Characteristic Beta21: ESAQuartz

WHY IS IT IN OUR MUSEUM? Because it is an horological artefact of highest grade: not sold to the public but given or gifted to people engaged with the development of the first Swiss quartzmovement Beta21: This special timepiece was one once owned by a high-ranking ESA- / C.E.H.-engineer and is now part of our museum of horological important timepieces.

ESA (Ebauches SA, later part of ETA SA and Swatch with technical leads André Beyner and Maurice Grimm) was one of the (if not THE) most important player in the Swiss watchindustry in 1970 and the biggest shareholder and most important participant in the Beta21-joint venture: the initiative for the joint-venture and 39.5% of the total capital came from Ebauches SA. ESA manufactured more mechanical watch-movements than any other Swiss brand at that time and obviously they had an intrinsic interest to get into quartz-movements and not miss the innovation -- and the pressure was there since Seiko presented the worlds first quartz-watch Astron cal35 on 25th of December 1969. So, it is fair to assume that without Rolex or Patek the Beta21-project would have been done anyway; but without ESA there would not (!) have been a Swiss quartzwatch in 1970, for sure.

Very obviously ESA had searched for a pragmatic approach to case several examples of this 1st Swiss quartz-movements (Beta21 Zero-Series) for demonstration purposes on the Basle Fair (Mustermesse Basel, "muba") in April 1970: rectangular and wrapping the oversized pioneer-movement. On this important fair the manufacturers and participants of the C.E.H.-joint venture presented the result of their research-efforts: the 1st working and marketed Swiss quartz-movement encased in the highlights and most expensive top-models of the manufacturers for 1970 and the following years: Patek "Cercle d’Or" ref3587, Rolex "Texano" ref5100, Omega "ElectroQuartz" ref196.005, IWC "Quartz-Electronic" ref3001, Piaget "Rectangle a l'Ancienne" ref14101 & "Black Tie" ref15101 etc.

All these mentioned watches were first presented by the brands on the Basle-fair. Many manufacturers were selling-out their de-facto limited editions right on this fair -- sold in 1970-Apr with production and delivery of the Beta21s stretched until mid of 1972: we know so from Patek, Rolex and Piaget for sure. And here it becomes interesting: the ESAQuartz was never meant for sale, as ESA / ETA was a movement-manufacturer and not allowed to compete with watch-brands by selling complete watches. Instead they were just demonstrating the accurate movement and this specific example was owned by a high-ranked CEH- / ESA-engineer.

Pragmatically cased, it is edgy (as the Beta21-movement) with an apple-pedicel-like crown at 12-o'clock -- giving it an unusual and interesting look. Notabene: the casemaker was Favre & Perret SA (La-Chaux-de-Fonds, Poincon de Maitre: Hammer[115], the casemaker that produced the ref3700 & ref3770 Nautilus for Patek and the Ra-Tourbillion ref25643 & ref25656 for Audemars Piguet) and so the same casemaker that made the world-record thinnest watch in 1979: the "Delirium Tres Mince" based on a ESA / ETA innovation (André Beyner and Maurice Grimm) and basis for the 1982-presented Swatch (NB2: ESA was part of that as well). So, back to the Beta21-case in 1970. Pragmatically, yes but it was not made cheap: the dial comes with a beautiful brown sunburst-effect and applied indexes and a very fine & discreet print below 6 o'clock: "SWISS MADE BETA 21".