2.1045 PAUL BUHRE ‘IMPERIAL CHEMICAL INDUSTRIES’, SWISS 1953

This Paul Buhre was released as a special edition for a large chemical company I.C.I. in the early 1950s and bears an engraving from 1952.

The case is stainless steel and has a pleasant size/thickness ratio with sturdy lugs, stepped bezel and a handy grippy winding crown.

The very fine dial prints are still in amazing condition including super nicely preserved fonts and signatures. The original Radium paint in the numerals and hands has been replaced with safe lume which has been aged to match an authentic vintage look.

The movement is FEF 350 calibre by the Fleurier Watch Company which nowadays would be the movement manufactory of the Chopard company. This watch runs at 15-30 sec/day and comes with a 12 month warranty.

Timepieces from Imperial Chemical Industries are a separate genre in watch collecting. Since the 1930s, this company gave watches to its employees, and it seems that there were a lot of employees there. The batch was ordered from ‘The Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Co Ltd’, a biggest jewellery/watch trader.

Since the early 1950s, we can see watches from Paul Buhre manufactory, closer to the 1960s it is ‘Garrard-P.Buhre’, and then the ‘Garrard’ watches issued for ICI.

Paul Buhre issued a special series of watches for ICI – note that standard specifications are printed on the inside, and the outside is left blank for the presentation engraving.