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| Vulcain Watches |
The year 1947 will remain a milestone in the history of the wristwatch. It was then that the Vulcain factory was successful in introducing a wrist alarm that actually fulfilled its task: It reliably wakened its owner with a long-sounding, audible rattle. The volume of the noise emitting from this delicate-looking watch inspired the French physicist Paul Langevin to a comparison with a grasshopper, an insect that also emanates a surprisingly loud noise from its small body. The watch's name from then on was Cricket.
Among all of the fine watches that the Vulcain manufacture produced during its heyday around the middle of the last century, the Cricket and its variations stood out from the rest of the program. The first truly water-resistant alarm, the Nautical, can be attributed to the inventive team put together by company owner Robert Ditisheim in 1961.
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The Cricket in all of its variations also builds the backbone of the new Vulcain brand's collection. Bernard R. Fleury is president and managing director of the newly founded PMH SA, and Alain Claude is his technical director of development and production. From the start, this small team is running at capacity to convert
the old production apparatus to modern CAD technology for the production of Cricket's watch movement. Nevertheless, the engineers have already been successful in achieving a few small improvements to the original version, for example including Incobloc shock protection
and a generally higher degree of finishing. The re-introduction of the Exactomatic, patented by Vulcain in 1946, was also very important to them. This system includes a special beveling of the balance staff's endstones resulting in the least possible amount of friction in the bearings, improving regularity of the oscillation amplitude. PMH has its very own department for further development of the caliber, in order to give it new display complications and functions in the future.
At the beginning of its rebirth, the brand will serve collectors and connoisseurs with loyally detailed replicas of the great Cricket models of the past. Above all, the horological world will be presented with a new Nautical model featuring an acoustic signal that is also audible under water and a dial disc with decompression times that is activated by the crown, as well as a new Dual Time model with an adjustable 12-hour flange.
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Vulcain
Chemin des Tourelles 4
CH-2400 Le Locle, Switzerland
Tel: +41 32 930 80 10
Fax: +41 32 930 80 19
www.vulcain-watches.ch
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