My Maty

Recently, Theo & Harris, a prominent vintage watch seller posted a beautiful rugged 100m Yema diver. This an extreme change of pace from the company normally selling higher-end luxury pieces. Their prices seem to be just going up respectively to the watches. With the Yema being priced at $885 this was the lower end from their normal sales, but a lot of people in the watch community spoke out about the price of this particular watch being too high. With Yema being from the Besancon area in France, this got me thinking about my own french watch and french watchmaking in general.

I recently bought a vintage Maty and wanted to go ahead and learn more about French watchmaking and the brand itself. Maty was created in Besancon, France in 1951 by Gerad Mention. From 1951 to 1960 they specialized in selling watches but quickly expanded to jewelry in 1960, Maty is still a prominent Jeweler in France today. What really made them unique was them being the first ever company to sell watches only by catalog, in a newspaper or a magazine. They eventually went and opened shops, the first one being in Besancon in 1968. Today there are 30 shops in total in France, and in 2005 they were the biggest Jewelry seller in Europe.

The movement is a France Ebauche movement, meaning Maty didn't manufacture their own movements which is pretty common among brands during this time, the same is for Yema, such as the one Theo & Harris is selling. France Ebauche was a french ebauche movement manufacture, Through the merger of four of the most important French ebauche movement manufacturers in 1965 the France Ebauches was established. The official company name is France Ebauches SA. Usually, the abbreviation FE is used. After the German political 'turn', through the mediation of the fiduciary owner Treuhand, France Ebauches should have become the owner of the Glashütter Uhrenbetriebe (GUB). Shortly afterward, however, Heinz W. Pfeifer and Wallner took over the GUB, which then became Glashütte Original, According to Wiki Watch.

This exact watch is an amazing example of beautiful french watchmaking, with a midnight black dial, and cream patined markers with sharp green and white hands. The bezel looks like it could tell a story and the bubble crystal really shows the true age of the watch. I am in complete love with the France Ebauches movement, its smooth hand striking across the face really shows the true craftsmanship. I hope more watches like this Maty shows up on the market and more people can see how incredible these French watchmakers are.