Power Wheels Magazine A Notch Above
The Election Watch Company was a Swiss watch factory with a long and amazing history. Founded in 1848 by Lazare Lucien Braunschweig in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, Election and Breitling watches were being produced together at the Montbrillant Watch Manufactory when Alphonse, the founder’s brother, joined in 1854.
In 1914, the company was awarded the prestigious Grand Prix or the Grand Prize at the Swiss National Exhibition in Berne. Following this victory, they proudly stamped “Grand Prix” onto their dials, eventually turning it into one of their most successful sub-brands. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the Election Grand Prix line became renowned for its high-grade engineering and for making flat, precise movements.
Our vintage Swiss wristwatch is indeed very thin and light.
Our featured timepiece was a birthday gift given by our friend, Redentor “Jun” Cajayon, an avid watch collector. This Election Grand Prix from the 1940s is often referred to as the “Bullseye” because of its two-tone dial design. At 6 o’clock position is the “small seconds register”, which is a small sub-dial with a miniature needle-style hand. Baton-style blued steel hour and minute hands point to stylized Arabic numerals printed on the dark-colored outermost ring.
Our 1940s Election Grand Prix is often call the “Bullseye” because of its two-tone dial with sub-dial.
The 36 mm stainless steel case houses a Swiss-made 17-jewel Caliber 625S manual-wind mechanical movement that is thin enough to fit between the case back and glass crystal, which measures a thin 8.6 mm overall. The movement features “incabloc” anti-shock and anti-magnetic specifications that were common to military or utilitarian watches of the WWII era.
The diameter of our svelte WWII-era wristwatch measures around 36 mm with a lug-to-lug length of around 42 mm.
The lug width is about 19 mm with welded strap pins. The watch is really thin at only 8.6 mm thickness.
To remain strapped to the wrist during skirmishes and avoid being lost in the battlefield during the war, the strap pins are welded to the 19 mm lugs, necessitating the use of NATO straps. When Jun gifted it to us, our watch came with a blue strap that we later changed with a red, white and blue one to make it look more like a WWII medal than a wartime relic with age-old patina.
Because it is now more than 80-years-old, the dial, case, and crystal of our Election Grand Prix is heavy with patina.
The Election Watch Company was unable to survive the economic disruption of the quartz watch crisis and the “Grand Prix” trademark officially expired in the 1970s. While watch collectors consider these as relatively affordable vintage timepieces, we consider our 80-year-old Election Grand Prix Bullseye as extremely valuable not because of its relative rarity or collectability, but because it was a gift from a good friend, a true gentleman, and a real watch aficionado.
The red, white and blue NATO strap makes our Election Grand Prix look like we’re wearing a medal on our wrist instead of a wartime relic.
The watch itself weighs a mere 25 grams. The NATO strap adds just 11 grams to make it feel so light like you’re wearing nothing. Bullseye!
Make: Election
Model: Grand Prix “Bullseye”
Year of Manufacture: 1940s
Type: Dress/Field Watch
Movement: Manual-Wind Mechanical
Caliber: 625S
Diameter: 36 mm
Thickness: 8.6 mm
Lug-to-lug Length: 41.6 mm
Lug Width: 19 mm
Weight: 36 grams (with NATO strap) / 25 grams (watch only)
