Henri Thiébaud

Henri Thiébaud served on the board of Martel and Zenith in the 1960s.

It is unclear of Henri Thiébaud of Buttes is the same person as Henri Thiébaud of Brot-Dessus. These villages are located on opposite ends of the Val-de-Travers but are less than 20 km apart. Brot-Dessus is particularly close to Ponts-de-Martel, home of Martel Watch Co and Le Locle, home of Zenith, is only a short distance to the north. Although it is likely that these were the same person, it is also possible that two different men of the same name, and coming from the same valley, were involved in the companies listed here. Both men apparently also lived in Saint-Blaise, a municipality along the lake shore just east of Neuchâtel, later in their lives.

1936 Henri Thiébaud and Arnold Thiébaud enter service at the Martel Watch Co.

Henri-Gustave Thiebaud of Gruen

Henri Gustave Thiebaud was the director of the Swiss Gruen (and Frey) watchmaking company. He was born September 18, 1906 in Saint-Imier into a watchmaking family. His grandfather was manager of the Courvoisier watch factory and his father was a foreman at Longines. He studied in La Chaux-de-Fonds and attended the Technicum with a watchmaking diploma and earned a first prize at the Neuchâtel Observatory. After being injured as a military aviator in 1926, Thiebaud entered the watchmaking business at Frey & Co in Bienne. Thiebaud soon rose to prominence at Gruen, where he developed the first baguette movement for serial production, invented the first automatic winding system for a non-round movement, and invented the Curvex.

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. Mr. H.-G. Thiébaud is noted as being the managing director of the new Gruen Watch Export Co. in 1951. 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.

Henri Thiébaud of Bellmund in Canton Berne trademarks "Girovision" on May 22, 1957.

Henri Thiébaud married Rachel Monnat 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 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.

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.

Henri Thiébaud of Martel

In February 1961, Henri Thiébaud (along with Arnold Thiébaud, Charles Vermot and others) celebrated 25 years of service at the Martel Watch Co. as part of the company's 50th anniversary. This suggests that Henri split his time between Martel and Gruen or that these were two different men.

On December 30, 1961, Henri Thiébaud of Buttes, who lived in Saint-Blaise in Canton Neuchâtel, was appointed administrator of Zénith, which had recently purchased Martel Watch Co. This happened alongside Aurèle Maire, grandson of Martel Watch Co founder Georges Pellaton-Steudler and brother of Martel technical director Robert Maire. Maire came from Ponts-de-Martel and Brot-Dessous but lived in Bienne at this time, and was named technical director. The coincidences between Henri Thiébaud and Aurèle Maire's biography strongly suggests that Thiébaud was the same man who worked for Gruen, Frey, Martel, and Zénith.

On October 15, 1962, Henri Thiébaud of Brot-Dessous, who lived in Saint-Blaise, was appointed administrator of Martel Watch Co, which was owned by Zenith, replacing Jean-Pierre Hainard. This was the same meeting that saw René Aellen join management and Georges Pellaton-Rickli give up his role as vice president in favor of his brother, Raoul Pellaton. Thiébaud shares joint signing power with Pellaton-Rickli, son of the founder, and is thus a very high-level manager of the firm.

Connecting These Men

On June 23, 1969, Henri Thiébaud, chairman of Uhrenfabrik Frey, is noted as living in Saint-Blaise as managing director Aurèle Maire is noted to have moved to La Chaux-de-Fonds. The close connection between Thiébaud of Martel, Zenith, and Frey, and their work with Maire, suggest that they are the same.

Henri Thiébaud is removed from the board of Manufacture des Montres Zenith SA on July 3, 1972, as the company has been integrated into Zenith Time as part of Zenith Radio Company.