Cyma Caliber R.458

The CYMA (Tavannes) caliber R. 458 is a vintage Swiss made in-house manual wind movement with 17 jewels. There is a similar calibre R.459 with a central sweeping seconds hand.

Cyma or Tavannes – which one is it?

The ratchet wheel on the R.458 is signed Tavannes Watch Co., a watch manufacturer that was founded in 1891 and officially registered in 1895. Based in the Jura mountain region of Switzerland, Tavannes sold pocket watches all over the world. Some of the watches were sold under different names, one of which was CYMA, a name that Tavannes trademarked in 1904. By 1930, Cyma Watch Co. was formed. In 1943, Tavannes started to use the CYMA name on more watches, as they used the Tavannes name mostly for the production of movements. By 1950, Tavannes obtained over 300 patents for mechanical watches and the company produced calibers for numerous Swiss watch brands – including CYMA. In 1966, as Tavannes put more focus into producing Tavannes machines (CNC milling machines) for the watch industry, a conglomerate now known as Swatch Group, created a holding company for new acquisitions. The holding company Chronos Holdings created the Synchron Group in 1966, which contained brands such as Cyma, Doxa and Borel. The Synchron Group was dissolved in 1978 and the brands were acquired by M. Claude Guilgot. Both the CYMA and Tavannes names can be found on watches sold today.

Watches with this movement:

The example movement featured above was found in a vintage Cyma Triplex timepiece.

Video: Full service of a caliber R.458

Caliber submitted by user @watchwatches2020

Additional Resources:

• Tavannes official history