With the practicality and comfort of automatic winding, the chronograph becomes a staple of motorsport… the Calibre 11 is used to power iconic watches by Heuer (Carrera, Monaco, Autavia), Breitling (Chrono-Matic) and Hamilton (Fontainebleau). A month later, the three brands present their first chronographs at the 1969 Basel fair. On March 3rd 1969, the movement is officially presented, simultaneously in New York and Geneva. At the end of 1968, about 100 pre-production movements are assembled in prevision of the 1969 Basel fair. A patent application for the Calibre 11 is filed in September 1967. Three brands – Heuer, Breitling and Hamilton (who acquired Buren during the development process) – will fit the movement inside their watches. They plan to have Dépraz develop and manufacture the chronograph mechanism to equip this calibre.īüren is in charge of the base calibre.
They have an exclusive right to use this calibre. to build the blanks and the automatic movement of an automatic chronograph, the basic execution of which is designated by calibre No. The convention signed on February 2, 1966, between Dépraz & Co., Heuer-Léonidas SA and Léon Breitling SA. For confidentiality purposes, the development is code-named Project 99. The four-party Chronomatic consortium is born, including two rival brands teaming up to develop their own automatic chronograph. On February 2nd, 1966, an agreement is signed. In need of commercial partners, they manage to convince first Jack Heuer and then Willy Breitling to support the project. Dubois contacts Hans Kocher of Büren Watch Co. As Büren had pioneered the production of micro-rotor movements, Gérald Dubois (of Dépraz & Co., a chronograph specialist) figured out that these would be thin enough to be the base for a modular chronograph movement. The history of the Calibre 11 starts at the end of 1965.
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