THE HISTORY OF BLANCPAIN

IN TIME
ing his thoughts onto the wax rolls of the
machine and, depositing the rolls in the
mail, trusting his orders would be carried
out. Had he lived 70 years later, it is clear
that Frédéric-Emile would have been in the
forefront as a Blackberry addict (now affectionately
known as “Crackberry”).
Relying on the stream of wax rolls running
between Lausanne and Villeret and reposing
full confidence in Betty Fiechter’s talents as a
manager, Frédéric-Emile devoted himself to
both expansion of Blancpain’s markets and
the design of record-breaking movements.
For the first time, Blancpain looked across
the Atlantic, sending its marketing director,
André Léal, over to the United States.
On the movement side, Frédéric-Emile was
particularly fascinated by the challenges
of automatic winding. In the mid-1920s he
made the acquaintance of a British watchmaker,
John Harwood who had been working
on bringing an automatic winding system,
then solely existing in pocket watches,
into the world of wristwatches. Working
together and utilising as a starting point one
of Blancpain’s base calibres, Harwood and
Blancpain succeeded in 1926 in producing the
world’s first automatic winding wristwatch.
Amazing for its time, the Blancpain Harwood
watch placed a thick winding rotor off the
end of the movement, allowing it to move
back and forth in its channel over a 180
degree arc. Although the achievement of the
world’s first automatic winding system for a
BETTY FIECHTER, PRESIDENT BLANCPAIN 1932-1950. VILLERET 1961.
wristwatch propelled the watch to the starring
position at that year’s Basel fair, the
innovations did not stop there. To fight dust,
a brutal wristwatch enemy before modern
seals were developed, the crown was
removed and the watch featured a system
for setting the time by rotating the bezel.
Frédéric-Emile’s second foray into automatic
winding came a few years later in 1930
with the introduction of the Rolls women’s
watch. Again working in collaboration with
outsiders, Blancpain perfected a scheme for
automatically winding ladies watches which
were far too diminutive to accommodate a
rotor. Here the ingenious solution was to
place the entire movement into a carriage
that would allow it to slide back and forth,
thereby recharging the mainspring. To facilitate
the sliding, the watch was fitted with
ball bearings between the movement and its
carriage. Again a world first was won as the
Rolls, a name invented by Blancpain for selling
the watch, earned its place as the first
automatic winding wristwatch for women.
Frédéric-Emile’s string of successes came to
a tragic close with his sudden death in 1932.
Lost at the same time was the Blancpain family
name, as he left no male heirs. There were
however capable hands to take over the
Blancpain enterprise, those of Betty Fiechter,
who, together with the Blancpain sales director
André Leal, purchased the business in
June 1933, renaming it Rayville-Blancpain,
Rayville being a phonetic anagram of Villeret.
Owing to an oddity of Swiss law, this name
change was not optional. With no member
of the Blancpain family remaining associated
with the business, the new owners were
required to alter the official business name
(the gymnastics provoked by this regulation
have, over time, led to bizarre solutions with
one famous Geneva watch company searching
for and hiring a person “with the right
last name” in order to continue their hyphenated
trademark).
There is a touching letter marking the transfer
of Blancpain after 200 years within the
founding family to Betty Fiechter. Frédéric-
Emile’s daughter, Nellie wrote to Betty:
“The end of Villeret for Papa brings real sadness,
but I can assure you that the only solution
which can truly ease my sadness is your
taking over of the manufacture together
with Mr. Leal. Thanks to this fortunate solution
I can see that the traditions of our
precious past will be followed and respected
in every way.
You were for Papa a rare and dear collaborator.
One more time let me thank you for
your great and lasting tenderness which
I embrace and carry with me in my heart.”
The early days were not easy for Betty
Fiechter. The Great Depression walloped the
entirety of the Swiss watch industry, causing
widespread business failures and producing
massive unemployment. Blancpain’s solution
was to seek refuge in the American market,
which by the mid-30s was in sounder condi-