuating prices we pretty much draw a blank!

Does anyone know anything about them?

Im not interested in selling as it is a family heirloom (of sorts) but I would be interested to find out wether they are a brand that is sort after or wether it is just a generic watch brand from the 40s/50s?

Any comments would be greatly appreciated!

[quoll]

I am not going to claim to be an expert, but I have had one or two Swiss Emperors. That one you have there is very nice - late 50s to mid 60s at a guess from the styling. Probably the 50s with the subseconds.

They are not particularly sought-after, but are a good mid-range Swiss manufacturer that collapsed, along with so many others, in the quartz revolution in the 70s and early 80s. As far as I know they were not a 'manufacture' - i.e. they used bought-in movements. The ones I had were FHF and AS movements as far as I remember. I would guess yours is an FHF.

Nothing, of course, can replace the history of that watch to your family, so its value to you is greater than its market value I suspect.

[pg tips]

I am fairly certain that "Swiss Emperor" was a brand name used for watches sold by the H Samuel chain of High Street jewellers in the UK during the 60s and 70s.

[quoll]

"Everite" certainly was - but I had not heard that of Swiss Emperor before. I'm not disputing it though...

[Stan]

Excalibur was also one of Harriet Samuel's brands.

[jasonm]

I love the numeral font

[MarkF]

I am fairly certain that "Swiss Emperor" was a brand name used for watches sold by the H Samuel chain of High Street jewellers in the UK during the 60s and 70s.

I had a Swiss Emperor chrono with a Valjoux movement, I posted a pic on here about a year or so ago and somebody stated that it was a high street branded product.

Weirdly, I had people from the US fighting over it when I came to sell it on the bay.