ZENO HISTORY begins in 1868 with watchmaker Jules Godat, the founder of a small pocket watch manufacturing company (Godat & Co.) in La Chaux-de-Fonds, located in the heart of Swiss watch manufacture. He produced, in very small quantities, fine pocket watches featuring solid silver cases and lady pendant watches. He built a small factory, which was taken over in 1920 by the company, A. Eigeldinger & Fils.
The family business, Eigeldinger, specialized in wrist watches for the army. They produced watches in stainless steel, silver, gold and platinum, with mechanical movements up to 43mm. They assembled different guaranteed horology. Their registered brands were ZENO, STRAND and SOLVEX. The son of the owner, Andre-Charles Eigeldinger, introduced Zeno. The name was influenced by the Greek philosopher, Zeno, and comes from Zenodopolus, which means Gift of Zeus.
The first ZENO watches were made in 1922. Each piece was marked with a Swiss cross on the back of the casing. The company has since continued to innovate watch manufacturing techniques. In 1949, the ZENO watches were exhibited for the first time at the Swiss Watch Fair in Basel.
In 1966, wholesalers Dr. Peter Atteslander and Eric Enggist bought the rights to ZENO and sold them to Mr. Felix W. Huber in 1973. Mr. Huber had worked for the company since 1964.
Our workshops gained international attention in 1969 with the legendary and futuristic Spacemen, with the production of the vacuum diver watch Compressor, and the takeover of several well-known Swiss watch factories.
The timeless star of ZENO is the famous Pilot Classic collection (40mm). A remake of our pilot watches from 1965 (37mm), today's model compares very favorably with the vintage ZENO Pilot Basic 1965 original. Their technical features, however, give them an undeniable advantage.
Today ZENO watches are produced by one of the last independent Swiss watch manufacturers and traditional company, ZENO-WATCH BASEL.
The Swiss brand name ZENO symbolizes an excellent choice in marketable wrist watches. We are proud of our small, but traditional, watch factory and our stylish watch collection. The watches are known and recognized internationally for their quality, design and innovation, exhibiting exceptionally high standards of quality while offering competitive prices.
The range of products extends from mechanical to quartz technology wrist watches with analogue display for ladies or gents in every combination of materials: 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.
Of course, we have enlarged our successful Pilot family. Since 1999 we have produced the very special Pilot Oversized watches (47.5mm), a huge range of pilot watches in new sizes and many COSC certificated chronometers.
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