Swiss gold lever made for the Bern Schützenfest Circa 1910

Gold and enamel lever pendant watch
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A fine and rare Swiss 18 carat yellow gold and enamel open faced keyless pendant watch specially made for the Bern Schützenfest in 1910 ny Brandt & Hofmann in Biel. The case back is decorated with a painted on enamel view of Bern, reading Bern 1910 in gold, and the enamelled coat of arms of Bern below, cast and chased Eidgenössisches Schützenfest on the border. A hinged gold cuvette. White enamel dial with dauphine hours, outer minute divisions, subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock and gold Louis XV hands. Frosted gilt movement with 15 jewels, a straight line lever escapement, cut bimetallic compensation balance, blued steel Breguet balance spring and an index regulator.
Case signed and numbered. Accompanied by a wooden box.
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Diameter: 32 mm
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Signed: Orion Bienne
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Eidgenössisches Schützenfest refers to the Swiss Federal Shooting Festival, first organized in 1824 and continued to the present. The contest, held every several years, is hosted by alternating Swiss Cantons. In 1910, the festival was hosted in Bern. The contest dates back to the 15th century Old Swiss Confederacy. The reintroduction of the contest in 1824 was meant to cement unity between the various Cantons. The Schützenfest lasts up to four weeks and includes some 50,000 marksmen.
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At the origin of the Orion manufacture was the remarkable watchmaker Ferdinand Bachschmid. Student of Pierre-Frédéric Ingold, the famous watchmaker who contributed to the mechanical manufacture of watches in the 19th century and a collaborator of Georges-Frédéric Roskopf.
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In 1876, Bachschmid established his own factory in Biel to manufacture an affordable Roskopf style watch of excellent quality, which proved to be a great success.
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He handed over his business in 1896 to two of his employees, Werner Brandt and Edouard Hofmann. The company was then renamed Brandt & Hofmann. The Orion brand was registered the same year and new premises were built to increase production capacity. The production of Roskopf watches continued, but was supplemented by the manufacture of precision anker watches.
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The quality of Orion chronometers was recognized at major international exhibitions and at the Neuchâtel Observatory precision competition.
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The factory was expanded in 1906 and again in 1912 to accommodate more than 200 employees. By 1913, the company specialized in wristwatches.
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In 1918, Brandt & Hofmann became Fabrique de Montres Orion SA. Orion weathered the crisis years of the 1920s by moving upmarket, making precision and jewellery watches. But suddenly, perhaps linked to poor economic conditions, the entire board of directors resigned in 1937. An attempt to revive the company in the early 1940s was short lived and the company disappeared in 1944.
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Welta Watch Co in Biel took over the Orion brand, which became Fabrique d’Horlogerie Welta et Orion SA in 1952. Later, in the 1980s, Basis Watch A. Thommen AG in Tecknau used the Orion brand name. It has also been used for several watch ranges by various manufacturers and continues to be used today.