Editor’s Note
This article from our Archives & Heritage series offers a nuanced historical perspective, challenging the simplified narrative of Swiss watchmaking’s origins. It highlights the often-overlooked contributions of Jewish communities, alongside the more widely recognized Huguenots, to the foundation of the industry.
By Dominique Fléchon, expert at the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, Geneva
The roots of the “Watch Valley” are not limited to Protestants, as popular imagery would have it. As much as the Huguenots, the Israelites – particularly those originating from Alsace – contributed to the emergence of the Swiss watchmaking industry. A historical reminder.
In Switzerland before 1866, Jews, subjected to strong discrimination, constituted a tiny part of the population. The Federal Constitution of 1848 granted freedom of movement and establishment across the entire Swiss territory to the entire Christian population, but not to Jews. It was only in 1866 that freedom of settlement and the full exercise of civil rights were granted to them. The new Federal Constitution of 1874 finally granted them freedom of conscience and worship. These latter provisions triggered the first waves of immigration.
Annexed to Germany in 1871, Alsatians of all faiths were then forced to opt for German nationality or to emigrate. Many Alsatian Jews, and later those from Eastern Europe, went to settle in the Neuchâtel and Bernese Jura, in Geneva, and in Avenches. In Hégenheim, a village located in the immediate suburbs of Basel and the seat of an Israelite community, lived some Jewish watchmakers from Basel, who were prohibited from residing in Switzerland. The other inhabitants were cattle, cloth, or watch merchants. Some of them would, through trade, gradually enter watch production, often with the aim of mechanizing it. The arrival of Jewish families in Switzerland, thanks to their international connections and commercial know-how, would galvanize watch sales. Among the families originating from Hégenheim are, among others, the names Bloch, Brunschweig, Dietisheim, Dreyfus, Franck, Gintzburger, Grumbach, Lévy, Nordmann, Picard, Schwob, and Weil.
Originating from Allschwil near Basel, the Diedesheim family emigrated to Hégenheim as early as 1694. Over time, their surname transformed into Didisheim, Diedisheim, Ditisheim, Dietisheim, and Didesheim.
In 1850, brothers Marc and Emmanuel Didisheim founded a watchmaking office in Saint-Imier, whose name M & E Didisheim was registered in 1884. Henry-Albert, Edgar, and Hyppolite, sons of Marc, registered the brand Marvin in 1893, then internationalized it after establishing themselves in La Chaux-de-Fonds. They exported wristwatches to the United States from 1893 and developed the business with a constant concern for mechanization pursued by the third generation. In 1905, the company’s trade name became Henri-Albert Didisheim, Marvin factory.
On the family side, Marc and Emmanuel had a brother named Jacques Didisheim. The latter opened a watch manufacturing workshop in Saint-Imier in 1860 under the name Fabrique Juvenia Didisheim-Goldschmidt and Cie, an enterprise transferred to La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1882. Furthermore, the three sons of Marc Didisheim married the three daughters of Maurice Ditisheim. The latter’s uncle, Gaspard, was with his brother Maurice co-founder of Ditisheim & Cie Fabrique Vulcain and father of Paul Bernard Ditisheim, himself founder of Solvil in La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Maurice Ditisheim left Hégenheim in 1858 and settled in La Chaux-de-Fonds as a watch broker under the trade name Manufacture Maurice Ditisheim. At the Universal Exposition in Paris in 1889, the company was honored with a Bronze Medal for the “Vallée de l’Arve,” a grand complication piece. In 1894, watches were produced under the Vulcain brand, which would enter legend in 1947 with the Caliber 120 Cricket, under development since 1942.
