Venus Watch

See also Fabrique d'Ébauches Vénus, the Moutier ebauche maker of the same name

The Venus and Venus de Milo names have been used on watches since the early 1900s, primarily by the Schwarz-Etienne family.

Rueff and Salzmann

Main Article: Rueff Frères

The Venus brand name was first registered on April 30, 1891 by Rueff Frères of La Chaux-de-Fonds. The brand was a logo featuring a large star with three smaller stars on each side inside a circle, with the word VENUS curving above. All of the firm's marks were taken over by Maurice Rueff in 1896, and he registered the text mark VENUS on April 14, 1906. Although Rueff certainly used the Venus brand, their primary focus appears to have been their Napoleon trademark. These brands were taken over by the new Rueff Frères company in 1914 and then by Fritz Salzmann in 1924.

The two Venus marks, along with Baltic, registered by Reuff in 1896, expired in October 1930. The three brands were immediately re-registered by Paul Schwarz-Etienne on October 17 of that year.

Schwarz-Etienne

Even though the company acquired the Venus brand in 1930, it does not appear to have been used by the La-Chaux-de-Fonds firm founded Paul Arthur Schwarz and Olga Etienne-Schwarz. Indeed, it was not until the 1950s (perhaps 1952) that it was adopted, largely replacing Montres Alpha as their signature brand. By this time the company was run by the third generation of the family, André Schwarz.

The Vénus name was also used on radium dials produced in the 1920s.

Whole watches were also produced with the Venus brand. Earlier models feature a line representation of the Venus de Milo torso and head and were produced under the auspices of the movement maker using third-party components. Some watches are also co-branded with other companies.

Schwarz-Etienne updated the Venus trademark to include a line stretching from the V over the other letters in 1952. This would remain their logo for decades.

In the 1970's, Vénus SA, part of Ebauches SA, produced watches marked "Venus La-Chaux-de-Fonds" which feature a horizontal line extending from the "V" across the rest of the name and a circular logo above which resembles a ring or loupe. This incarnation of the brand ceased production in the late 1970's as Ebauches SA was absorbed into ETA and later Swatch Group.

Montres Venus, Geneva

A new firm was established in Geneva using the name Montres Venus on April 14, 2011. The company, located at rue de la Croix-d'Or 19A, was a limited company with 250,000 francs share capital. Patseas Nikolaos was president and Bonotis Konstantinos was delegate, both from Greece. Spiri Maurice of Bienne was director. In June 2012, Bonotis Konstantinos and Spiri Maurice were removed from the board, with Teminian Lionel of Lancy becoming a member of the board. Cuanillon Paul of Vully-les-Lacs joined the board in 2013. The company relocated to rue de Lausanne 14 in 2015. In 2019 Cuanillon Paul and Teminian Lionel left the board with Bonotis Konstantinos re-joining. The firm was relocated to rue François-Versonnex 11 at this time.

This new Venus claimed to be "Swiss since 1902" (likely a reference to the supposed start date of Paul Schwarz-Etienne's watchmaking business). The company's website made this claim explicit, including references to Paul and Olga and suggested that they used the Venus name in the early 20th century. It then claimed some connection to the Vénus watch movement manufacturer, stating that the company "was also among the first to create a chronograph movement, without a counter and with a column wheel for the functioning of the central hand." That company is completely unrelated to Schwarz-Etienne and the Venus watch brand. Other claims include "achieving international acclaim at the Basel fair of 1950 by winning 1st prize for one of its attractive designs," and connections in the 1960s to Jane Mansfield, Leonid Brezhnev, and "an order on behalf of the Vatican: a hundred pieces in white gold, equipped with a mechanical self-winding movement."

It used a straighter version of the "V line" mark on men's watches. Ladies watches in this modern collection feature a script text version of the name. The firm uses the slogan, "Venus is the only planet rotating clockwise" and "the only clockWISE choice" in advertising. The watches were quite modern and featured quartz movements from Ronda as well as mechanical movements including a version of the 7750 chronograph.

See Also

• Fabrique d'Ébauches Vénus