Grail Watch Reference

A Reference Library for Watches from Grail Watch

  • Movement Database
  • Grail Watch Blog
  • The Watch Files Podcast
  • Reference Documents
  • About Grail Watch
  • Email
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Powered by Genesis

You are here: Home / Movements / Venus 150

Venus 150

Last Update: June 23, 2019

Brand:Vénus
Family:
Venus 150 Family
Height:5.70 mm
Jewels:17
Reserve:44 hours
Frequency:18,000 A/h
Winding:Hand winding
Diameter:29.00 mm (13 ligne)
  Complications:2-Button, 5-Column Chronograph, 7-Column Chronograph, Chronograph, Column Wheel Chronograph, Horizontal Clutch Chronograph, Monopusher Chronograph
Hands:30 Minute Chronograph Hand at 3:00, 45 Minute Chronograph Hand at 3:00, Central 60 Second Chronograph Hand, Central Hour Hand, Central Minute Hand, Small Seconds Hand at 9:00
Distinguishing Technical Characteristics
Hand-Winding
Clockwise Balance Cock
5-Column Chronograph
7-Column Chronograph
Balance
Balance at 1:30
Column Wheel
Column Wheel at 4:30
Production: 1938 – 1960
1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s
This early example has a 5-column monopusher design

Venus Cal. 150 is part of the Venus 150 family of movements. It is a hand-winding column wheel chronograph movement. It is the base movement in the family. Cal. 151 is similar but without the beveled edge of Cal. 150. The dial features a 3-9 subdial arrangement.

Cal. 150 was introduced around 1938, updated in 1949, and retired before 1960. The earliest examples had a 5-column wheel and monopusher design. The redesign, which is more commonly seen, has a 7-column wheel and two pushers. Both use a traditional horizontal clutch to engage the chronograph function.

The movement is frequently seen in watches from Breitling, Gallet, Wittnauer, Fortis, Juvenia, and many other brands.

No Hour CounterHour Counter
StandardVenus 150
Venus 151
Venus 152
DateVenus 186
Date, Moon PhaseVenus 187
Day, Date, MonthVenus 191

Vénus is said to have sold the tooling for Cal. 150 and 152 to the First Moscow Watch Factory in the late 1950s. This was shortly before Vénus moved from their original factory to the former Pierce factory, also in Moutier. The company was focused on producing the cam-switching Cal. 210 Family and saw no need to continue production of the pre-war column wheel design. First Moscow Watch Factory produced the movement under the Strela brand, calling it Cal. 3017. It remained in production for decades there. It is said that as many as 100,000 examples were produced before 1980. The same factory later purchased the tooling for the Vénus-based Valjoux 7733 when the Moutier factory was halting production of movements entirely.

More detail on the history of Vénus is available in the Grail Watch article, “The Rise of Vénus, Legendary Chronograph Maker“

Images are taken from official publications and are used here for commentary and educational purposes. Copyright is held by the original owner as noted.

Ranfft Pink Pages
External Link
External Link
External Link

Related Posts

Chronoswiss C.125

ETA 2894-2

ETA 2893-2

ETA 7754

B06

ETA 2894S2