Elmar Mock | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1954 |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Occupation | engineer |
| Known for | SWATCH watch |
Elmar Mock (born February 2, 1954 in La Chaux-de-Fonds) is a Swiss watch engineer with specialized knowledge in polymers, an industrial designer, and inventor.
Elmar Mock | |
|---|---|
| | |
| Born | 1954 |
| Nationality | Swiss |
| Occupation | engineer |
| Known for | SWATCH watch |
Elmar Mock (born February 2, 1954 in La Chaux-de-Fonds) is a Swiss watch engineer with specialized knowledge in polymers, an industrial designer, and inventor.
Elmar Mock graduated from the Technical School of Biel in 1976. He was hired by ETA Manufacture Horlogère (ETA SA). He completed a one-year training course in synthetic materials in Aargau, financed by his employer, on condition that he returned to work for two years at ETA SA. [1]
Spouse(s): Mary-Claude Juillerat (m.1975-1997.) Children: Sébastien Mock, Vincent Mock, Stéphanie Corthay, and Réanne Mock. Hélène Kett (m.2003). Stepchildren: Charles-Henry, Anne-Sophie and Isabeau Dubey. Elmar resides with his wife in Altdorf, Uri, Switzerland and in Ballater, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Elmar Mock is, with Jacques Müller, the co-inventor of the SWATCH watch, under the direction of Ernst Thomke, at the beginning of the 1980s, invention which revolutionized the Swiss watch industry, which at the time was seriously losing ground to the Japanese quartz watch competition – quartz watches which were low cost and reliable. Mock and Müller came up with the idea of using plastic materials to produce watches. [2] The classic Swiss watch required 91 parts - the SWATCH has only 51. [3] The movement is integrated in the watch-case; the watch strap is made of polyurethane; everything is assembled in one block; and the ultrasonic welding technique, developed by Mock, welds the PMMA (plexiglass) crystal to the watchcase, making it resistant and waterproof—but also irreparable. [4] In its first year 500,000 watches were sold for a price between 39.90 and 49.90 Swiss Francs, with a production cost of 5 Swiss Francs. As at 2018, more than 700 million SWATCH watches have been sold worldwide. [5] Mock then worked on the ROCKWATCH watch (for Tissot), which has the distinctive attribute of having a watchface made of granite from the Swiss Alps.
Mock then left watchmaking and founded his own engineering company in innovation/creativity and product development, called Createc in 1986, in Biel. This company later became Creaholic. As at 2018, the company employs 55 people. Swisscom holds a 5% stake in Creaholic. [6] Creaholic works on projects for the likes of IKEA, Leica, Lufthansa and BMW. [7] [8]
Mock is the co-inventor of more than 180 patent families in such diverse industries as watchmaking, automotive, food or pharmaceutical, and he is at the origin of 750 projects and 8 start-ups. He is considered a veteran of Swiss innovation. [9] In 2009, he entered the "Forum of 100 personalities who make up French-speaking Switzerland", drawn up every year by the Swiss monthly publication "l'Hebdo". [10] In 2017, he was a finalist from a pool of 400 candidates for the European Inventor of the Year Award in the category – Lifetime Achievement - awarded by the European Patent Office. [11] According to Benoît Battistelli, the president of the EPO, "Elmar Mock has always dared to challenge the status quo". [12] In 2019, he was appointed as one of the leading experts that judge proposals for this award. [13]
Translated into English and German
A watch is a portable timepiece intended to be carried or worn by a person. It is designed to keep a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is designed to be worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or other type of bracelet, including metal bands, leather straps, or any other kind of bracelet. A pocket watch is designed for a person to carry in a pocket, often attached to a chain.
The Swatch Group Ltd is a Swiss manufacturer of watches and jewellery. The company was founded in 1983 by the merger of ASUAG and SSIH to move to manufacturing quartz-crystal watches to resolve the quartz crisis threatening the traditional Swiss watchmaking industry.
A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their parts, by hand. Modern watchmakers, when required to repair older watches, for which replacement parts may not be available, must have fabrication skills, and can typically manufacture replacements for many of the parts found in a watch. The term clockmaker refers to an equivalent occupation specializing in clocks.
IWC International Watch Co. AG, also known as IWC Schaffhausen, is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer located in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Originally founded in Switzerland by American watchmaker Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868, the company was transferred to the Rauschenbach family in 1880 after bankruptcy and has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Richemont Group since 2000.
