Vintage
Eterna and the Kon-Tiki Voyage Across the South Pacific
Vintage
Eterna and the Kon-Tiki Voyage Across the South Pacific
For a nine-year-old boy, addicted to Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard, it was a no-brainer: I just had to read the book with the promise of such excitement in its pages. More than a half-century later, I can still picture the gold cover of Pocket Books US paperback edition of Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki.
And I wasn’t even particularly drawn to tales of the sea: it was the ineffable sense of adventure and achievement that had such pull, especially as all one heard about back then was space travel. Wind-lashed sails, fearless men struggling with the crude rigging, the mighty waves – it was Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels rolled into one. Only it was real, and occurred in 1947, not 1747.
Wristwatches conveniently accompanied all daring exploits since they replaced pocket watches at the behest of pioneering aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont in 1904. The Speedmaster Professional provided Omega with glory through death-defying exploits in space and on the moon. Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay wore the watch that would become the Explorer when climbing Mount Everest, doing the same for Rolex. And so did Eterna acquire a true “hero” watch before its rivals, thanks to the journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by a Norwegian academic, explorer and writer.
First Settlers
Heyerdahl’s book, published in Norwegian in 1948 as The Kon-Tiki Expedition: By Raft Across the South Seas, was later reprinted as Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft. His own documentary – which won the Academy Award in 1951 – recounted this experiment to prove that sailors from South America could have journeyed to Polynesia.
For the Kon-Tiki itself, he recreated a 15x30ft craft such as would have been used by those earlier mariners, constructed with only the materials and technologies available at the time. Despite this mid-20th century recreation also enjoying the support of some modern equipment including a radio, watches, charts, sextant and metal knives, Heyerdahl’s point was that that the raft itself could make the journey.
The Big Watch Sail
Now this is what “ambassadorship” should be all about: each Kon-Tiki crew member wore an Eterna wristwatch, chosen because of its water-resistance. During the journey, the role of the watches as navigation tools recalled the work of John Harrison two centuries earlier, helping to determine the distance covered by calculating longitude. The crew grew to depend on the accuracy and reliability of their watches, the timepieces being part of a limited series created by Eterna expressly for the expedition.
Although the voyage ended with the wreck of the raft, Eterna was able to state that the watches, “for their part, were running as smoothly as ever, unaffected by water, moisture, salt corrosion and temperature variations”. Back at the factory, Eterna’s technical teams “drew the appropriate conclusions. From a legendary figure and name, Kon-Tiki would now become an exceptional horological dynasty.”
Deleting the hyphen, Eterna launched the self-winding Eterna-Matic KonTiki in 1958. Its distinctive visual feature was a dial with oversized, luminous triangles containing the hour numerals at 3, 6, 9 and 12. That same year, Eterna produced a smaller women’s KonTiki, featuring the same functions as the men’s model but with a dressier dial and a calendar added to it.
It was the birth of a range that, in 2016, will be the focus of Eterna’s efforts, this revered brand re-booting itself after a patchy decade or two. Over the years, the KonTiki family has included all manner of diving watches, as well as dressier variants – still water-resistant, but less obvious.
The Evolution of a Legend
And there are standouts: discerning collectors of diving watches covet the early Eterna-Matic Super KonTiki of 1959, with easy-to-read dial, massive rotating bezel and water-resistance to 200m.
Some variants would depart from the original KonTiki ethos, though core models would always adhere to the spirit of Heyerdahl. In 1976, the Royal Quartz KonTiki in gold-enhanced stainless steel became the thinnest calendar-equipped watch of day, with special versions produced over the years for a number of markets, starting with Italy in 1984. But with the mechanical watch revival of the 1990s, Eterna returned to its roots.
He’s also cognizant of the difference between mere promotion, and the value of a truly historical moment that defined the value of a watch. “The Kon-Tiki expedition was a game changer, overcoming the boundaries of what was thought to be unachievable. The Swiss watch industry today is filled with some great products, but the consumer has become far more discerning in this digital era of multimedia, expecting much more romancing. Therefore, storytelling and emotional engagement are key to differentiating between the brands. There are few heritage brands like Eterna with such a rich history. To this end, ultimately the consumer buys into the story and emotion, and KonTiki is key to this.”
Recent Years
Last offered in 1992, the Lady KonTiki was re-launched in 2016, as well as the Lady KonTiki Diver. Also unveiled at Basel 2016 was the Super KonTiki Chronograph, the first to use the EMC Caliber 39 Chronograph in a special, numbered edition. This watch inaugurates Eterna’s three-year programme for the rebirth of its own EMC manufacture calibers. The target is to have an EMC movement in at least half of what they hope to be selling by 2018.
With the study of history having diminished in importance of late, too many people are unaware that Eterna split into two companies in 1932: Eterna SA to produce watches and another little ol’ brand to make movements. You just might have heard of it. It’s called ETA.