des montres west end sa type private company industry watch manufacturing founded 1886 1886 by arnold amstutz and constant droz headquarters leytron valais switzerland key people j r me monnat jr. current ceo products automatic and quartz wristwatches website www.westendwatchco.ch west end watch company headquarters west end watch company is a manufacturer of watches located at leytron switzerland . it was established in 1886 and has been in business for more than 120 years . the company has produced and distributed more than 15 million watches worldwide since 1886 . contents 1 history 2 articles 3 references 4 external links history edit the west end watch company was created in 1886 . the west end a district of the centre of london inspired its name to m. arnold charpi who was the bombay representative of the alcide droz & sons firm a watch company established at saint imier canton of bern in switzerland . in 1886 mm . amstutz and droz the owner of alcide droz & sons firm began the exploitation of the trademark west end watch company in the indian market and developed the first waterproof pocket watch ever produced 1 l impermeable nowadays displayed at the international watchmaking museum of la chaux de fonds . during the first world war a large force of british and indian soldiers was sent from bombay to the persian gulf to reach mesopotamia modern day iraq . they received some west end watch company watches . in 1917 west end watch company changed its name to soci t des montres west end sa and was registered in geneva . at the same time the sub brand sowar was also registered . in 1934 the soci t des montres west end sa was the first brand to introduce the incabloc anti shock system invented by mr. braunschweig . 2 in 1973 after several years of development the company was finally sold for lack of heirs to its main supplier aubry brothers ltd established in noirmont jura to keep open the bombay west end watch company s office . since 2000 the workshops and the head office of the company have been moved to leytron in wallis . at the same time the company was taken over by new shareholders and the management changed . in 2005 west end watch company celebrated its 120th anniversary of uninterrupted presence in asia with the introduction of its silk road concept . this concept came from the fact that the silk road crossed most of the regions where the brand possessed and still possesses counters . nowadays west end watch company is active in saudi arabia in the united arab emirates in the himalaya range in particular in tibet nepal and in bhutan and as well as in western half of china . in 2011 west end watch company celebrated 125 years of uninterrupted activity so a commemorative book redrawing the history of the brand was published in 2010 in association with the centre jurassien d archives et de recherches economiques . 3 at the beginning of the 20th century west end watch company launched a model called the sowar the cavalry man named after one of the elite troops of the indian army . this name was selected in honour of sir thomas edward lawrence lawrence of arabia because it is said that he and his soldiers wore west end watch company watches during the war . the sowar model is still manufactured today . articles edit ella maillart mentions the presence of west end watch company watches in western china in the 1930s in her book forbidden journey from peking to cashmir on page 252 he introduces us a robust turki with blond beard whose west end watch chronometer features an inscription in which aurel stein expresses his thanks to musa ahoun his interpreter . 4 references edit article published in the magazine the world of horology editions societe de presse neuchateloise sa no 4 dec. 2003 http www.incabloc.ch cejare http www.ellamaillart.ch livres en.php external links edit federation of the swiss watch industry soci t des montres west end sa international watchmaking museum retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title west end watch co. & oldid 713619529 categories watch manufacturing companies of switzerlandwatch brands navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages fran aisitaliano edit links this page was last modified on 5 april 2016 at 02 21 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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