Prosper Nordmann

Prosper Nordmann (also spelled Nordman) was a French-Swiss watchmaker, inventor, and businessman who brought complicated watchmaking to the United States. Later in life he returned to Switzerland to live in Geneva before moving to Paris. Nordmann worked at Waltham Watch and established what would become Electa.

Early Life and Work in New York

Prosper Nordmann was born in Hegenheim in the Alsace region close to Basel, Switzerland. He emigrated to the United States to pursue a watchmaking career. Nordmann pioneered the mechanized construction of complicated watches in New York in 1876, including repeaters and chronographs. Nordmann registered patents with other pioneering Swiss and American watchmakers, including Henry-Alfred Lugrin, Charles Morlet, and Charles Schlatter, as well as Albert Bonzon of Cuba.

From 1876 until 1890, all of the complicated watches sold by the Waltham Watch company were produced by Nordmann in New York.

Nordmann in Geneva

In 1890, Nordmann moved back to Switzerland, establishing a watchmaking business at Rue Neuve-du-Temple 42 and Boulevard James-Fazy 6 in Geneva. He continued to specialize in complicated movements, and continued to work with Charles Morlet who also moved from New York to Geneva at this time.

Nordmann impressed the crowds at the 1896 Swiss National Exposition in Geneva with his simple movements, counter chronographs, counter rattrapantes, simple repeaters, and chronograph rattrapante watches, which he finished and regulated. Nordmann claimed that the roughing, finishing, and machining was entirely done by mechanical processes in his workshops using patented systems he designed. He also showed a chronographic clock precise to one-fifth of a second, for use at racetracks and velodromes with an electrical trigger for starting, stopping, and resetting the hands. Nordmann won a silver medal for this display. Among those focusing on Nordmann at the Geneva expo was Jacques David, head of technical operations at Longines, who noted that Nordmann was focused on split-seconds chronographs and repeaters "which are considered in the United States as very important because they were made fashionable by American factories in the simple watch." David was also impressed that Nordmann was able to produce his own assortiment.

Confident in his work, Nordmann incorporated his company between May and December of 1896, raising 200,000 francs by selling shares. The firm, called the Société d'Horlogerie de Genève, was headquartered in Paris at Rue de Mulhouse 4 with a branch in Geneva to handle manufacturing at Rue de St-Jean 8. The Geneva factory was popularly referred to as the Usine de St-Jean and employed about fifty workers by 1896. Among the companies selling complicated watches (mainly chronographs) produced by Nordmann was Schwob Frères of La Chaux-de-Fonds (which would become Cyma in 1945).

By 1901 Nordmann had relocated to Paris, France. He continued his watchmaking work there, registering more patents. The Usine de St-Jean remains listed in Indicateur Davoine from 1894 through 1903.

On March 14, 1901, the Société d'Horlogerie de Genève relocated to La Chaux-de-Fonds. Prosper Nordmann was replaced as director by Jules Grumbach of La Chaux-de-Fonds, who shared management with Charles Perret. Under Grumbach the company took the brand name Electa, rising to some success before bankruptcy and acquisition by Gallet.