A few months ago, I came upon this beautiful vintage watch that was sold in Hungary.
I was very confused at first, the dial of the watch gave the impression of a very British sounding name “West End”. However, it also indicated that the watch was “Swiss made”.
To Make matters even more confusing: The watch came with an “Extract from the Longines archives” from 2019 published in Saint-Imier (Switzerland) indicating that it was manufactured by Longines in 1915 (!!) and sold to their “Indian agent”, the Company “Drotz-Amstutz & Co.”.
What does this all mean? I was perplexed. This watch was manufactured over a century ago in Switzerland and sold to India. But why does the dial indicate the British sounding name “West End” if it was made by Longines as indicated clearly in their extract? Who are Drotz, Amstutz and company?
My confusion lead me to immediately research the watch a bit further and get to the bottom of this ‘strange’ watch and its history. What I came upon, as is often the case, with vintage watches was an Odyssey into a complex but fascinating history.
To understand the rich history of this unique watch we need to go back a bit into the fascinatingly rich and history of the city of London, England. It is beyond the scope of this article to understand the details of this complex city, however, here is a brief overview:
London The Complex City
The well researched article by David Boettcher (Ref.3) gives the most detailed understanding of the events that lead to the creation of the branding and use of the name “West End”.
In 1864, Alcide Droz and Henry Perret of Saint-Imier in the Swiss Canton of Berne founded the watchmaking company Droz and Perret. Saint-Imier is a municipality in the Jura Bernois administrative district in the canton of Bern (one of the 26 Cantons) in Switzerland. Since 1848 the Swiss Confederation has been a federal republic of relatively autonomous cantons, some of which have a history of confederacy that goes back more than 700 years, putting them among the world’s oldest surviving republics.
The company subsequently went through several changes of names and registrations and trademarks giving the Watch and brand “West End” a complex historical background until in about 1886/87, MM. Amstutz and Droz, the owner of Alcide Droz & Sons, started to use the trademark, “West End Watch Company”.
The complicated history continues in 1883 when the company changed its registered name to Alcide Droz & Fils (Alcide Droz and Sons). On 16 October 1885 they registered a trademark of an eagle carrying a watch in its beak with above it the name “West End Watch”. It seems like the company’s creators were moving fast, expanding their business.
In 1884 a watch business was then started in Bombay, India, by Alcide Droz and Arnold Charpie. Some reports say that Charpie was the Indian representative of Droz, however, there is no clear documentation on this. The company seems to have been a joint venture between A. Charpie and Alcide Droz,
with the intention of mainly, but not exclusively, importing watches manufactured at the St Imier. It is then St. Imier which brings Longines in contact with the “West End” brand.
Before we get to the municipality of interest in Switzerland let’s take a deeper look at the events in India.
India, the crucial market
In 1887 Alcide Droz & Fils underwent another change of name, becoming Droz & Cie (Droz and Co.). In the same year 1887, it is thought that A. Charpie retired from the Bombay firm, and it became wholly owned by Droz. And also in the same year of 1887, the Bombay firm was then renamed the “West End Watch Co”. The name of the Bombay branch of the company before the retirement of Arnold Charpie is not known, but it was evidently not “The West End Watch Co”. It appears likely that when Charpie retired in 1887 and Droz & Cie took over completely, they took the opportunity to rebrand the company “The West End Watch Company”, using the trademark name that they had already registered in 1885.
Arnold Charpie is, however, credited to have realized that the Indian buyer and Indian market was more likely to buy a more “British sounding” brand. Either way, “The West End Watch Company”, the name inspired by the above-mentioned district of Central London, was established in India with branches in Bombay and Calcutta. The “West End” brand gave the Swiss made watches a distinctly ‘imperial feel’, and the clever juxtaposition of Swiss precision engineering and an Empire brand name was a hit. It enabled the brand to tap into the extensive Indian market and the British Empire.
Most of the Indian railway’s companies were then equipped with “West End”
watches and clocks to help synchronizing what is, till today, the world’s
longest rail network. The West End Watch Co. remained a wholly owned subsidiary of Droz & Cie until 1891, when Jacques-Arnold Amstutz became a partner.
It seems that at some stage in the early 1890s the Droz brothers separated their business interests. Constant Droz joined with Jacques-Arnold Amstutz in India, forming a company called Droz and Amstutz.
Louis Droz remained at the factory in St.Imier with the company Droz & Cie. In 1893, The “West End Watch Cie”. was listed as a brand of Droz & Amstutz in St Imier; a branch of a Bombay and Calcutta Company of the same name.
