Breitling

Exploring Hahn Landeron Chronograph Movements

Last Update: April 13, 2022

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While working on my coverage of the Saint-Imier watchmaking industry, which leans heavily on chronographs, a few other names occupied my thoughts: Many people are aware of the classic Valjoux movements, and Universal, Lemania, and Venus are also respected. But there is much less coverage of Landeron, the factory of Charles Hahn that produced many high-end column wheel movements before introducing the world to cam switching. For this reason, I have recently added most of the classic Landeron chronograph movements to the Grail Watch Reference database.

Landeron’s revolutionary cam switching chronographs were world-beating in the 1950s

Charles Hahn’s Factory in Le Landeron

This 1923 advertisement shows the Hahn factory in Le Landeron

Le Landeron is a small village on the western corner of Lake Bienne in the Canton of Neuchâtel. It is best known for its lovely medieval town center, surrounded by fields and vineyards. But Le Landeron was also home to industry, including the famous watch movement factory established by Charles Alfred and Aimé Auguste Hahn in 1873. This was located on the road to Neuveville along the railroad tracks a short distance from the historic town.

Hahn Frères et Cie. produced watches and watch movements in Le Landeron in the 1880s, winning medals and building a reputation for finely finished products. Their specialty was small movements and watches for women, many of which used cylinder escapements, but they also produced chronographs and 8-day clocks.

The former Hahn Ebauches factory
*Image: Jelosil*

As was typical at the time, the factory is exaggerated a bit in contemporary engravings, as is immediately obvious when viewing the factory today. The building remains in use by Jelosil, a manufacturer of quartz and UV lighting. But it thrived for decades, producing millions of watch movements.

This interesting 1925 advertisement shows the development of many ebauches by Charles Hahn in Landeron

This 1930 ad shows Hahn managing the Landeron branch of FHF, part of Ebauches SA

Charles Hahn’s factory merged with a similar ebauche factory in nearby Fontainemelon in 1925 and became a founding member of Ebauches SA the following year. The output of the factory shifted at this point to focus on chronographs, which were developed by Charles Hahn in association with Marcel Dèpraz in the Vallée de Joux. It was said that Hahn purchased the oscillating pinion patent of “Anatole Breitling” that year, but there are no contemporary references to this person. Regardless, Hahn did produce column wheel chronograph movements at this time, and quickly became the primary supplier for Breitling, which was dominating the market for chronograph movements, as well as military and aviation.

Willy Breitling endorses Hahn’s new inexpensive chronograph movement in this 1936 letter to Trade Bulletin

But column wheel chronographs were expensive and difficult to produce, and military users in particular demanded something cheaper. In the 1930s, Charles Hahn and Marcel Dèpraz co-developed a novel new technique that used simple stamped plates to start, stop, and reset the hands of a chronograph movement. Their cam-switching technique would revolutionize the chronograph market, dramatically dropping the price of the technology and leading to a wave of new movements. This new movement was enthusiastically endorsed by Willy Breitling and others, since it could bring chronograph watches to the mass market. After the patent was issued in 1939, over 3.5 million movements in the Landeron Cal. 48 family would be produced and sold by 1970. Venus soon followed Landeron with their own cam-switching chronograph movement, and this would be the basis for the famous Valjoux 7750 automatic chronograph in the 1970s.

The Landeron factory was closed abruptly in 1983

Landeron would innovate once again in the 1960s, introducing the first Swiss electric movement. Cal. 4750 used an electro-mechanical balance wheel powered by a battery, answering competitors from France, the United States, and Germany. This made Landeron a center of production for electronic movements in the 1970s as part of Ebauches Electronics, Ltd. but declining demand lead to the abrupt closure of the Landeron factory in 1983.

Landeron Chronograph Families

Charles Hahn introduced a number of widely-used chronograph movements between the 1930s and 1970s, but a few stand out:

Landeron Cal. 39 Column Wheel Movements – The 14.5 ligne Cal. 39 and Cal. 42 (with hour recorder) were widely-used modern movements in the pre-war period. Although not as fine as the famous Valjoux 23 and 72, Landeron’s use of the Breitling oscillating pinion patent made their movements among the most user friendly. After World War II, Landeron even introduced a cam-switching chronograph movement based on this design!
Landeron Cal. 48 Cam Switching Movements – Charles Hahn and Marcel Dèpraz patented a cam-switching chronograph mechanism in 1939, with the pioneering Cal. 47 becoming the world-beating Cal. 48 in the 1940s. In all, over 3.5 million examples of this line were produced through 1970, including many with date, full calendar, and moon phase complications. There was even a column wheel version! Variants of Cal. 48 powered many classic chronograph watches, notably the Heuer Carrera Date, which used Cal. 189.
Landeron Cal. 71 Cam Switching Movements – Although not as well remembered as the Cal. 48 line, Landeron also produced a larger 14 ligne cam switching chronograph. Cal. 71 is quite different from its predecessor but used a similar chronograph mechanism that also evolved over time. These are almost unknown today.

