VULCAIN
Established in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1858 by the Ditisheim family, Vulcain spent its first century as a conventional Swiss manufacture before solving a problem that had defeated the industry: how to make a wristwatch audible. The difficulty was acoustic rather than mechanical, since a case small enough for the wrist could not move enough air to be heard.
The Cricket
The answer, patented in 1947, was the Cricket calibre: a double case-back forming a resonance chamber, struck by a hammer through a membrane. It produced an alarm loud enough to wake a sleeping man, and it remains the reference against which mechanical alarm watches are judged.
The Watch of Presidents
Harry Truman received a Cricket in 1947 and wore it in office; Eisenhower, Johnson, Nixon and Reagan followed, and the model acquired the name by which it is still known. Vulcain produces the Cricket today alongside collections drawn from the same archive of alarm and diving models.