The history of Mondaine begins in 1944, with Hans Hilfiger. He was a Swiss engineer, who was working for the Swiss Railway Station, he decided to design a clock that woulds synchronise the departure time for all of the trains coming and leaving Zurich’s main station. The result was a clock that was powered by an electric motor, which controls the clock allowing it a complete rotation in 58.5 seconds. The red hand would then pause for 1.5 seconds and then jump forward to meet up with the minute hand again to allow it to synchronise with the master clock in the signal box. It derives from the red signs held by train conductors to wave and to signal passengers whenever a train was coming in or out of the station.

Mondaine, originally founded in 1951, enjoyed a period of success after releasing  one of the first timepieces to display a digital time reading on a wristwatch and the first LCD watch in 1957. However it was not until 1986 that the design of the SBB Railway clock began to feature on Mondaine’s wristwatches. After they obtained the necessary licenses they released the first station clock wristwatch.

The famous white face accompanied by the bold red second hand and the black minute and hour hands would later become a timeless design used on not only wristwatches, but on pocket watches, alarm clocks, and even wall clocks. The love for the simple, timeless design of the Mondaine watch has been widespread, with the watch being sold in over forty countries and in thousands of sales outlets. The watch can also be found proudly hanging in famous museums, train stations, airports, and of course in the SBB Railway Station.

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