Part Two<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n For some background, these ads were pulled directly from vintage Esquire magazines that a friend found at a local thrift store. The magazines themselves date from 1941 and 1942.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With roots dating back<\/a> to 1791, Girard perregaux is one of the oldest watchmakers that still exists. The Girard-Perregaux company itself was founded in 1856, when Constant Girard married<\/a> Marie Perregaux. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The company still maintains its status as a manufacture today, and has recently become independent as well. Kering – the luxury group that also owns Gucci – decided to sell<\/a> 100% of its stake in both Gerard Perregaux and Ulysses Nardin to current management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The above ads are spaced roughly one year apart. We can see the shift in marketing mentality between the two ads clearly. The first ad (left) focuses on the beauty and precision of its watches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The 1942 ad to the right is selling watches “just in time for Christmas”, but you can also see hints in the description that the company is marketing to soldiers. Take a look at the Sea Hawk model for instance, it’s “the watch for accurate and active service”. It’s not beautiful or fine – it’s waterproof and cushioned against shock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Helbros Advertisement below is directly marketing to active servicemen and women, make no mistake. Check out the “Time counts – Buy U.S. War Bonds – NOW!” at the bottom.<\/p>\n\n\n Helbros was an American company founded in the early 1900s. It was a major company in the US during its peak, and William Helbein (one of the founders) was actually the first <\/a>chair of the American Watch Assemblers Association. He was also a Director of the American Watch Association. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After Helbein’s death in 1960, the company struggled. The “Helbros” trademark was<\/a> apparently assigned to another iconic American watchmaker in 1968, The Elgin National Watch Company. It was then reassigned back to \u201cHelbros Watches Inc\u201d in 1974. The last registration linked to “Helbros Watches” was in 1991, and cancelled by 1998. Jules Jurgensen registered a new trademark in the 2000s, but it appears that the original company was long gone by then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The last advertisement in this post comes from Mido. Founded<\/a> in 1918, today Mido is owned by the Swatch Group. The below ad comes from 1942, shortly after the United States entered WW2. It illustrates all the “modern” features of Mido watches at that time: waterproof, shockproof, and non-magnetic. According to Mido, the watch practically thinks for itself because it winds itself!<\/p>\n\n\n “No watch is more modern” is what Mido says in the ad. Seems a little over-the-top maybe, but back in 1942, automatic wristwatches were still relatively new. Mido launched the MULTIFORT line in 1934 (roughly 8 years before the release of the above ad). It was “one of the first antimagnetic watches with a self-winding movement and built-in water- and shock-resistance” according to<\/a> the company. It also launched watches with unbreakable mainsprings – the first company to do so in the marketplace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mido first started using its robot mascot in 1939, so he was only about three years old in the above ad. “Robi” was Mido’s symbol of progress and robustness, and the firm focused on being a modern watchmaker at the time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It was also the first manufacturer to introduce a central-read chronograph (the stopwatch function had all its hands arranged at the center). That was in 1945. By 1954, Mido released its POWERWIND winding system, arguably the world’s most efficient winding mechanism at that time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the most interesting thing I learned writing this series was related to Mido. I knew of the brand, but never really knew much about the brand’s history before. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To put things in perspective: Mido accomplished a lot of its innovations before Omega introduced the Speedmaster and Seamaster 300 in 1957. The very first sketch<\/a> for IWC\u2019s very first wristwatch wasn’t patented until June of 1946. IWC and Omega were both part of the “Dirty Dozen<\/a>” during WW2, but provided hand-wound watches to the Allied Forces – not self-winding ones. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mido had already been producing durable automatic watches for almost a decade – give or take. It’s a drastic change today, since Mido utilizes mostly ETA movements provided by its conglomerate parent company. Back in the day, Mido was an exceptionally modern watchmaker, and the advertisement from 1942 captures that spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Know more about Girard Perregaux, Helbros, and Mido and want to add to the discussion? Please post a comment below!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is the third and final article of this series, and following-up on the last post, which focused on Omega, Croton, Forstner, and Movado. Part one centered around Rolex, Gruen,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"WB4WB4WP_MODE":"","WB4WP_PAGE_SCRIPTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_STYLES":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FONTS":"","WB4WP_PAGE_HEADER":"","WB4WP_PAGE_FOOTER":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[103],"tags":[207,208,153,58,201],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/E5E519B2-D18F-4B21-9CE3-97B784B31633.jpg?fit=924%2C924&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdlD1b-Sx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3381"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3381"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4321,"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3381\/revisions\/4321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Girard Perregaux Watch Ads From 1941 and 1942<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"1942](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/1942-Girard-Perregaux-advertisement-scaled.jpg?resize=640%2C1701&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"1941](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/1941-Girard-Perregaux-ad-scaled.jpg?resize=640%2C1630&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\nHelbros Watch Ad: Time Counts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"1942](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/1942-Helbros-Ad.jpg?resize=367%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nMido<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"1942](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lugsandlume.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/1942-Mido-Advertisement.jpg?resize=353%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nWrapping Things Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n