Understanding And Knowing Are Two Different Things

What we have understood is that Harry Truman was the first US President to own a Vulcain Cricket. 

Original photo credit to ACME Newspictures, inc. (Public Domain).

This is very much a case of "two things being true at once". In the picture above (dated February 2, 1951) you will note two future Presidents of the United States - Dwight David Eisenhower on the left, and Lyndon Baines Johnson on the right. While we cannot be certain of what is on Ike's left wrist, it appears to be a Vulcain Cricket that the Senator from Texas is wearing. 

This was nearly two years before President Harry Truman would be presented a gold Vulcain Cricket by the White House News Photographers Association in 1953.

Original photo credit to ACME Newspictures, inc. (Public Domain).

So where, when, how, and why did LBJ first come to own his first Vulcain Cricket? In truth? At this point nobody knows. Or to put it another way, those who know won't say. And those who will say?

They don't know.

My updated book, The Cricket and the Presidents - An Anecdotal History is available now.

The Cricket and the Presidents - An Anecdotal History

The Cricket And The Presidents - Version 2 Electric Boogaloo!

After a few years of delays, it is here!

Weighing in at just under 100 pages, this new and improved version offers some new insights as well as some previously unseen images.

Watch this space for more information on pricing and availability!

Repeat - Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev - Vulcain Cricket Owner

When we think about the Vulcain Cricket, one of the first thoughts that comes to mind is that it is considered the "Watch of the Presidents" (of the USA). In the process of updating my book on the Vulcain Cricket and the Presidents of the US, I came across this story that I shared over a year ago in a different outlet, and thought that I'd reheat it here -

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev - Vulcain Cricket Owner

With the passing of Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev the last remaining link between the Watch of the Presidents and the leader of the Soviet Union has gone with him.

Vulcain is, of course, well-known for its connection to US Presidents - particularly those who wore their Vulcain Crickets regularly - Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon, and (then Vice) President Biden. 

As noted previously, the first US President to be presented a Vulcain Cricket directly from either Vulcain Switzerland or the Paajanen family in Helsinki, Finland was President Reagan. Curious to relate, just prior to that, a Vulcain Cricket found its way to the wrist of the leader of the Soviet Union. 

Credit Time Magazine International Edition

This first ran in the blog formerly known as Tempus Fugit on January 17, 2022 -

Yes watch fans, the Soviets beat the US to space with Sputnik, and Gorbachev beat any US President in being presented with a Vulcain Cricket, directly by Vulcain.

What has been missed, or simply assumed by most accounts of the Cricket and the US President connection was that the company had given the watches themselves. This was never the case up to this point. And it is quite intriguing that Michel Ditisheim, the son of the inventor of the Cricket would be the one to set up his father's invention on its second act on the world's geopolitical stage.

What Mr. Ditisheim explained to me was that the idea to give Mr. Gorbachev a Vulcain Cricket came about in what I often refer to as the "between time". 

This is the time when Vulcain had slowed down its production and became part of the  Manufactures d'Horlogerie Suisses Réunies SA, or MSR. This group was formed in 1961 and included Revue Thommen, Buser Freres,  Phenix, and later Marvin (in 1976).

Mr. Ditisheim with the help of Vulcain enthusiast (and member of the Swiss Federal Council) Pierre Aubert helped to arrange the  presentation of a Vulcain Cricket to the leader of the Soviet Union. The watch was delivered to the Kremlin in 1987, and then... nothing. Not a peep. Mr. Ditisheim could not have been blamed if he might have felt it was a failure as a PR plan. Three years passed, and  it wasn't until he went to his mailbox, and took out that week's copy of Time Magazine's International Edition (December 30, 1990, number 53) that he knew that the Vulcain Cricket had not only been successfully delivered, but had found its way onto Mr. Gorbachev's wrist! Vulcain never received any sort of acknowledgement or thank you. But there it was, the first ever Vulcain  Cricket presented to a sitting "president" by the brand itself, splashed large across the front cover of (at that time) one of the world's most important news magazines.

