Fine Swiss 18 carat gold open faced lever watch Circa 1947

Gold gift watch by Tavannes/Cyma
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A fine, as good as new Swiss 18 carat gold open faced pocket watch with the original presentation box, circa 1947. A gift to honour 30 years of service with the company. The bridge movement with Geneva striping decoration, a lever escapement, gold screw compensation balance and gold chantons. White enamel dial with radial Breguet style hour numerals, an outer minute track, a subsidiary dial for the seconds at 6 o’clock, and Breguet style hands. A polished case with the engraved monogram EM on the back, the gold cuvette with dedication engraving A Emile Marti en Souvenir de 30 annès de fidéle collaboration 1917-1947. The dial and case are signed CYMA Swiss made, the case is also numbered, the movement is signed Tavannes Watch Co. Swiss and the cuvette CYMA.
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Diameter: 50 mm
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Weight: 89 g
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Signed: CYMA
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Emile Marti was the manufacturing manager of Tavannes Watch Co./Cyma Watch Co. in Moutier, Switzerland, and was honoured with this pocket watch for his 30 years of service. The timepiece has an exceptionally high level of finish, which one normally does not see in watches from the Tavannes company.
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Cyma Watch Co.
Cyma (in French, cime means the summit, the peak) was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland, in 1862 by the brothers Theodore and Abraham Schwob from La Chaux-de-Fonds. Theodore’s father-in-law was a salesman at Zenith and had some capital to support their enterprise. The company specialized in wrist alarm watches, of which the movements were made in-house. Other companies also used these movements. In 1896, Cyma merged with Frédéric-Henri Sandoz’s Tavannes Watch Co. 
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Tavannes Watch Co. was founded in 1891 by watchmaker Henri-Frédéric Sandoz from Le Locle and was named after a town. Sandoz obtained several Swiss patents to improve pocket watches.

Tavannes/Cyma produced complicated watches using the most modern machines. Around 1905, they began developing pocket chronometers with spiral springs made from a nickel steel alloy by Charles Edouard Guillaume. In 1919, a workshop was set up to manufacture pocket and marine chronometers. They also used the marine chronometer developed by Paul Ditisheim with a central second and exchangeable escapement section. The company achieved many successes with its deck watches in the chronometer competitions of the Neuchâtel Observatory. Even before World War I they began developing wristwatches. 

In 1969, the companies Cyma, Tavannes Watch Co. and DOXA merged to form Synchron AG, to which the Auréole company has belonged since 1972, but Tavannes Watch Co. has been independent again since 2008 and mainly sells watches in the USA.