Pre-Owned Eterna Eterna Eterna-matic Date 40990922/AS06540

WHY WE LOVE IT

Eterna is known by collectors for two reasons: Their contribution to the development of the automatic winding movement, and a man named Thor who wore one on his wrist while traversing the Pacific on a hand-made balsa wood raft.  

The latter is a tale for another time, but the brand’s part in the story of the modern automatic movement is nothing short of legendary. Their contribution to the technology was the implementation of five ball bearings used in attaching the rotor to the movement, helping reduce friction and maintain accuracy while being worn and used. The layout of these bearings, a pentagonal shape, was adopted by the brand as their logo in the 1950s, and remains to this day. The project name for their early movements? Eterna-Matic!

The range of vintage Eterna-Matic timepieces from the 1950s-1980s is about as diverse as one can imagine, with petite, ultra-thin gold dress pieces on one end of the spectrum, and large steel divers on the other. This particular Eterna-Matic is a thin, understated dress watch from the 1960s with a ‘quickset’ date function. 

Housed in a 34mm stainless steel case with a magnified acrylic crystal, a signed crown, and a polished bezel, it features a lovely sunburst silver radial dial with applied arrowhead indices, a dauphine handset, and a date window at 3:00. Powered by the famed Eterna-Matic automatic movement, it comes paired to a folded-link beads-of-rice bracelet with an unsigned blade clasp.

Despite its classic looks and svelte profile, this Eterna-Matic represents a brand that pushed the horological envelope.

For that and more, we are a fan.

OVERALL CONDITION

The case is in excellent, strong condition overall showing normal signs of wear consistent with age and use. Sunburst silver radial dial with applied 'arrowhead' indices is in very good condition with matching 'dauphine' handset. Signed crown.