VENUS WATCHES – A PROUD HISTORY CONTINUES

THE EARLY YEARS

La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, 1902.

In this village, at the very heart of the Swiss watchmaking industry, a master craftsman by the name of Paul Arthur Schwarz and his wife Olga Etienne-Schwarz, two visionary watchmakers, launched their very first collection. They initially created and sold watches under the name of several brands one of which, however would soon distinguish itself: VENUS.

The very first VENUS collection was immediately noted for its elegance and refinement. The values expressed by the brand quickly became synonymous with innovative design and manufacturing achievement. This quickly led to developing and assembling movements of noted technical ingenuity and appeal. By the 1930s VENUS had begun manufacturing chronograph calibres, which are still being used by many other brands today.

VENUS was also among the first to create a chronograph movement, without a counter and with a column wheel for the functioning of the central hand. A development of this calibre is still in broad use today and can be considered as the predecessor of many modern chronographs currently being used by watchmakers in the 21st century.

THE YEARS OF RECOGNITION & MATURITY

VENUS quickly earned recognition as one of the watch industry’s elite brands through technical innovation and expertise as well as a fine eye for elegant design.

In the years to come Mr. Schwarz and his family worked to bring about numerous achievements in watchmaking design and assembly, while at the same time sales increased successfully. They were proud to see VENUS continuously praised for both creativity and reliability.

The pursuit of this path in innovation and elegance culminated in VENUS historically achieving international acclaim at the Basel fair of 1950 by winning 1st prize for one of its attractive designs. By the mid-1960s, VENUS was a well established brand, with global distribution and a collection that offered more than a hundred men’s and women’s designs.

VENUS went from strength to strength. The 1960s saw the company organising glamorous events, such as in Athens in 1966, chosen to highlight Greece’s mythical connection with the iconic “Venus de Milo” watch and worn on the occasion by the famous Hollywood actress, Jane Mansfield. At the same time, the watches became so respected that even Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the Soviet Union, wore a VENUS watch on his wrist. Of particular note is an order on behalf of the Vatican: a hundred pieces in white gold, equipped with a mechanical self-winding movement.

THE REBIRTH

The watch industry was strongly destabilised, especially with the quartz revolution during the second half of the 20th century. VENUS was not spared. But the traditional Swiss watchmaking, famous worldwide for its hand wound and automatic movements was finally reborn from its ashes and VENUS would not miss its opportunity to live again.

Kept in respectful guardianship for many years by its new owners, this decisive moment finally came in 2011 with the first collection GENESIS.

Keeping the specificities of the brand, its new collections benefit from the best Swiss know-how and the evolution of modern technologies in traditional watchmaking, a label of excellence and refinement.

“Montres VENUS” continuously launches innovative timepieces with captivating design and technical characteristics of high quality. These strengths are enhanced by attractive prices, creating the perfect choice.

The lines of automatic or quartz wristwatches, for both gents and ladies, offer a wide panel from dynamism to elegance. The already well-known and popular models always enjoyed a huge success at the previous international watch exhibitions.

Based in Geneva – Switzerland, a guarantee of quality and constant improvements, “Montres VENUS” can better reach the world markets.

The VENUS brand has always drawn inspiration from the Greek / Roman divinity of Venus, goddess of love, as well as from the planet, which inspires its name. But it was during exploration of the planet Venus in 1960s that a real phenomenon would be expressed in the brand: Venus is the only planet in our planetary system that rotates in a clockwise direction around its axis. This was a source of inspiration to its founders and remains so today through our concept “Venus is the only planet rotating clockwise” and “Venus is the only clockwise choice”.

Through its daring collections, “Montres VENUS” expresses precisely this uniqueness of its namesake planet, again in perfect harmony with its time!