Brand historyCIM1ER first made the news in advertisements placed by Lapanouse SA in1925 A year earlier watchmaker RLapanouse had set up the family enterprise in Holstein a small town in thecanton of BasellandThe company made its name withRoskopf watches which used vertically standing steel pins instead ofstone palettes for time scaling a lightbalance wheel and a relatively thickbalance shaft that protected themagainst breakageThe result was robust affordable

watches that were snapped up by customers worldwide

In 1951 Lapanouse SA introduced anew range of wrist watches with goldplated or chrome casings still using itspin lever movement The company

changed its name to Lapanouse CimierCimier French for crest has three

feathers in its logo which denote acombination of elegance and stability

In the 1970s the brand came up withits own quartz movement when quartzcrystals were introduced in watchesUnfortunately an outsourcing ven

ture in the early 1980s did not work outand that stoked family discord over thebrand s strategy and succession plansProduction of Cimier watches was discontinued in 1985

In 2003 Martin Bartsch bought overthe brand Three years later it changedhands again and is now owned by QIGroup The multinational organisationset up by Malaysian Datuk VijayEswaran in 1998 uses eCommerce andthe Internet as its business thrust

Headline Brand historyDate 27 Jun 2010 Language EnglishMediaTitle Sunday Star Page No SM13Section StarMag Article Size 200 cm

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