West End Watches Co. DayDate

"The model for the exit of the British Army"

1970

The West End Watch Company was founded in 1886 by Arnold Amstutz and Constant Droz, who were owners of Alcide Droz & Sons at the time. The company was located in Saint-Imier (Canton of Bern).

Arnold Charpié, at that time working as a representative for Alcide Droz & Sons in Bombay, takes his inspiration for the name from the West End district of London.

In 1886, Amstutz and Droz began selling watches under the brand name West End Watch Company on the Indian market and developed the first waterproof pocket watch ever produced for this purpose: L' Impermeable. One of these pocket watches is now one of the exhibits of the Musée International d'Horlogerie in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

During World War I, the West End Watch Company equipped some of those British and Indian soldiers with West End watches who were sent from Bombay to the Persian Gulf and on to Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq).

In 1917, the West End Watch Company changed its name to Société des Montres West End SA and moved its headquarters to Geneva. In the same year, the company had the brand name Sowar protected. In 1934, Société des Montres West End SA was the first company to use the Incabloc shock protection.