The 1969 Contograf 31504 enters the Eberhard & Co. Museum collection

A new timepiece joins the Eberhard & Co. Museum: an original example from the Contograf collection dating from 1969. This model belongs to the historic collection launched in the early nineteen-sixties, through which the House expressed its specialty, chronography, at a time of profound transition for the watchmaking world.

Under the Contograf name, several sports chronographs were produced over nearly twenty years, distinguished by varied technical and stylistic solutions yet united by a bold and original approach to design. This vision continued beyond 1969 under the direction of Palmiro Monti, who took the helm of the House during a complex period for traditional Swiss watchmaking, marked by the rise of quartz.

A mechanical chronograph with a strong character

The Eberhard & Co. Contograf reference 31504 is a hand-wound mechanical chronograph with two counters and a date window, driven by the EB 310-82 caliber. It is a hand-wound chronograph caliber with a continuous seconds function, a chronograph minutes counter and a date, designed to measure short times and to guarantee clear reading of the chronograph information.

From an aesthetic standpoint, the oval case with its curved lines recalls certain models from the Scafograf diving collection, such as the Scafograf 400 and the Scafograf Super, also from 1969. The whole adopts a style that anticipates the trends of the 1970s, with a graphic and appealing aesthetic, reflecting a world in which the sports timepiece is conceived as an everyday companion, without giving up the expression of personality and character.

A dial designed for legibility

The dial features the chronograph minutes counter at 3 o’clock with an original indication allowing an extended reading up to 45 minutes, a solution found on many models of the period. The continuous seconds sit at 9 o’clock, while the date window is positioned at 6 o’clock.

The tachymeter and telemeter scales stand out for their unusual placement: they do not appear on the dial but are screen-printed on the inner surface of the plexiglass crystal.

The watch comes with a water-resistant stainless steel case measuring 43 mm in diameter, fitted with a screw-down back. The black dial with two symmetrically drawn white counters adopts the “reverse panda” configuration, designed to improve legibility and create a concentric visual effect through the alternation of colors.

The applied hour markers are luminescent and square in shape, as is the date window positioned at 6 o’clock, which replaces the corresponding marker in order to preserve the symmetry of the dial. The baton hands with a luminescent insert ensure clear reading, while the white central chronograph hand makes it possible to identify the activated function immediately.

The testimony of a pivotal era

On the whole, this model finds its balance between a technical approach and formal clarity: a case with pronounced proportions, yet lightened by soft lines and by the design of the dial, which make it easier to read.

The result is an immediately recognizable watch, reflecting a period in which the House experimented with new languages of the mechanical chronograph in a world undergoing major transformations.

Within the collection of the Eberhard & Co. Museum, this example also bears witness to the transition between two decades that were crucial for watchmaking, during which form and function begin to converse with greater freedom, heralding aesthetic sensibilities that would find their full expression in the years that followed.

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