Swiss silver triangular watch with Masonic motifs Circa 1900

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Kenmerk: AD4432
Diameter: -

Estimate: € 2.500 - 5.000
Price sold: € 4.000

Silver triangle form watch by Paul Ditisheim
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A rare Swiss triangular Freemason’s pocket watch with original presentation box, circa 1900. This pocket watch has a sterling silver case with cast and engraved ornaments, a push back and a mother-of-pearl dial. The dial features multicoloured Masonic symbols for the hours, an outer minute track with Arabic 20, 40 and 60, the motto Love Your Fellow Man Lend Him A Helping Hand in the lower half and blued sword hands. The bridge movement after Swiss patent 34864 with 15 jewels, a lever escapement, three adjustments and a monometallic screw balance.
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Diameter: 54 x 52 mm
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Weight: 56 g
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Signed: Schwab & Brandt – Paul Ditisheim Solvil
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Schwab-Loeillet was located at 22 Rue du Mont-Blanc in Geneva and listed until the late 1920s. It was first mentioned in 1887 as Loeillet & Schwab (LS). In 1888, the company’s name was changed to Schwab & Loeillet.

Théophile Schwab-Loeillet patented a Masonic watch design on February 3rd, 1925, under the name Tempor Watch Co (US patent No. 66542, English patent No. 713821, Swiss patent No. 25265, 34864 and 36889). In 1930, the company was listed as “Schwab & Brandt, formerly Schwab-Loeillet, the only makers of Masonic watches”. They modified the 1925 design, introducing triangular, high quality movements and making the watch much slimmer.
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Paul Ditisheim was born in 1868 in La Chaux-de-Fonds the historic birthplace of the watchmaking industry, into the small social circle of industrialist families that led the Swiss watch industry of the time. He was a member of the well known Ditisheim family, the founders and owners of Vulcain. A watch brand enjoyed by American presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson.

Paul did his apprenticeship at the watchmaking school in La Chaux-de-Fonds, before working in Ponts-de-Martel, Berlin, Paris and Rotherham near Coventry. He worked at his family’s company until 1892 when he opened his own workshop and founded the brands Solvil of which the timepieces were often signed Paul Ditisheim and Titus of which the watches were generally marked separately.

Ditisheim was one of the most famous makers of watches and chronometers, who did most of his research and his publications in the field of precision timekeeping. He also worked closely with Physics Nobel prize winner Charles-Edouard Guillaume and has been considered the father of modern chronometers. He presented his watches in many exhibitions. Paul Ditisheim died in 1945, leaving a legacy of technical excellence and design that has renewed the reputation of Swiss Made.
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Freemasonry or Masonry is a worldwide spread and regionally structured fellowship that strives for spiritual and moral elevation, mutual appreciation and helping each other. It is a society with rituals. Its members are called Freemasons or Masons. They address each other as brother or sister. Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients.

Signed: Schwab & Brandt – Paul Ditisheim Solvil