Invicta Watch Group

Founding and early years

Invicta was established in 1837 by Raphael Picard in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Picard’s vision was to produce high-quality Swiss timepieces at prices affordable to a broad customer base. The company remained under the Picard family’s ownership for over a century, operating as Les Fils de R. Picard (Picard’s sons) and gaining a reputation for well-made yet reasonably priced watches.

Invicta earned industry acclaim in its early decades – for example, it won a gold medal at the 1914 Swiss National Exhibition in Bern, reflecting the brand’s prestige at that time. In 1928, the firm was reorganized as a joint-stock company, Invicta S.A., with a capitalization of 1 million Swiss francs.

By the mid-20th century, Invicta had expanded internationally and introduced additional brand names for certain markets. The company’s watches were marketed not only under the Invicta name but also under brands such as Seeland and Eno for export. In 1940, Invicta established a foothold in the United States through distributor Morris Hoffman, who created Invicta-Seeland Inc. in New York.

During World War II, Invicta supplied military-issue watches to Allied forces, especially to the U.S., gaining a reputation for durable Swiss timepieces. The post-war era saw Invicta thrive as a producer of mass-market mechanical watches – by the 1950s, its waterproof and shockproof wristwatches were popular globally. Notably, in 1959, Invicta received a commission from the USSR’s Council of Labor and Defense to produce exclusive Swiss-made watches for Soviet Navy officers.

Quartz crisis and corporate changes (1970s–1980s)

Like many Swiss watchmakers, Invicta faced difficulties during the quartz revolution of the 1970s. In 1968, the company joined the Swiss watchmaking consortium Société des Garde-Temps (SGT), alongside brands such as Sandoz, Silvana, and Waltham. SGT allowed Invicta to pool resources and access electronic watch technologies including quartz and LED.

By 1973, SGT had become the third-largest Swiss watch group, but economic downturns and Asian quartz competition led to its collapse in 1981. Invicta’s operating company (known then as ISECA S.A., a merger of Invicta and Seeland) went bankrupt and was liquidated in 1982.

After liquidation, Invicta’s trademarks and assets were sold. In the early 1980s, the Swiss firm Ondix S.A. acquired rights to the brand and produced a new line of Invicta watches in Biel/Bienne. However, Ondix failed to revive the brand commercially, and the company ceased operations by the end of the 1980s.

Revival in the 1990s

In 1991, the Invicta brand was acquired by an American investment group led by Eyal Lalo, a third-generation watchmaker whose family had been involved in Invicta’s distribution decades earlier. Lalo founded the Invicta Watch Company of America and established its headquarters in Hollywood, Florida.