TRUSTY (Tavannes) Small Seconds / 1930s Staybrite Case

— The origin of TRUSTY —

TRUSTY was not a brand in its own right but a trademark used by Tavannes Watch Co. for the Japanese market.

The logo is struck on this watch's movement, and from it the watches came to be known affectionately in Japan as "Tavannes of the dog mark."

From the Meiji era into the early Showa years they kept time on many wrists, and they have carried that memory quietly ever since.

The "dog-mark Tavannes," familiar in Japan from Meiji into early Showa. A historic vintage piece made by Tavannes. Very thick British-style lugs, a white dial like porcelain and vivid blued steel hands in fine balance. The caseback is struck "STAYBRITE," the mark of a high-grade corrosion-resistant steel. A timepiece that has kept the memory of its period intact.

— Tavannes Watch Co. —

Founded in 1891 in La Chaux-de-Fonds by Henri Frédéric Sandoz, the workshop reached Japan through the Schwob Frères agency in the Kobe foreign settlement.

The dog mark struck on the movement was loved as a sign of trust, and the watches accompanied people to work and on family journeys.

In 1966 the firm was absorbed into Chronos Holding under ASUAG and sank out of history for a time, but in 2008 it came back to life in the town of Tavannes itself and began writing a new chapter.

— British composure —

A restrained 31mm case with classical styling and very thick British-style lugs.

Old-fashioned Arabic indexes sit quietly on a fresh white dial reminiscent of porcelain, and the time is told by striking blued steel hands.

— The trademark STAYBRITE —

The material takes its name from the phrase "stay bright" and was registered as a trademark by Firth Brown of Britain in the 1920s.

Swiss watchmakers adopted it from the 1930s; resistant to rust and able to recover its lustre when polished, it spread as a new premium material in place of silver and nickel alloys.

The word "STAYBRITE" struck into the caseback was never merely a material designation — it was a promise that the shine would not be lost with time.