In light of what the previous poster said about Swiss watches not always being marked "Swiss" in the foreign market and different options and designs in different countries, it still makes me wonder. I mean how many of you folks who are far more knowledgeable than me have actually examined a bunch of Omegas known to have been specifically made for and sold IN France. As you noted, it really doesn't personally make much diff. The watch is an heirloom and meaningful on that level, but it's interesting trivia. I used to collect cameras. I remember someone having a particular collectible Olympus camera that had a funny look to some of its lettering. Everyone thought it was a fake until we found out that the cases and letterings for European marketed cameras were different than those for the American market. oh well. Thank u all for commenting. Maybe someday I will go to France, look for old Omegas and note anything unusual.
😉
The French did indeed have different rules, with different labels.
The following is a
message posted on the Horological Meandering discussion forum, by Marv, on June 14, 2011, addressing the question of why certain watches bear the marking, “Fab. Suisse”.
There was a French law (Art 15. de la loi du 11 janvier 1892) that said that it was prohibited to import into France any product whose brand, name, sign or mark could mislead the consumer, in the sense that it could be understood as having been produced in France whereas it was not the case.
In 1924, a very strict interpretation of that law applied: a brand name that had a “French” origin or meaning could be considered on its own as a misleading mark! Even a brand with a foreign name, but with one subsidiary in France, was concerned! Therefore, many Swiss brands were concerned by this strict rule.
In order to be allowed to import watches into France, many Swiss watchmakers had to add a “legal rider” on the dial to explicitly mention the Swiss origin: “Importé de …“, “Fabrique en …“. There was a tolerance for the watches whose dial was too small to have the whole rider printed. In that case, the short “Fab. Suisse” was accepted.
See:
http://thoughts.onthedash.com/thoughts/the-fab-suisse-marking-on-watch-dials/
this second one is a redial:
See this blog post, by the most respected Constellation collector here:
http://omega-constellation-collecto...8/a-french-omega-constellation-2648-seen.html