The Presidents And Vulcain - The Cricket Travels East For An Unexpected Stop In Moscow

With Vice President (only later to become President) Richard Nixon leaving public life in the 1970s and Gerald Ford replacing him, the Oval Office was decidedly "Cricket Free" for quite some time. For those of you following along at home: Up to this point, Vulcain had not presented a Vulcain Cricket to a US President (sitting or future). Once again, a huge thank you to Michel Ditisheim for a lot of background that he provided.

When I was meeting with Mr. Ditisheim back in November, I asked him about a Time Magazine cover that featured a noted world leader wearing what appeared to be a Vulcain Cricket. And it was during this conversation that the TRUE identity of the first "President" to receive a Vulcain Cricket from the Vulcain company, was not born in the US. In fact, the first to be presented a Cricket directly from Vulcain was not born in Virginia, Ohio or New York, but rather by the Yegorlyk River, in Privolnoye, Stavropol kray, Russia, U.S.S.R.

"Wait, what's that you say? The first time Vulcain presented the "Watch of the Presidents" to a president was to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union?"

Courtesy of Time Magazine

Yes watch fans, the Soviets beat the US to space with Sputnik, and Gorbachev beat any US President in being presented with a Vulcain Cricket, directly by Vulcain.

What has been missed, or simply assumed by most accounts of the Cricket and the US President connection was that the company had given the watches themselves. This was never the case up to this point. And it is quite intriguing that Michel Ditisheim, the son of the inventor of the Cricket would be the one to set up his father's invention on its second act on the world's geopolitical stage.

What Mr. Ditisheim explained to me was that the idea to give Mr. Gorbachev a Vulcain Cricket came about in what I often refer to as the "between time". This is the time when Vulcain had slowed down its production and became part of the Manufactures d'Horlogerie Suisses Réunies SA, or MSR. This group was formed in 1961 and included Revue Thommen, Buser Freres, Phenix, and later Marvin (in 1976).

Mr. Ditisheim with the help of Vulcain enthusiast (and member of the Swiss Federal Council) Pierre Aubert helped to arrange the presentation of a Vulcain Cricket to the leader of the Soviet Union. The watch was delivered to the Kremlin in 1987, and then... nothing. Not a peep. Mr. Ditisheim could not have been blamed if he might have felt it was a failure as a PR plan. Three years passed, and  it wasn't until he went to his mailbox, and took out that week's copy of Time Magazine's International Edition (December 30, 1990, number 53) that he knew that the Vulcain Cricket had not only been successfully delivered, but had found its way onto Mr. Gorbachev's wrist! Vulcain never received any sort of acknowledgement or thank you. But there it was, the first ever Vulcain Cricket presented to a sitting "president", splashed large across the front cover of (at that time) one of the world's most important news magazines.

And the Vulcain Cricket was about to take to the air again, and travel westward to land again on the wrist of a former US President. But not quite as far west as you might think. Tune in next time to read about how a family jeweler worked with Michel Ditisheim to reclaim its title as the Watch of the Presidents.

A Grand Day Out - Visiting Vulcain HQ in Le Locle Part 2

Although Vulcain is no longer based in La Chaux-de-Fonds they have not abandoned the importance of having actual watch makers do actual watch making.

The villa that houses Vulcain's HQ is not just a show piece or administration center.  On the third floor is where all the assembly magic happens.

