Horological Meandering

You owe me a beer

 

Did some digging as this has intrigued me as well.  Getting there slowly.

doc.rero.ch ,25,18,19360219.pdf

News letter of la Federation Horlogere Suisse, 19 Februrary 1936

My rough translation (parts of it are a pig to translate )

It's talking about "fab. suisse" as a correctif, which suggests it's being placed there to correct something - perhaps there were already French laws insisting that things be in French, so it was correcting the "Swiss Made".  Perhaps one of our French legal people can help out here.  I wonder if it's also to do with the fact that some Swiss manufacturers had factories in France (eg Zenith) and it was to do with Swiss watches being assembled in France and labelled "Fabrique en France".  This is pure guesswork, so don't quote me.

I found some other journals of the time period that all have articles or comments about trade agreements/disagreements between Switzerland and France, so it sounds like an on-going saga.  I got back as far as 1920 without finding specific references to "Fab. Suisse", but still plenty of stuff on trade agreements.  Don't forget that France had its own large clock and watch industry within spitting distance of Switzerland.

I'll dig some more when I have time.

nick

Douanes
Marque « Fab. suisse ».
Les exportateurs sont rendus attentifs aux décisions qui ont été prises par l'Administration des douanes françaises, concernant l'apposition du correctif d'indication d'origine pour les produits horlogers. Le correctif « fab. suisse » doit être apposé, toutes les fois que la place existe, aussi près que possible de la marque elle-même, à côté ou immédiatement au-dessus ou au-dessous. Seules les petites pièces, où un manque de place empêche d'apposer le correctif conformément aux décisions ci-dessus, pourront le porter au-dessous de 6 heures. En vue d'éviter des difficultés et voir des cous refoulés, les exportateurs voudront bien se conformer aux indications ci-dessus.

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