Brand Directory: Sicura

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 who 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.