Vintage Bucherer Ruby Diamond and Gold Watch, Circa 1955

A vintage Bucherer ruby, diamond and gold watch, with a circular, gold coloured, satin finish dial, signed Bucherer, with minute markers and red painted hands, in a two part case, with a bevelled crystal, the numbers are indicated by baguette-cut rubies, set in the case surrounding the dial, each shoulder is set with four, eight-cut diamonds, above and below the dial, in white gold grain settings, onto oval links attaching a double snake chain bracelet, with a folding snap clasp, with a gold winding crown, mounted in 18ct yellow gold. The back of case is numbered 16034, the inside of the case has a Swiss, Helvetia head, with 18K and 0.750 fineness marks and 202 beneath, with service marks, the clasp bears the fineness mark 0.750 and has a three leaf clover maker’s mark, circa 1955.

Carl-Friedrich Bucherer, a merchant and entrepreneur and his wife, Luise, opened their first specialist watch and jewellery store, in Lucerne, in 1888. Their sons, Ernst and Carl Eduard Bucherer, joined the family business at the beginning of the 1920s. Ernst Bucherer entered into a fruitful partnership with Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of Rolex, in 1924, adding the watch brand, which at the time was barely established, to the Bucherer range. Today, Rolex remains Bucherer’s most important partner. Despite the crises of the 1930s and the Second World War, the business opened branches in further Swiss towns and tourist destinations. In 1977, management was taken over by the third generation of the founding family, under Jörg G. Bucherer. The business expanded into Austria in the 1980s and then into Germany, 10 years later. In Switzerland, Bucherer acquired the Kurz Group in 1989 and in 2001, Swiss Lion AG. The separate company Carl F. Bucherer was also founded in 2001, continuing the Bucherer family’s watchmaking tradition that stretches back to 1919. In 2013, Bucherer celebrated its 125th anniversary and opened the world’s largest watch and jewellery store in Paris. In 2016, they opened in Copenhagen, added four more boutiques in London and acquired The Watch Gallery in 2017. In January 2018, Bucherer took over the American luxury watch retailer Tourneau, in the US. Today, Bucherer is the largest watch and jewellery retailer in Europe.

With thanks to the Bucherer website.