Eterna-Matic 1000 - 14k Gold Capped Front - Circa 1968

Below the Jura, the mountains that run along the western edge of Switzerland, the land flattens into farm country, and one of the villages standing on it is Grenchen. Twelve hundred people lived there in 1851, and their village shield carried a plow. That January the assembly met and voted to make watches instead. Five years later a doctor and a schoolteacher opened a factory to build movements, the place grew ten times over around the trade it had chosen, and what those two men started is still standing. The name on it is Eterna.

The Eterna-Matic 1000 here was built in Grenchen in 1968. Twenty years before it, the factory had fixed the flaw automatic watches had carried since they were invented. The weight that wound them swung on a single post, and the post wore, and a worn post let the weight drag until the watch lost its time. Eterna laid five steel balls in a ring beneath the rotor so that it rolled instead of rubbed. No rotor anywhere had turned on ball bearings before, and the Swiss built their automatics that way afterward. The company took the five balls for its mark the same year, and they sit on this dial above the twelve, five polished spheres for the five turning under the caseback.

The dial is silver, brushed so fine that it shifts from between white and cream as the watch turns in the light. Gold batons stand off it at the hours, each cut down its length with a black channel, and the two at twelve stand closer together than the rest. The date shows at three behind a raised gold frame.  T Swiss Made T is printed at the foot of the dial, which is how a tritium dial was marked.

The movement beneath is the caliber 1488K, seventeen jewels, its bridges laid in a fine straight grain with the jewel count printed across them in gold beside the word Unadjusted, the marking a Swiss movement carried into the United States. Its crown holds no quickset position for the date. The crown is pulled out and pushed home again, and the date steps on a day each time.

The case as you can see from the picture of the side is solid 14k gold capped across the bezel and the tops of the lugs. This was how a watch was given real gold without the price of a full solid gold case. Everything below that line is stainless steel, polished, and stamped inside the back with Eterna Watch Co Swiss, Acier Inoxydable, and the case number 3331T. Fine scratches cross the bezel and the steel flanks. The crystal is acrylic and stands tall over the dial. It comes on a black lizard grain strap. The watch runs, and its service history is unknown.

Terms: Please review all photos carefully as they are a part of the listing. This is a vintage timepiece. Accuracy, power reserve, and water resistance are not guaranteed. Vintage watches may require periodic service. Performance can vary with wear, temperature, and position.

All sales final.