Big Bang! The Birth of the First Czechoslovak Wristwatches
The exhibition celebrates the 70th anniversary of the achievement that made Czechoslovakia only the eighth country in the world capable of producing mechanical wristwatches on an industrial scale.
It commemorates the extraordinary triumph of the domestic industry, the creation of the prototype of the first Czechoslovak wristwatch, SPARTAK, and its introduction into industrial production in Nové Město nad Metují under the PRIM brand.
The successful mastery of the technologically demanding process of mechanical watch production had an impact on domestic industry that extended beyond the fields of fine mechanics and watchmaking. Therefore, the exhibition not only celebrates the milestone anniversary of the creation of the prototype of the first Czechoslovak wristwatch and its later industrial production, but also emphasizes the broader historical, political, and social significance of this achievement.
After an effort spanning a record-short period of just a few postwar years, by the end of 1954, Czechoslovak technicians developed prototypes of high-quality wristwatches entirely comparable to advanced Western products. Only three years later, they were offered as an industrial product to the national enterprise Klenoty and eventually to the end consumer.
The exhibition showcases not only the watches themselves, including a series of iconic models—the most valuable of which is the Spartak prototype, on loan from the Technical Museum in Brno—but also various instruments and devices. Valuable insights are provided by previously unpublished technical documentation loaned by ELTON hodinářská, a.s., the successor to the PRIM watch production in Nové Město. Using 3D technologies, the exhibition brings visitors closer to the structural, manufacturing, and material characteristics of mechanical wristwatch movements.
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