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.
The brand was re-launched in 2011 in Geneva using quartz movements from Ronda. A straighter version of this "V line" mark is still used on men's watches produced under the "Venus of Switzerland" name. Ladies watches in this modern collection feature a script text version of the name.