1970s Sicura Instalite Electric Jump Hour Blue Dial
Ref: N/A

Specification

Points of Mention

This watch is sold as “Watch Only” without its Sicura box and paperwork. The watch comes paired with a 20mm blue leather strap. The watch is from Circa. 1970s and is sold in worn, vintage condition. The watch comes with our 12-Months NON-Waterproof Warranty.

The Watch

Sicura was originally called Joh. Gobber, Horlogerie and was founded in 1939 by Théodore Sfaellos based in Granges, Switzerland. They changed the name to Sicura, Joh. Gobber in 1951 and finally in 1955 the company was registered as Montres Sicura SA. When Théodore passed away his son-in-law Ernest Schneider took the helm. In 1975 they had four assembly factories, one case factory and one jewel factory employing over 450 people. At that time they were selling more than one million watches per year. Embracing the quartz crisis in 1977 they produced a number of Sicura quartz run watches. Ernest Schneider in 1979 bought a floundering Breitling that had ceased production in 1978 and laid its worker off selling its assets to the highest bidder, Sinn bought completed watches and Ollech & Wajs bought the machinery and unassembled parts. Using his facilities he restarted production, he re-energised the brand with the launch of the Chronomat, Aerospace and Emergency watches. After years of keeping the two brands alive he finally in 1993 changed Montres Sicura AG to Breitling AG. Ernest Schneider passed away in 2015 but his legacy lives on with his son Theodore Schneider now heading Breitling.

Here we have a 1970s Sicura Instalite Electric Jump Hour with a 39mm tonneau-shaped chrome case, the curve of the case leads to a lug-to-lug length of 43.5mm and a case thickness of 13.5mm ensuring a comfortable fit on your wrist. Down the right side is a pusher for the “Instalite” and lower down the crown to adjust the time and wind the watch. Three holes above the dial hold the bulb that shines the light onto the rectangular blue dial. On the left-hand side is a large window with the hour, minutes and seconds discs, as the minutes pass 59 the hour disc jumps one hour. Text is printed in white highlighting the movements "17 Jewels” and the “Instalite” Electric functionality. On the reverse, a screwed-down case back with two battery covers for the Instalite, inside a 17 Jewels Manually wound movement. The watch comes fitted on a blue 20mm leather strap.

Personal Note

It's not every day you come across one of these with functioning light, so when we did we jumped on it and here it is! After a little bit of work to make sure the light was truly functional with newly fitted batteries, plus the movement ticking along nicely and doing what it should, you now have yourself a wonderful example of where the watch world was in the 1970s and where they thought it was heading, crazy!