Heuer, Edouard

Edouard Heuer was a Swiss watchmaker and founder of the watch company Heuer.

He was was born 1840 as son of a shoemaker in Brügg, Canton of Bern.

1860, he founded the watch manufacture Heuer in Saint-Imier in the Swiss Jura. 1864, he moved with the company to Biel. Already 1876, he founded a branch in London.

Edouard Heuer ventured as the first watchmaker to the series production of chronographs. His approach was to manufacture chronographs technically easier and therefore cheaper, so he turned his attention primarily to the simplification of the usual clutch for the chronograph mechanism. This consisted of several components, and their production, finishing and assembly constitute a significant cost factor. He developed the so called oscillating pinion, which is an effective module a movable shaft mounted with two sprockets. The one pinion is in constant engagement with the second wheel of the watch movement, while the opposite after pressing the start pusher after a short swing grips into the chronograph center wheel. By this the connection is established, and the chronograph is running. By pressing another button the oscillating pinion is again moved away from the center wheel, and the Chronograph stops. For this development, the authority of the Paris 'Bureau for Industrial Property' issued a patent on May 3, 1887. This principle finds application to the present day, for example, in the known and most widely used self-winding chronograph movement Valjoux 7750.

From 1880 Edouard Heuer as first watch maker introduced the series production of chronographs.

Edouard Heuer died on April 30, 1892.

On January 1, 1964 the watch manufacture Heuer and the Leonidas Watch Factory, Saint-Imier merged to Heuer-Leonidas. In 1985, the merger was done with the Techniques d'Avant Garde TAG Group and so the name was changed to TAG Heuer, which is one of the best known watch brands of today.

• TAG Heuer - Die Beherrschung der Zeit; Author Gisbert L. Brunner; ISBN 2908228831