ZRC Watches – a short introduction

By: Albin Johansson

In Collaboration with ZRC Watches and their retailer in Sweden; Showroom Wenngarn will Eqotime during the summer to highlight ZRC as a manufacturer and present their model range. .

It is nowadays a common occurrence that brands which were previously active on the watch market and then shut down get a revival under new management. ZRC is a good example of this. The manufacturer ZRC has a solid history within diving where their signature model Grands Fonds 300 became the official diving watch for the French navy at the beginning of the 60s. Eqotime’s Albin Johansson tells here about the manufacturer ZRC’s history.

The founding

For the absolute start of the company and the start of the development curve where ZRC became what it is today we need to go back to Geneva 1904. That was the year when Edmond Zuccolo and Joseph Rochet named the company from their initials and began to manufacture pocket watches.

The company developed and worked for a long time as a supplier of parts for wristwatches. Among other things the manufacture of waterproof cases was part of the business. It was also this niche that made a watchmaker who worked for the French navy notice the manufacturer. The navy was in need of functional diving watches to a certain specification and it is precisely this specification that gives the watches their unique appearance. ZRC started up the project in 1958 and in 1964 the French navy selected ZRC Grands Fonds as its official working watch. 

The French navy’s wristwatch

What ZRC had delivered was a diving watch unlike anything else and also not available to anyone other than the French navy. Grands Fonds then came with a number of patents, among them the extension of the link and the securing of the clasp so that the watch would sit safely on the outside of the diving suit. All of it constructed to take rougher treatment without falling off. The crown was, unlike other diving watches, placed at 6 o’clock. It was also fitted with a special crown guard that both protects the crown and makes it difficult to fasten the watch on the arm when the crown is unscrewed. In this way the diver was hopefully prevented from going down into the water without having screwed the crown in. A smart and unique way to avoid moisture getting in that way. The movement was an ETA-2472 and the watch was waterproof to 300 metres depth. 

A new era

ZRC delivered wristwatches at a steady pace up until the 80s. But in 1985 one of the key people chose to leave the company and the manufacture of diving watches ceased. That this happened was in the very highest degree understandable since it was the watchmaker behind the design of the Grands Fonds who left the business. After this ZRC chose another path within the watch world and instead began to focus on manufacturing straps for watches. And today ZRC is one of the biggest players in the industry within strap manufacturing in particular.

It took many years after the last diving watch had been delivered before the thread of ZRC’s watch manufacturing would be picked up again. Georges Brunet, son of the founder Joseph Brunet’s grandchild, chose in 1997 to step into the old family company. And from 2004 he ran the company together with his brother Charles. The story that then played out started with a friend of the family asking about the background to the inherited Grands Fonds that Georges had on his arm. This inspired Georges to honour the company’s history. For ZRC’s 111th anniversary they produced 300 newly made Grands Fonds. All based on the heirloom watch from the 60s.

The new model was updated in several different ways, but kept the design which gives it the same unique appearance as the original model. The anniversary model was intended as a one-off event since ZRC did not really plan to become a manufacturer of wristwatches again. But when all 300 watches that had been made quickly sold out they chose to start up production again.

Offer from ZRC and Showroom Wenngarn

In the next part Eqotime in collaboration with ZRC Watches and their Swedish retailer Showrom Wenngarn will go through the product line for 2020. Right now ZRC also has a worldwide VAT-off campaign that gives 20% discount on their range of diving watches. You find more info about this here!