TIME PIECES

 Hello ladies and gents this is the Viking telling you that today we are talking about 

A British Brand To Know: Vertex Watches

A century after his great-grandfather established Vertex Watches, Don Cochrane breathed new life into an old name. He spoke to SLMan about Vertex’s remarkable history, its handsome new launch and exactly why military watches have such an enduring appeal…

Let’s go back to the beginning of Vertex, Don. It all started with your great-grandfather, didn’t it?

My great-grandfather Claude Lyons was an engineer with a particular fascination for mechanical movements. In 1902, he set up the Dreadnought Watch Company. In 1915 he moved production of movements to Switzerland and named the new company Vertex.

Then the company was involved in the war effort. Tell us more…

World War 1 was really the first time watches were available in a number that allowed them to be used in planning of operations. Vertex and Dreadnaught supplied many office pocket watches and we’re lucky to have a few examples of those pieces still with us today. In World War 2 things stepped up a pace. Vertex supplied many watches in many different forms and even supplied the clocks for the Hurricane fighter plane.

 

And who were the Dirty Dozen?

In 1943 the War Office decided to standardise military wristwatches. The standard became known as the WWW (‘waterproof wristlet watch’). The tender was put out and 12 companies answered the call: Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor and Vertex. I'm proud to say Vertex was the only British member of this ‘Dirty Dozen’.

 

But Vertex closed in the 70s?

It was mainly thanks to a Japanese invention: the quartz watch. The quartz movements eviscerated a large part of the watch industry in a very short period of time. To give you some idea: in 1969 there were more than 1,500 watchmakers in Switzerland; by 1974 there were just 600. The lease for Vertex’s building in Hatton Garden had also come up and the family felt the struggle was too big to try and maintain, so Vertex closed its doors. 

Jump to 2015 and you restart the company. What had changed?

That year, my grandmother died. She was 99 and was one of those amazing people who never got tired, had time for everyone and was always an inspiration. I found myself sitting at work – I was in sales for a jet company – feeling terrible about her loss. Then I had a thought: wouldn’t it be great if I could honour her by bringing back the name of her father’s watch company? So Vertex really re-started as a cathartic exercise, but it was not long into my research that I really fell in love with those war stories and realised we had a real opportunity to create something fantastic with an authentic story.

And as always have a chilled day from the Viking