César Schild-Krebs

César Schild-Krebs (1878-1936) was a prominent Swiss businessman and watchmaker who was director and president of A. Schild and first vice-president of the board of directors of Ebauches SA. He was the son of A. Schild founder Adolf Schild-Hugi and nephew of Eterna founder Urs Schild.

César Schild was born on February 23, 1878 to Adolf Schild and Pauline née Hugi. He was the oldest son and followed in the footsteps of his father, a prominent leader in the Grenchen watchmaking world. Adolf had worked with his brother Urs Schild before starting his own ebauche factory, known as A. Schild.

César's brother Adolf junior joined their father's business in 1898 despite being a year younger. César continued his education, joining the firm in 1901 upon the departure of co-founder Stefan Zimmermann. The younger Schild brothers also joined the firm, Ernst in 1907 and Robert in 1924, following their father's death in 1915.

César Schild represented his family's interests in the watchmaking industry, becoming a delegate to the Chambre Suisse de l'Horlogerie in 1917. Following the failure of the Société Suisse des Fabriques d'Ebauches et de Finissages to control over-production, César approached his key competitor, Paul Robert of FHF, with the idea of combining the firms. The pair agreed to create an industry trust, together with the Swiss banks, to take control of independent firms. Schild and Robert enlisted Adolf Michel of the struggling A. Michel factory to round out the group, known as Ebauches SA, which controlled 80% of Swiss movement manufacturing in 1926. Despite overseeing the strongest and most valuable company in the group, César and his brother Adolf took standard board seats, allowing banker Léopold Dubois, Sydney de Coulon (FHF), Hermann Obrecht (A. Michel), and Paul Robert (FHF) to take the executive positions.

Ebauches SA took over many other ebauche factories in the following years, controlling 90% of movement manufacturing by 1930. The next battle was to take control of Eterna, the large and powerful vertically-integrated watchmaker operated by his cousin Théodor Schild, and other dissident watchmakers. César Schild joined makers of other components, bankers, and the Swiss federal government in creating ASUAG in 1931, uniting most watch production in a "super-holding" company. This move, plus generous funding from the government, was enough to persuade Théodor and his son Rudolf Schild to join, splitting their firm into Eterna and ETA, which was taken over by Ebauches SA.

César Schild-Krebs died on May 8, 1936 following a sudden bout of apoplexy. He was just 58 years old and had risen to become first vice-president of the Board of Directors of Ebauches SA and chairman of A. Schild. His son Rudolf César Schild followed in his footsteps.