The Suisse entrepreneur Fritz Suter-Rätz laid the foundation stone by making watch parts in Büren and for a brickyard in the Ey in the area between Nidau and the Büren Aare canal. In the beginning, 5 persons produced a maximum of 3 pocket watches with cylinder escapement per day. These pocket watches were exported mainly to England "made at Buren" where they enjoyed an impeccable reputation and were highly appreciated due to their high quality.

Fritz Suter-Rätz started making complete watches and called themselves F. Suter & Co. After 1885 they starting producing pocket watches with anger escapement, winding with key. The first patent of the company was registered in 1889.

The increase in production also required a higher number of employees. As early as 1896, 250 workers were employed in the company.

Buren has produced and delivered for British Military 11’000 watches equipped with the Caliber 426. English Commander Alan Brooks recognised the value of having a general-use timepiece for the armed forces. Until then almost all service watches were personal civilian items. Given that this “general-use” timepiece was destined for a very active war zone, the MoD set specific criteria for how it should look and function.

Black dial with Arabic numerals, subsidiary seconds at 6 o’clock and railroad-style minutes. Luminous hour and minute hands plus luminous hour markers. Movements with 15 jewels, 11.75 to 13 ligne in diameter. Shatterproof Perspex crystal. Waterproof to the standards of the era. Precision movements that had to be regulated to chronometer criteria in a variety of conditions. Rugged case capable of diminishing the impact of shocks. Water-resistant crown of good size.

We established the patent for the first ever "micro-rotor” automatic watch movement. The small rotor integrated at the same level as the rest of the movement, which allowed us to produce the flattest possible automatic watches and furthermore to develop the first automatic chronographe.

Learn how we developed the SUPER SLENDER® movement and watch from the patent application that started in 1954 to the completed project in 1958. It took more than 4 years of research and development to achieve the famous SUPER SLENDER® automatic movement with unprecedented reliability.

In the summer of 1969, the Chronomatic group achieved mass production of their models, which then became available to the public in the world's major retail markets. In conclusion, the synergie formed by Buren, Dubois-Depraz, Breitling, Hamilton & Heuer is considered the creator of the world's first automatic chronograph with its CHRONOMATIC® Calibre 11 model.

This was then used by the four brands to develop models that remain anchored in the history of watchmaking, such as the Heuer Autavia, the Breitling Buren Chronomatic and the Heuer Monaco.

The prototypes of the first automatic chronograph were presented to the public on 3 March 1969 at a world press conference. The event was held at the Hotel Intercontinental in Geneva, as well as at the Pan Am Palace in New York and Tokyo, Hong Kong and Beirut, more than a month before the Basel Fair.

The notoriety of the brands involved is a major asset and the presentation of the Chronomatic is much more talked about than the Zenith models. The members of the quartet showed the public their dozens of pre-production CHRONOMATIC® samples, watches equipped with the Calibre 11 movement.