Landeron’s Cal. 32 is one of the strangest movements in the database!

Before these high-volume lines were produced, Landeron also produced some smaller-volume movement families:

Cal. 15 and Cal. 16 are monopusher chronograph movements produced in the 1930s
Cal. 2, Cal. 3, and Cal. 9 appear to be related as well
Cal. 10, Cal. 11, and Cal. 13 also share obvious similarities and all are 13 ligne column wheel movements
Cal. 32 is the strangest of all Landeron movements, with no obvious relation to any other movement produced by the factory and the (unique?) placement of the column wheel above the stem

I have attempted to document all of these movements here in the Grail Watch Reference database. They are searchable by complication and function as well as using visual indications and specifications. This is added to my existing collection of historic movements from Universal, Valjoux, Venus, and more!

The Grail Watch Perspective: Discovering Landeron

I knew very little about Landeron prior to this research, and it has been an enjoyable process of discovery. The Landeron Cal. 48 family was truly groundbreaking, enabling the factory to thrive even as competing chronograph makers went bust in the “Chronograph Crash” of the 1950s, and the company powered many of the “quiet classics” of that period. Although cam-switching mechanisms are looked down upon today, they were an essential development to allow mechanical watchmaking to continue.

Search for Landeron movements

I welcome corrections, updates, and additions to the database. Contact me using the links provided at left!

A Survey of the Kenissi Movements for Tudor, Chanel, Breitling, and Norqain

Last Update: November 16, 2020

After a number of recent wins at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève, including two last year and another this year, I felt it was time to get a better understanding of the movements produced by Kenissi for Tudor, Chanel, Breitling, and Norqain. Kenissi, a joint venture between Tudor (Rolex), Chanel, and Breitling, is becoming one of the most successful upscale movement makers, and their products are top notch. As of 2020, Kenissi produces two movement families (the robust MT56 and compact MT54) and Tudor shares one with Breitling (the MT5813 chronograph), and these are used in many luxury watches ranging from the affordable Norqain to expensive Chanel J12 jewelry pieces.

Read on for more context, or hop over to look at the complete Tudor MT54 family and Tudor MT56 family pages!

Tudor MT56 Family Overview

Tudor traditionally used movements from major manufacturers, chiefly ETA in modern times, as a differentiator from parent company Rolex. Beginning in 2015, the company began producing a line of “Manufacture Tudor” movements for certain models, beginning with Cal. MT5621. These are based on Rolex technology, and include that company’s silicon hairspring technology, full balance bridge and free-sprung Microstella balance wheel.

In 2016, Tudor founded a new movement producer in Geneva known as Kenissi managed by Eric Yvon Pirson (head of Tudor), Jean-Paul Girardin (formerly of Breitling), and Philippe Jacques Dalloz. Two years later, the company constructed a new factory in Le Locle on land owned by Rolex. Chanel invested in Kenissi in 2019, taking a 20% stake in the company. As of 2020, Kenissi produces movements for Tudor, Chanel, Breitling, and Norqain.

	31.8 mm	33.8 mm
No Date	MT5602	MT5601
Date	MT5612 Breitling B20
Power Reserve, Date		MT5621
Big Date		MT5641
GMT Hand	MT5652 Norqain NN20/2

Note that Tudor also produces a smaller movement, Cal. MT5402. Although it shares many characteristics with this family of movements, it is different in many details and is considered unrelated.

Introducing Tudor Cal. MT54 and MT56

There has been some confusion about Tudor’s MT54 and MT56 families, since the movements share many characteristics and have a similar appearance and names. For instance, they share many technical details including a full balance bridge, and Tudor’s versions use a free-sprung balance with a silicon hairspring. But the two are very different in execution, and this is immediately obvious when comparing them face to face.

