1946 – 1960: The founding years

With the Second World War over, William Mosset was finally able to put his building plans into practice. On 19 March 1946 it was time to enter the new company in the Commercial Register. But under what name? In the end, William was inspired by the French term “arrondir”, referring to the rounding off of the pivot. Ronda was born; and the company moved into its new factory in the town of Lausen on 18 November of the same year.

In its early years, the Ronda company and its 45 employees manufactured balance staffs, stems and pivots for lever movements. With the acquisition of a patent, assortments for pin-pallet and Roskopf movements of other manufacturers were incorporated into the production programme; and regulated balances were added in 1958.

From 1952 onwards, Ronda produced the first blank Roskopf and pin-pallet movements (also known as ébauches) under licence for the Brac company, which was based in Breitenbach in Canton Solothurn. Ebauches differ from complete mechanical movements in that the escapement, the balance and the mainspring have not yet been added. By the time the 1950s were drawing to a close, Ronda’s Lausen workforce had grown to 220 personnel.