Movado

Brand history

Founded 1881 by Achilles Ditesheim in La Chaux-de-Fonds; the brand moved to Biel/Bienne in the 1970s under Zenith ownership and is now part of Movado Group. Nathan George Horwitt's Museum Watch design (1947) remains the brand's defining visual identity.

Founded 1881 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by Achilles Ditesheim. The name "Movado" (Esperanto for "always in motion") was adopted in 1905. Movado introduced the Museum Watch in 1947, a minimalist round-case design featuring a single gold dot at 12 o'clock in lieu of any other markers, originally designed by artist Nathan George Horwitt for the Museum of Modern Art. The Museum Watch is displayed permanently in MOMA's permanent design collection and has been in continuous production since. Movado has been American-owned since 1983 (Movado Group Inc., a publicly traded entity). The honest buyer's assessment: modern Movado is primarily a fashion-watch brand whose design legacy (the MoMA dot dial) is more significant than its current watchmaking depth. The Museum Watch is a genuinely important design object; the movement inside is a Japanese quartz caliber.