The history of the Mortima watch brand

Mortima is together with Sicura one of the most important brands if you are interested in every man’s and affordable watches from the 1960s and 1970s. Mortima was a french brand from company ”Cattin & Cie” in Morteau. The city of Morteau is located in east France very near the Swiss border and the famous watch valley La Chaux-de-Fonds. Morteau itself has a rich history of watchmaking dating back to 1750 and today is home to a watch museum. The name ”Mortima” was probably inspired by the city name ”Morteau” and the english word ”time”.

Mortima watch logo from a 1970s SuperDatomatic

Like Ernest Schneider for Sicura one person is key in the history of Mortima: Césaire Émile Cattin. Émile Cattin was born in Morteau in 1904 and was only 25 years old when he founded his watch company ”Cattin & Cie”.

Read these interesting articles and see the pictures from magazine ”c’est à dire” telling the story about Émile Cattin and Mortima.

Click here to find an article about the renowned Mortima SuperDatomatic dive watches, all 42 mm or larger.

Below you can find some additional information about Mortima.

Mortima anno 1957
This vintage ad from Cattin & Cie tells that the company was founded in 1929 (not in 1926 as you frequently will find on the net). Judging from the visual style the ad is from the early 1950s. At this point Cattin & Cie. was not yet promoting the Mortima brand.

Early 1950s ad from Cattin & Cie. No mention of Mortima.

This source says that the name Mortima was registered circa 1957. And then this ad from 1958 is the first to mention Mortima.

Mortima watch ad from 1958.

Mortima watch ad from 1960.

Inhouse movements
An important reason for the success of Mortima was that Cattin & Cie produced their own movements. A nice list of the movements can be found here. In fact Cattin & Cie were one of the few watch companies that could produce almost everything inhouse, movements, watch cases and dials and assemble the watches – enabling them to keep production costs and prices very low. From app. 1980 Cattin & Cie also produced quartz movements.

Front and back of a catalog from the beginning of the 1980s with Mortima quartz watches.

Even though Mortima watches was very cheap an impressive number of watches has survived and can still be found today working perfectly. Emile Cattin must have done something right.

The famous diver on the backcase
The Mortima waterproof watches could be recognized by the iconic diver engraved on the backcase. This image can be found on watches from many, many different brands. Cattin & Cie was very popular as a subcontractor, They produced watches according to the clients wishes. Sometimes it was just a matter of rebranding existing Mortima models. In the 1970s, as can be seen from this list, watch cases, dials, bezels and movements from different producers were mixed and matched in endless variations.

Mortima's diver can be found on the back case of watches from many different brands.

Several Cattin’s in the watch industry
Please note. The french company ”Cattin & Cie” should NOT be confused with ”Cattin + Cie SA”. They are not in any way connected. This Swiss company is still active and makes private label watches. To add to the confusion there was also at one point another watchmaker called ”Emile Cattin”, but located in La Chaux-de-Fonds.

This ad from 1902 is not from the same Emile Cattin that later produced Mortima watches. 

The end
Probably because Mortima in time produced a quartz movement they survived the crisis in the 1970s that was the end for many other low-end brands. But Emile Cattin died in 1979. And in 1988 the company and the brand Mortima were sold to Kiplè, also located in Morteau. Kiplè had also taken over the watch brand LIP in 1984. In 1990 Kiplè itself went bankrupt and closed. Today the name Mortima is registered by a spanish company selling sunglasses. Strangely enough they even use Mortima’s Gallic rooster in the logo ;-)

The factory buildings still exists
The buildings that housed Hotel des Terrasses and Emile Cattin's first watch workshop is rather worn-down now. Judging from the few old photographs the workshop probably was in the buildings to the right of the hotel.

Emile Cattin's Hotel des Terrasses and first watch workshop in Morteau as seen in 2010. Source.

The factory that Emile Cattin build in 1962 still exists and now houses different companies. As an honour to the past it is called ”Centre d’Activités Emile Cattin”.

Mortima's old factory in Morteau as seen in 2013. Source. 

Sources
http://largevintagewatches.blogspot.dk/2017/09/articles-about-mortima-morteau-and.html
https://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Cattin,_C%C3%A9saire_%C3%89mile
https://watch-wiki.org/index.php?title=Cattin_%26_Cie._Morteau
http://mortima.wixsite.com/mortima-watches/full-history
http://www.musee-horlogerie.com/
http://www.chambresdebelair.net/mortima.html
http://forumamontres.forumactif.com/t34584p25-mortima-simili-mili
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lip#cite_note-10

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