Atlas Watch Co, Swiss Made

The Atlas brand (Information courtesy of  David Boettcher)

The name Atlas had a long history with the Stauffer company. The factory in La Chaux-de-Fonds was called Atlas and in the nineteenth century lever watches produced there were called "The Atlas Watch" and the adverts in the Watchmaker, Jeweller and Silversmith from September 1886 reproduced above stated that this was a registered trade mark. The announcement or warning reproduced below states that "Atlas" was registered as a trademark in London in 1885.

For a period from 1892 after Charles Nicolet took over the company was renamed Nicolet Fils & Cie, although it appears to have continued to use the well known Stauffer, Son & Co. as a trading name.

Some time in the 1920s the brand name Atlas Watch Co. was revived, although the English branch of the company continued to be called Stauffer & Co. The picture here shows an Atlas brand from an Eterna movement with the bridge and finger shapes customised for Stauffer as described in the section below about Stauffer and Eterna. The three small triangles used by Stauffer are in the centre of the mark.

In 1927 La Fédération Horlogère Suisse reported results of watch trials at Le Locle and recorded that "Comp. des Montres Atlas, La Chaux-de-Fonds" had received one first class certificate endorsed "particularly good", and another ordinary first class certificate.

The announcement shown here appeared in La Fédération Horlogère Suisse in 1928, warning that the Atlas Watch Co. is the only company authorised to use the brand Atlas belonging to Stauffer Son & Co., filed in London in 1885, Switzerland in 1892, and registered internationally.