I am all the more touched by your nice messages that many of you have contributed by your posts to my interest in watchmaking. Even if I am not a big poster, I read very regularely the messages here.
Some question have been raised and I will try to answer them here.
As many of you have mentionned, there are stories behind each of these vintage ads: stories not only about watches, but also about graphic art, literature, science and technics, world history. I consider these ads to be close observers and direct witnesses of their time. That is one of the key reasons why I have interest in them.
Although I have bought my first ads a couple of years ago, I have really start to accumulate them after a trip in Switzerland at the begining of this year.
During that trip, I visited many watchmaker museums: among them, the PP museum at Geneva and the JLC Heritage Gallery at Le Sentier (of course!) ... but also the Longines museum at Saint Imier, where one section is fully dedicated to old posters and other ads.
This very interesting visit motivated me for going forward in my hunt for vintage ads.
Concerning the source, most of theses ads come from newspapers and have been bought from a famous auction site. As only very few people were interested in them, it was always a surprise to be outbid by someone... and most of the times I have asked for the profile of the outbidder, it looks like it was you, Clavi
I would also bet that Jaeger-Lecoultre has kept the archive of their vintage ads, as some of them have re-appeared in the JLC catalog for many years.
@AFK: There is no problem with sharing these ads with your collegues. Moreover, I assume the copyright remains the property of JLC.
And that's why, concerning the coffee table book suggested by Andrew D (what I also consider to be is an excellent idea) ... we should forward it to JLC! And they could publish the book in the context of a temporary exhibition at the Heritage Gallery
@Joe T: I have not found in my stock any other ad specific to the Geophysic. But, I have got for you a higher resolution scan of the extract from the 125th anniversary concerning this geophysic.
By the way, for the ones that will be in Switzerland soon, there is a temporary exhibition (until the 21st of september) dedicated to the 1958 world's fair and the watch section of the pavilion of Switzerland.
The Geophysic is there with the original documentation. Unfortunately, there is not enough light for taking good pictures.
And finally, I would like to express special thanks to Nicolas whose encouragements (c.f. this message ) have boosted me to write this post.
Have a nice day!
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Marv