The history of Mortima watches: 'Établissements Cattin’ and their main brand Mortima was founded in 1926, by Emile Cattin (1904 - 1979) in Morteau, Doubs region of France. The production of the 20's to early 40's, seems to have used third-party movements in what were regarded as basic "working mans" watches. The watches were mainly sold by leaflets, in markets and fairgrounds. By the end of the 1930's, Cattin was producing over 30,000 watches a year. He had around 90 employees, a good few of which were outworkers. With the success of Mortima, Emile Cattin bought a hotel in 1939 to expand the watch manufacturing business the l'Hotel de Terrasses on the rue d'Helvétie in Morteau. However, timing turned out to be bad, due to World War II starting that very same year. Mortima takes market shares and goes international: After the war, in 1947 Cattin decided to take the business to another level. In conjunction with Martial Vuillemin they converted the hotel into a factory, producing watches and their in house movement 'Cattin 66' (C66). The Roskopf based pin-lever C66 movements were made in many variants. Movements with 1, 15, 17 and 21 jewels were made. At the same time Cattin also opened a workshop to produce watch faces, all bearing the already well known French Cockerel logo. Now almost all components of the Mortima watch were manufactured in-house. To capture the international market, Cattin established a Paris office in 1954. Customers from all over the world came to buy watches directly from the office. Export was now the main market, with large sales to French colonies in Caribbean and Africa. At the peak of success: The company was now producing thousands of watches every day. Cattin made generous contributions to the local community, and opened a Horological Factory School for the disabled. In 1960 he was awarded the French l'Oscar de l'Exportation by the French government. After receiving the reward Émile Cattin held a grand ball in the town hall of Montreu, inviting all employees to celebrate the occasion. Cattin was attentive to his employees. He wanted the workers to be proud of working in the company, giving them many benefits not common at the time. In 1961 the company had outgrown their manufacturing facilities, producing upwards of 2 million watches each year. Two years later a new factory was opened in the same area, la Guron. Export which truly gained momentum with the launch of the C64 movement for women watches in 1964, and a slim version of the C66. Upwards of 10,000 watches per day came out of the factory assembly line. At the same time it was not uncommon that one single customer, at the Paris office, would walk away with the same amount of watches. The end of an era: Emile Cattin died in 1979, and his children took over the company. Two of them died in 1982. His son and company manager died in a car accident in 1985. The company made three quartz movements during the 1980’s. Quartz movements C80, C81 and C86. But without the visionary Emile Cattin, and several family tragedies, the company failed to keep up with the quartz revolution like many other French and Swiss watch makers at the time. The Paris office was closed in 1987, and the company was sold to Kiplé in 1988. Huge financial problems led to bankruptcy of Kiplé in 1990, ending the story of Mortima watches. Cattin is still highly regarded in Morteau, to the extent that he, alongside such notables as General De Gaulle, Albert Camus and Louis Pasteur, has an important road in the town named after him. Comments are closed.
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Old Time WatchesI enjoy collecting mechanical (manual wind and automatic) and early electric and quartz timepieces. I take great pleasure in researching and writing about the companies and people that created these beautiful watches. PF
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September 2018
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