Certina Blue Ribbon "volvo"

[rogart63]

This is now part of my collection. Bought the watch at a car boot sale.  It was in good condition but didn't work. Broken mainspring.This watches where given to every employee at the Volvo factory in 1977. That was when Volvo celebrated there 50 anniversary. 1927-1977 . There are some different watches. All blue but different shades.  But can't say what the difference is? All are Certina blue ribbon. Inside is a Eta 2783 movement. And have put it on a original Tropic strap. 

 

[Geo]

That's an interesting collectors item you've picked up Roger piece you've picked up Roger, and a really tidy job of restoration. :)

[clockboy]

Nice collectors watch Roger looks like the face & case are in real good condition.

[Tomcat1960]

Rogart, I don't know whether it's still of interest to you, but here is some additional information regarding your "50 years of Volvo" Certina: Volvo issued some 64,000 watches to employees not just in the factory but all around the world in order to celebrate "50 År Volvo - 1927 - 1977". Certina was at the time a prime supplier of watches to Volvo who issued them as 100,000-km-presents to valued customers. So it was quite natural that Volvo turned to Certina when it came to a gift for the celebration of Volvo's semi-centennial. 

Basically, there were two types of watches: for male employees, Volvo issued the Certina Blue Ribbon with a steel case, for women the Certina 'Mayfair' with a gilt one. The watches were taken from Certina's 1977 range. I don't know much about the 'Mayfair', but the 'Blue Ribbon' was actually equipped with an in-house movement, the well-developed 25-651/25-651M. I'm pretty sure that actually all Volvo watches were meant to be delivered with the in-house caliber. However, Certina's capacity at that time was at around 650,000 watches per year, and the production of mechanical movements was in the process of being wound down, so it's easy to see why an order the size of Volvo's, mopping up some ten percent of Certina's overall capacity, could not be fulfilled with in-house movements alone. 

Therefore Certina bought additional ETA movements (ETA 2783) which were refined and renamed "25-011". Because the arrangement of the date ring was slightly different, new dials needed to be used as well, with a slightly smaller date window aperture set slightly to the center when compared with the original dial. 

These dials were in a greenish hue (like in your watch) whereas the original ones were blue. Held next to each other, the differences between the two watches are easily discernible:

 

Enjoy your watch! I hope you brought it back to life!

Best regards

Andreas

PS: Do you drive a Volvo, too? ;-)

[rogart63]

1 hour ago, Tomcat1960 said:

Rogart, I don't know whether it's still of interest to you, but here is some additional information regarding your "50 years of Volvo" Certina: Volvo issued some 64,000 watches to employees not just in the factory but all around the world in order to celebrate "50 År Volvo - 1927 - 1977". Certina was at the time a prime supplier of watches to Volvo who issued them as 100,000-km-presents to valued customers. So it was quite natural that Volvo turned to Certina when it came to a gift for the celebration of Volvo's semi-centennial. 

Basically, there were two types of watches: for male employees, Volvo issued the Certina Blue Ribbon with a steel case, for women the Certina 'Mayfair' with a gilt one. The watches were taken from Certina's 1977 range. I don't know much about the 'Mayfair', but the 'Blue Ribbon' was actually equipped with an in-house movement, the well-developed 25-651/25-651M. I'm pretty sure that actually all Volvo watches were meant to be delivered with the in-house caliber. However, Certina's capacity at that time was at around 650,000 watches per year, and the production of mechanical movements was in the process of being wound down, so it's easy to see why an order the size of Volvo's, mopping up some ten percent of Certina's overall capacity, could not be fulfilled with in-house movements alone. 

Therefore Certina bought additional ETA movements (ETA 2783) which were refined and renamed "25-011". Because the arrangement of the date ring was slightly different, new dials needed to be used as well, with a slightly smaller date window aperture set slightly to the center when compared with the original dial. 

These dials were in a greenish hue (like in your watch) whereas the original ones were blue. Held next to each other, the differences between the two watches are easily discernible:

 

Enjoy your watch! I hope you brought it back to life!

Best regards

Andreas

PS: Do you drive a Volvo, too? ;-)

Hi Andreas 

Very intresting to learn about how the watches was developed. And why there are two different versions. My Certina Volvo has left the building. It was sold to a friend that is a very keen Volvo fan. 

I see this watches a lot on Swedish auctions.