A comparison of the 26.0 mm MT5402 and 31.8 mm MT5612, to scale. Note the many visible differences in design and construction, as well as the dramatic size difference.

For one thing, Cal. MT5402 is much smaller at just 26 mm diameter, which pushes the components to the edge of the main plate. It also uses a different central rotor mount, with seven ball bearings visible around a single slotted screw. The time-only version uses 27 jewels, while Chanel’s 12.1 with date has 28. This movement is also used by Norqain but not (yet) by Breitling.

In contrast, Cal. MT5602 and similar movements are much larger, at 31.8 or 33.8 mm diameter. The winding bridge is separate from the rest of the top plate, and the balance is larger in diameter. The rotor is also mounted differently, with four notches in the mounting plate. In terms of jewel count, the time-only versions have 25, date adds one, and the complicated movements have 26, 28, or 32. Norqain and Breitling also use this movement, but Chanel does not.

Tudor MT54 Family Overview

Tudor’s MT54 family appeared in 2018 with the introduction of Tudor’s compact Cal. MT5402. Measuring just 26 mm in diameter (11 ligne), which movement was used in the smaller Black Bay Fifty-Eight 39 mm watch models. Once production was underway at the new joint venture manufacture in Le Locle, Kinessi, specialized versions were created for Chanel and Norqain, Cal. 12.1 and NN20/1, respectively.

All three movements share the same architecture but differ dramatically in execution. The most obvious difference is the use of brand-specific winding rotors, with Chanel’s offset circle motif particularly striking. The Chanel Cal. 12.1 is also available with a date complication (and an extra jewel) though the name remains the same. Chanel’s movement also appears to be a bit reduced in diameter compared to the Tudor movement, though not by more than a few tenths of a millimeter.

A Celebrated Movement Family

Chanel’s iconic J12 now uses Cal. 12.1, a Kenissi-produced automatic movement based on the Tudor MT54

Considering the short production tenure for these movements, they are quite celebrated. I count 5 awards at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève for Tudor/Kenissi movements:

2015 Sports Watch Prize: Tudor Pelagos, Cal. MT5612
2016 Petite Aiguille Prize: Tudor Heritage Black Bay Bronze, Cal. MT5601
2019 Challenge Watch Prize: Tudor Black Bay P01, Cal. MT5612
2019 Ladies Watch Prize: Chanel J12, Cal. 12.1
2020 Challenge Watch Prize: Tudor Black Bay Fifty-Eight, Cal. MT5402

Note that the 2020 Petite Aiguille-winning Breitling Superocean Heritage ’57 Limited Edition II uses their Cal. 10, which is their version of the ETA 2892-A2, and the Diver’s Watch-winning Breitling Superocean Automatic 48 Boutique Edition uses their Cal. 17, which is an ETA 2824-2. Both of these might soon migrate to the Breitling Cal. 20, another Kenissi movement, though perhaps it is slightly too thick or expensive for those watches. Tudor also won the Petite Aiguille in 2017 for the Heritage Black Bay Chrono, which uses an unrelated movement also shared with Breitling, Cal. MT5813.

Research Notes

My research into this family of movements was similar to many searches of recent releases. Although they are widely written about, there is much confusion about the details. Just like the Zenith Elite family, the Tudor MT54 and MT56 are often confused or listed with incorrect specifications. And though Tudor has released images and details of many movements, their documentation is far from complete. So we still don’t know everything we would like about them.

It is particularly interesting to note how often the MT54 is confused for the MT56 online. This happens in many forum posts, hardly a reliable source of information, but also in written articles as well. I even spotted an example of a major watch magazine using an image of an MT56 movement to illustrate an article about the unrelated MT5813 chronograph movement!

Nowhere is this more apparent than in coverage of the OEM movements produced for Breitling, Chanel, and Norqain. All three have been widely called derivatives of the MT56 series, but this is simply not true. Chanel does not use the large MT56 at all, basing their celebrated Cal. 12.1 on the MT54. Norqain has one of each, though they use deceptively-similar names: Cal. NN20/1 and NN20/2. And Breitling uses only the larger (and more expensive) movement as their Cal. B20. Once one is familiar with the two families, all the incorrect coverage becomes quite obvious.

I am also working to document Breitling’s B01 chronograph movement family, and will be publishing these movement pages over the next week. It’s less well-documented than the Tudor, and Breitling hasn’t shared many good movement images. But I think I’ve gotten on top of this large and complicated group!