Now needless to say, alarm movements are not lying around thick on the ground, be they automatic or hand winding. You can't pick up the phone and get a delivery from ETA or Sellita (at least insofar as an off the shelf solution). So if you want to make an alarm watch - or more importantly if you want to PRIMARILY make alarm watches, you're going to have to (at least to some extent) do it yourself -

I was lucky to get to watch movements being assembled. I had noticed that while thee were a lot of the other things that I have seen in manufacturers like Girard-Perregaux and Corum, what I notably did not see at Vulcain were machines for milling movement parts. Carla Duarte explained to me that the components for the movements are all "made to order" and delivered to Vulcain's atelier in Le Locle, where the alarm enabled movements are assembled one by one right there. And in truth this makes quite a bit of sense. Rather than investing a crazy amount of money for machinery to produce (admittedly) a relatively small number of movements, Vulcain has taken the very sane, very rational approach of working with partners who can machine the individual components, and deliver them. The very talented watch makers at Vulcain take these individual parts, and bring them together for the complete movement.

And this is a part of what makes what Vulcain is doing now so special.  Going from this -

to this -

And finally to this -

So this is the present of Vulcain. Tune in next time where we take one last look around the "Vulcain Villa" and take in some of the rich history surrounding the brand.

Until then - Tempus Fugit!

The Greatest Marketing Campaign That Never Was (a marketing campaign) - Part 3

Of the US Presidents since Truman it is generally agreed that only 2 have never received or worn a Vulcain Cricket - George W. Bush and John F. Kennedy. Insofar as the forty third president, the reason most often cited was that he has not visited Helsinki, Finland from the time of his presidency until a few years ago (more on that later). When it comes to President Kennedy, it is safe to say that unlike his predecessor, Eisenhower, he neither purchased one or was presented one prior to his election. And as history will note, he was assassinated before the end of his first term, and any symbolic post-Presidential presentation that might have placed a Vulcain Cricket on his wrist were made impossible.

Fate would bring a former school teacher from Stonewall, Texas to the White House in 1963. 

Arnold Newman, White House Press Office (WHPO) - Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Muesuem - Archived 

Lyndon Baines Johnson was, to put it mildly, a man who was as much shaped by history as he helped shape it. Born on a farm in Stonewall, Texas in 1908, through a series of events that would have made Forest Gump blush, he became first Vice President, then President of the United States in less than 3 years. From what can only be called modest beginnings in a small farm house, it would be fair to say that his ascension could not be called typical. Following a spell as a school teacher, he entered politics as a legislative secretary to Richard M. Kleberg, who won a 1931 special election for a congressional seat representing Texas in the US House of Representatives. The rest, as they say, is history.

President Johnson was perhaps the all-time Vulcain Cricket fan. How and when he got his initial Cricket is, again, shrouded in a bit of mystery. 

Courtesy of Vulcain

What is known is that he was so enamored with the Cricket that while attending a conference in Switzerland, he deployed several staff members across Geneva with instructions to lay hands to as many Vulcain Crickets as possible so that he could present them as gifts. The word around the campfire is that this horological scavenger hunt netted 200 Vulcain Crickets. While who exactly was presented these Crickets is largely lost to history, what we do know from the LBJ Library's archive is that on April 2, 1964 President Johnson did present a Vulcain watch to Secretary McNamara in the Cabinet Room of the White House during a "special" meeting.  I feel confident that if you asked any heads of marketing working for a watch company, they would be over the moon if a year's worth of pay-to-play content on instagram, Facebook or any other social media channel netted a sale of 200 watches - and from such a prestigious client! Needless to say, they clearly did do everything bigger in Texas. 

The cost to Vulcain for this amazing return on marketing investment? Exactly CHF 0! Once again, the Vulcain Cricket proved to be the world's most successful Swiss watch brand "ambassador". President Johnson even went so far as to customize at least one of his Crickets with his initials at the 9 o'clock position.

Courtesy of the NAWCC

While there are more than a few images of Johnson wearing other watches, it is safe to say that the Cricket from La Chaux-de-Fonds was one of his favorites.

President Johnson (in the end) opted not to seek the nomination to run again for the Presidency in 1968, and yet another unlikely presidential candidate would emerge, one who was already wearing a Cricket on his wrist when destiny called.