More than twenty years ago, Victorinox, undoubtedly the most famous manufacturer of pocket knives in the world, introduced the first watches with the brand’s famous “Cross & Shield” logo on the dial. While the headquarter of the company is located in Ibach, canton Schwyz, in the heart of Switzerland, the Victorinox Watch Competence Center in the Swiss Jura (Delémont) engineers, manufactures and assembles watches and watch components. The family-run company had started to verticalize its manufacturing capabilities with the launch of the first I.N.O.X. watch in 2014. Today, depending on the line, complete cases or components such as bezels, middle cases, movement holders (if made out of metal), containers, or casebacks are not just assembled but also produced in-house.
With the new Journey 1884 collection (the company was founded in that year as “Messerfabrik Carl Elsener”), Victorinox aims to bring “the energy of the Swiss mountains into everyday adventures” – more importantly, the brand is also adding two mechanical versions with Sellita SW 200-1 movements, the Ref. 241980.1 with blue dial, and the Ref. 241981 with black dial and metal bracelet:

The collection’s quartz-powered models (using the Ronda 715) all come with a red logo at 12 o’clock, and are available with a blue or black dial with matching bezel insert (and available on a strap or bracelet), there is also an all-black version (Ref. 24198...