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Henri Gustave Thiébaud was the director of the Swiss [[Gruen]] and [[Frey & Co]] watchmaking companies from the 1930s through the 1950s. He was a prolific inventor and is credited with many of Gruen's technological advancements in this period. He may be the same [[Henri | Henri Gustave Thiébaud was the director of the Swiss [[Gruen]] and [[Frey & Co]] watchmaking companies from the 1930s through the 1950s. He was a prolific inventor and is credited with many of Gruen's technological advancements in this period. He may be the same [[Henri Thiébaud]] who served on the board of [[Zenith]] and [[Martel]] in the 1960s. | ||
==Early Life== | ==Early Life== | ||
Revision as of 22:46, 10 September 2023
Henri Gustave Thiébaud was the director of the Swiss Gruen and Frey & Co watchmaking companies from the 1930s through the 1950s. He was a prolific inventor and is credited with many of Gruen's technological advancements in this period. He may be the same Henri Thiébaud who served on the board of Zenith and Martel in the 1960s.
Early Life
According to Gruen press materials, Henri Thiebaud (sic) was born September 18, 1906 in Saint-Imier into a watchmaking family. This conflicts with corporate registrations, which show him as being of Buttes, a small village near Fleurier in the Val-de-Travers about 60 km to the west. It is likely that this refers to the town of his youth, since Gruen press also claims that his father was a foreman at Longines. Like his father and grandfather, who was manager of the Courvoisier Frères watch factory, Henri Thiébaud would spend his career in the watchmaking industry.
Young Henri studied in nearby La Chaux-de-Fonds and attended the Technicum there, earning a watchmaking diploma and a first prize at the Neuchâtel Observatory. After being injured as a military aviator in 1926, Thiébaud entered the watchmaking business at Frey & Co in Bienne.
Thiebaud soon rose to prominence at Gruen, where he became technical director and board member in May 1937 and then general manager in August 1938. He was noted as being from Buttes in 1937. He developed the first baguette movement for serial production, invented the first automatic winding system for a non-round movement, and invented the Curvex.
Henri Thiébaud married Rachel Monnat (or Monat) In 1935 and their daughter Francine was born in 1936. She died in 1968 at just 32 years of age, and her mother Rachel died in 1980.
According to The American Horlogist (April 1945), "Thiebaud is the inventor of the famous Gruen Curvex and Veri-thin watches" and was "world famous." He managed the Gruen factory in Switzerland through World War II, corresponding with Benjamin S. Katz, who operated the Cincinnati branch of the firm, by telephone and then by letter through the war. It says "Mr. Thiebaud is descended from an old and distinguished watch family. His grandfather was manager of a watch factory in Europe, furnishing exquisite timepieces to the Russian Imperial Court. His father succeeded him in the manufacture of unusual timepieces. Thiebaud himself was educated in France and later at a technical university. He received a special diploma and was awarded first prize at the Observatory of Nauchatel. An aviator in the first World War, Thiebaud's military career was ended by a plane crash which caused a lung lasion, He has aided the Swiss government materially during the present war period by continuing to train technicians, and has personally assisted in aiding thousands of war refuges who have sought a haven in Switzerland." It further says that Thiebaud visited Cincinnati in December 1937, addressing the Gruen Sales Convention, and that he was accompanied in 1945 by his wife and one daughter, Francine.
On December 24, 1943, Henri Thiébaud from Buttes is made president of the Gruen fund for workers. On November 7, 1947, Henri Thiébaud from Buttes, living in Biel, becomes president of Uhrenfabrik Frey. The Gruen Watch Export Co. was established on December 19, 1950 by Jack-André Léal of Canada along with Rachel and Henri Thiébaud to represent the brand around the world. Léal was removed from the firm in 1957 and Henri and Rachel Thiébaud departed in 1961 as Gruen was taken over.
Henri Thiebaud (sic) is noted in the 1955 court case of United States vs. Watchmakers of Switzerland as Managing Director of Gruen SA, and indirect director of their American subsidiary. Thiebaud was officially made chairman of the board of Gruen Watch Manufacturing Co. SA in May 1955.
According to a 1951 announcement, H.-G. Thiébaud was responsible for setting up Gruen Watch Export Co. SA in Geneva that year. This new company, managed by Jacques Léal, attempted to bring the Gruen brand to markets outside North America, and would exist separately from Gruen in Cincinnati and in Bienne but would be owned by the company. This was a time of growth and change for Gruen and the world watch market, and the firm soon faced Congressional scrutiny in the United States for restricting free trade and enforcing Swiss cartel rules on its American subsidiaries.
Henri Thiébaud of Chemin du Clos 1 in Bienne receives several patents between 1950 and 1957 and trademarks "Isoflex" in 1953. Thiebaud receives several patents with Frey & Co. in 1956. Henri Thiébaud, now of Bellmund in Canton Berne trademarks "Girovision" on May 22, 1957.
Henri and his wife Rachel appear to have been owners of Gruen Watch Manufacturing Co. SA in the 1950s, as both were removed from management in June 1960 when the company was taken over by Alfred Pestalozzi and Jean Tripet.
Henri Thiébaud from Buttes, who lived in Saint-Blaise, was made an administrator of Fabriques de Montres Zénith SA of Le Locle in December 1961. The timing, locations, and responsibilities suggest that this is the same man who until the previous year ran Gruen. But this connection is not mentioned in later biographies. He joined the company the same day that Aurèle Maire from Brot-Dessous, who lived in Bienne, was made technical director, and these men appear to be connected professionally. Zenith purchased the Martel Watch Co. at this time, and in October 1962, Henri Thiébaud of Saint-Blaise (though noted as being from Brot-Dessous) becomes a director of Martel alongside Robert Maire, brother of Aurèle. A 1969 filing for Frey & Co. notes that board chairman Henri Thiébaud has moved to Saint-Blaise and director Aurèle Maire to La Chaux-de-Fonds. Henri Thiébaud is removed from the board of Zenith in July 1972 as the American Zenith company takes over.
When the trans-Atlantic Gruen firm collapsed, the Bienne factory was sold to Rolex. Thiebaud built a villa south of Bienne in the village of Bellmund, which is home to the Thiébaud-Frey Foundation today. In the 1980s, the widower Thiébaud met the widow Margrit Tenger-Frey, daughter of his first employer, and the two were married in 1993. They spent 8 years together in Bellmund before Henri Thiébaud died on March 1, 2001, with Margrit passing on October 15, 2004.
Family
- Henri Thiébaud married Mathilde Weissmuller (1873?-December 21, 1960)
- Henri Gustave Thiébaud (September 18, 1906-March 1, 2001) married 1935 Rachel Monnat (?-1980) married 1993 Margrit Tenger-Frey (1906?-October 15, 2004)
- Maurice-Louis Thiébaud (1909-April 21, 1979) married Alice-Honora Stradella (?-after 1983?)
- Manoëlle Thiébaud (before 1955) married Jean-Paul Gerber
- Pierre-André Thiébaud
- Mathilde Thiébaud (1904?-August 19, 1955)
- Jeanne-Hortense Thiébaud (September 6, 1891-June 5, 1992) married before 1960 Jämes Guinand