The "Manufactures Montres & Chronographes Pierce S.A." was established in 1883 in Bienne. In the 20's their movement suppliers went out of buisiness, and they needed to develope their own. One of these was the cal. 134 that is in this watch. It is a 13 lignes column wheel movement with a vertical friction
clutch.
This watch is probably from around 1935.
I've seen these watches in different cases, and mine is a very
plain, straight lugged steel case, still in a very nice condition though. It is
a two register "up and down" chronograph, with a small register at 6
o'clock for the permanently running second hand, and a somewhat bigger register
at 12 o'clock for the chronograph minute counter. The red chronograph second
hand can be started and stopped with the button at 4 o'clock, and reset with
the button at 2. This the other way around from most other chronographs.
On the outerscale of the dial you can find the tachymeter for measuring speed,
and inside of that, the telemeter scale for measuring distance.
It was completely taken apart, cleaned, oiled and regulated. Nothing needed replacement luckely, since parts seem to be hard to get, but I had a new mainspring put in anyhow to get the maximum power reserve. The dial was only cleaned, and you can still see some aging on the painted part of the dial. The center part of the dial appears to be bare metal, and looks near perfect. The markings on the dial are still ok, only the luminous material on the numbers has aged a lot, and doesn't do anything at all. The hands were refilled with luminous material.
Now here's a picture of the movement. I can't find a number
anywhere, but I believe it is the cal.134, an in house Pierce movement. It looks quit different from most others I've
seen. It's running very well now, although the chrono second hand doesn't always move
smoothly. Accuracy appears to be good.
For some reason most of these watches seem to have been sold in the
U.S.
Last picture on the wrist, as you can see this is a fairly big watch, must have been really big in the 30's, and I like the way it
looks. It's comfortable to wear, something I do with pride and pleasure.
.