Paul Ditisheim
Paul Ditisheim (1868–1945) was a Swiss watchmaker, inventor and industrialist. He invented the affix balance and has been considered "the father of the modern chronometers".
Early years
Paul Ditisheim was born into a wealthy family in 1868 in La Chaux-de-Fonds.[1] The Ditisheims belonged to a small social circle of industrialist families that were at the forefront of the Swiss watch industry at the time.[2] His father, Gaspard, and uncle, Maurice Ditisheim (or Ditesheim), were the founders of the established watch company Vulcain, which was one of the many watch companies started by Jewish families in the region.[3][4]
Ditisheim studied at the Ecole Industrielle and the Horological School of La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Watchmaking career
Ditisheim worked in his family’s company, Vulcain, until 1892 when he founded his own company Solvil et Titus.[5] He then developed a new generation of chronometers, improving them through his studies on the impact of atmospheric pressure and magnetic fields.[6] Ditisheim invented the affix balance[citation needed]. By 1903, his watches were awarded by the Kew and Neuchâtel Observatories contests. In 1912, he won the world’s chronometric record of the Royal Kew Observatory.[7] He also worked closely with Physics Nobel prize winner Charles-Edouard Guillaume and has been considered "the father of the modern chronometers"[citation needed]. According to Professor M. Andrade of the Besançon Astronomical Observatory, Ditisheim’s work “constitutes the most important progress of modern chronometry”.[8]
Later life
In the 1920s, Paul Ditisheim sold the Solvil et Titus and Paul Ditisheim brands to wealthy Swiss business owner Paul Bernard Vogel. Vogel was an heir to a family of industrialists and married to the heiress of the prominent Eberard family. Vogel moved the company headquarters to Geneva, which boosted the company's size and led to expanded business throughout the world.[9]
In 1925, after selling his company, Ditisheim left La Chaux-de-Fonds and moved to Paris, where he worked with an earth oils chemist to research and develop watch and clock oils[citation needed]. Paul Ditisheim was still in Paris when France was invaded by the Germans during World War II. Persecuted for being Jewish, he fled to Nice, where he lived until a year before his death.[10]
He died in Geneva in 1945 at the age of 76.
References
- ^ Profile of La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland Tourism
- ^ See also Musée international d'horlogerie
- ^ Mahrer, Stefanie (2012). Handwerk der Moderne: Jüdische Uhrmacher und Uhrenunternehmer im Neuenburger Jura 1800–1914. Köln: Böhlau. ISBN 978-3-412-20935-3.
- ^ Mahrer, Picard, Stefanie, Jacques. Uhrmacher.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Les actualités à la une - Worldtempus". fr.worldtempus.com (in French). Retrieved 2021-09-14.
- ^ Haines, Reyne (March 2011). Warman's Watches Field Guide (2 ed.). Krause Publications. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-4402-1439-4.
- ^ Worldtempus (French) "en 1912 le "record chronométrique mondial" à l'Observatoire Royal de Kew (Londres)" [1]
- ^ Worldtempus (French) "[le travail de Paul Ditiesheim] constitue le plus grand progrès de la chronométrie moderne" [2]
- ^ History of Solvil et Titus, official website
- ^ Mahrer, Stefanie (January 2010). "Die jüdischen Uhrmacher im Jura / les horlogers juifs dans le jura".
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