Eterna was founded on 7 November 1856 in Grenchen, in the Swiss canton of Solothurn, by Josef Girard and Urs Schild, who set up a watch movement (ébauche) factory. Its movement branch, ETA, took part in the creation of Ébauches SA in 1926 and, through later mergers, became ETA SA, today the Swatch Group’s movement maker. In 1948 Eterna introduced a ball-bearing mounted rotor that reduced friction, used in its Eterna-Matic automatic watches. In 1958 it launched the Kon-Tiki collection, inspired by Thor Heyerdahl’s 1947 Kon-Tiki expedition.
In 1995 Eterna was bought by F.A. Porsche Beteiligungen GmbH, and from 1999 it produced Porsche Design-branded watches, a partnership that ended in 2014. In 2011 Porsche Design sold Eterna to International Volant Ltd, a subsidiary of China Haidian, which was renamed Citychamp in 2014. Eterna is still active, headquartered in Grenchen and owned by the Hong Kong-based Citychamp group, with current collections including Eternity, Kontiki and Heritage.
