Glycine
The beginning - The History of a passion - Eugène Meylan
Since its founding by Eugene Meylan in 1914, Glycine has been producing at its factory in Bienne, Switzerland. Meylan was an uncompromising watch engineer who strove for perfection and nothing less. He had a profound understanding of both the market demands and the possibilities offered by the technological advances of the time. Very soon, he succeeded in producing extremely accurate, small movements for ladies watches, enabling Glycine to put on the market the finest miniature movements, clad in precious gold and platinum cases, often studded with diamonds. Glycine became a supplier to the wealthy people who valued highly these works of fine craftsmanship. However, Meylan did not stop there. Around 1931, he presented to the world market a well-functioning self-winding watch, entirely of his own invention, a sensational performance that, for lack of capital, could not be exploited commercially. Some of these Glycine Eugène Meylan SA self-winding watches can still be found in the collector's market. The year 1934 saw the launch of a chronometer range, a line of watches passing the exacting tests of the Official Swiss Quality Control. The depression years of the 30' and the approaching world war took a heavy toll on the company as Switzerland was cut off nearly all its traditional export markets. Yet Glycine survived and even managed to be one of only 29 exhibitors at the Basel Fair in 1938, an annual event the firm has not missed since.
After WW II
In 1945, with the war over and access to world markets again possible, the industry took a deep breath. Immediately, Glycine geared up production and rapidly presented a complete range of automatic watches, making use of the most advanced technologies. 1952 saw the birth of the famous Vacuum chronometers, watches known for their famous resistance to water and shocks, designed for longterm-use under hostile conditions. In 1953, The Airman line was presented to the world market and immediately received an enthusiastic welcome. Now, in addition to regular local time, world time was available at a glance. The steadily growing class of jet-setters and frequent travellers readily took to the convenience of having two time zones on their wrist. The Airman line has never been absent from the Glycine selection, and is, today more than ever, the spearhead of the range.
The Crisis
In the 70', the Swiss watch industry - late in introducing quartz movements - was hit by the proliferation of quartz watches from the Far East. The technological revolution brought about by the quartz movement, together with the world- wide recession and a massive increase in value of r the Swiss franc, pushed many manufacturers to the brink of disaster. The products that had earned Glycine such an excellent reputation, namely high-quality mechanical watches and above all automatic watches, were suddenly no longer in general demand. Customers everywhere were buying Japanese quartz watches or American digital LED watches. The lucrative business with highly- regarded automatic watches was over, and these were now being sold off at give-away prices. The market went through a turnaround in its value, a tendency which further intensified as the price for the initially exorbitantly expensive quartz watches consistently dropped to a level where it finally drove even the cheap pin-pallet mechanical movements out of the market. Many market shares were lost, the watch industry entered into a crisis that lasted six years and cost roughly 60,000 jobs. Glycine too suffered heavily but managed to survive. In 1984, soldering on with a reduced staff, Glycine was sold to Hans Brechbühler, who had been working for years with Glycine in a loose cooperation based on the joint development and exchange of watch models.
The comeback
Following the purchase of Glycine in 1984, Brechbühler, who had been a specialist in private label business, switched over to the brand watch business, an entirely new experience for him. progressively, new products were developed that enabled Glycine to work successfully in countries such as Scandinavia, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. An international network of agencies sprang to life again. Extremely resistant watches, such as the Tjak and Heavy Duty models, were launched and added to the prestige of the brand. The marked accepted with pleasure the Glodshield line, featuring a standard of goldplating much higher than anything the competitors offered. The sophisticated super-thin Amaranth watches received an enthusiastic welcome in Italy and in the USA. The new strategies began to pay off in the early 90' when Brechbühler's daughter Katherina, born in 1962, joined the company and successfully implemented her own brand concept, resulting in mechanical products being increasingly integrated into the company's collections. The strategy proved effective in positioning Glycine as a specialist, with a long tradition in the field of mechanical watches. After an initial success in Germany, the first to really accept the mechanical watches on a large scale, the new range of Glycine products spread to other countries.
The giant take over
The markets were now ready for watches of real value, and Glycine made the most of this opportunity. In quick succession, a rich assortment of mechanical watches with steadily growing diameters was presented to the market from the 37 mm Combat to the 42 mm Observer, the 44 and 46 mm Incursore, the 48 mm KMU and, to top it off, the 52 mm F 104, one of the biggest wrist watches ever produced. Chronographs with the famous Valjoux 7750 and 7751 movements were added, such as the classic 46 mm Stratoforte, the giant Grand Carre 3810 and the elegant Altus, inspired by a successful Glycine model of the 50'. All these oversize watches gave the company the status of a daring innovator that did not hesitate to push the size of its watches beyond every dimension known so far.
Airman forever
Already in 1953, Glycine started production of its first Airman model, a watch that has become legendary. The design and features of this watch had been worked out in close cooperation with pilot of civial and military aviation. Undoubtedly this line gave Glycine the status of a pioneer in the field of world time watches. Over the years Airman models have never been absent from the Glycine range, even during the period when quartz movements dominated the world market. In reply to market demand, two Airman models with ETA quartz movements were launched, gaining particular success in Japan and USA, where demand for real world time watches had not faded. The year 1998 brought the long-awaited rebirth of this leader, with model ref. 3764, Airman 2000. By using an exquisite ETA automatic 2893-2 movement, Glycine offered a three time-zone time-keeper, unique in the field of 24-hour watches. The following year, the Airman line was enlarged by a jumbo 46 mm watch, featuring a special locking system on the revolving top ring. At Basel Fair 2002, a genuine world novelty was offered to the public under the name of Airman 7, a watch featuring three independent automatic movements, showing the time simultaneously in four different time zones on three independent dials. The cases measures a stunning 53 mm in diameter yet fits well on an average wrist. Its sapphire glass back allows for a fascinating view of three finely embellished self-winding movements. Responding to a general demand from many markets, a replica of the first original Airman of the 50' was launched under the label Airman 8, ref. 3831 and immediately enjoyed great popularity. The youngest member of the Airman family, the Airman chronograph, combines all the features of a chronograph with those of a world time watch. This complete timekeeper stands for innovation, technology and tradition - the three central pillars supporting the company's 90-year history.
Link
- Our Glycine page