TissotSA is a luxury Swiss watchmaker. The company was founded in Le Locle, Switzerland by Charles-Félicien Tissot and his son, Charles-Émile Tissot, in 1853. After several mergers and name changes, the group which Tissot SA belonged to was renamed the Swatch Group in 1998.
Swatch is a Swiss watchmaker founded in 1983 by Ernst Thomke, Elmar Mock, and Jacques Müller. It is a subsidiary of The Swatch Group. The Swatch product line was developed as a response to the "quartz crisis" of the 1970s and 1980s, in which inexpensive, battery-powered, quartz-regulated watches were competing against more established European watchmakers, focused on artisanal craftsmanship producing mostly mechanical watches.
ETA SA Manufacture Horlogère Suisse designs and manufactures quartz watches and both hand-wound and automatic-winding mechanical ébauches and movements. Commonly referred to as ETA, the company is headquartered in Grenchen, Switzerland, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Swatch Group.
Oris SA is a Swiss luxury manufacturer of mechanical watches. The company was founded in 1904 and is based in Hölstein in the canton of Basel-Landschaft.
In horology, a tourbillon is an addition to the mechanics of a watch escapement to increase accuracy. Conceived by the British watchmaker and inventor John Arnold, it was developed by his friend the Swiss-French watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet and patented by Breguet on 26 June 1801. In a tourbillon the escapement and balance wheel are mounted in a rotating cage, with the goal of eliminating errors of poise in the balance giving a uniform weight.
The Hamilton Watch Company is a Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches based in Bienne, Switzerland. Founded in 1892 as an American firm, the Hamilton Watch Company ended American manufacture in 1969. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the Hamilton Watch Company eventually became integrated into the Swatch Group, the world's largest watch manufacturing and marketing conglomerate.
Compagnie des Montres Longines, Francillon S.A., or simply Longines, is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Saint-Imier, Switzerland. Founded by Auguste Agassiz in 1832, the company has been a subsidiary of the Swiss Swatch Group and its predecessors since 1983. Its winged hourglass logo, registered in 1889, is the oldest unchanged active trademark registered with WIPO.
Glycine Watch SA, or simply Glycine, is a Swiss watchmaker founded in 1914 in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland, where its manufacturing and headquarters remain today. In 1930, Glycine released the first mass-produced automatic watches, and in 1959, it developed vacuum-sealed cases, allowing for more durable and water-resistant timepieces. The Glycine Airman, the first watch capable of tracking two 24-hour time zones, has been used extensively in commercial and military aviation, as well as in spaceflights; notable examples include its use by United States Air Force pilots during the Vietnam War and astronaut Pete Conrad during the Gemini 5 and Gemini 11 spaceflights.
Manufacture d'horlogerie is a French language term of horology that has also been adopted in the English language as a loanword. In horology, the term is usually encountered in its abbreviated form manufacture. This term is used when describing a wrist watch movement or watchworks fabricator which makes all or most of the parts required for its products in its own production facilities, as opposed to simply assembling watches using parts purchased from other firms.
The quartz crisis was the upheaval in the watchmaking industry caused by the advent of quartz watches in the 1970s and early 1980s, that largely replaced mechanical watches around the world. It caused a significant decline of the Swiss watchmaking industry, which chose to remain focused on traditional mechanical watches, while the majority of the world's watch production shifted to Japanese companies such as Seiko, Citizen, and Casio which embraced the new electronic technology.
Epos is a manufacturer of mechanical watches, headquartered in Lengnau, Switzerland.
Ernst Thomke is a Swiss physician and watchmaker. Training first as a mechanic, he later acquired the Swiss federal maturity degree and pursued academic studies whilst in employment.
Raketa wristwatches, have been manufactured since 1961 by the Petrodvorets Watch Factory in Saint Petersburg. The Petrodvorets Watch Factory is Russia's oldest factory, founded by Peter the Great in 1721. Raketa watches have been produced for the Red Army, the Soviet Navy, and for North Pole expeditions, as well as for civilians. Today, Raketa is one of a handful of global watch brands that produces its own movements from start to finish.
The European Inventor Award(formerly European Inventor of the Year Award, renamed in 2010), are presented annually by the European Patent Office, sometimes supported by the respective Presidency of the Council of the European Union and by the European Commission, to inventors who have made a significant contribution to innovation, economy and society in Europe. Inventions from all technological fields are considered for this award. The winners in each category are presented with an award shaped like a sail. There is no cash prize associated with the award.
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