Helvetia Cal 82 Manual Winding 1950's 33mm Watch

In lovely condition, a classic early 1950s watch, manufactured by Helvetia watch company, with a shock protected in-house calibre 82c movement. It has a 33mm chrome plated case which is excellent other than some marks to the rear edges. The silver dial has a satin finish, with applied gold Arabic numerals, black outer minutes track. The Helvetia signing is in the classic font during the era, with the sunken sub-second dial sitting above 6 O’clock. The dial has some ageing as the photographs show. Signed Swiss made to the base. The hands are of stick style with the gold tone matching the numerals. The case back is Stainless Steel.
Inside is the calibre 82C movement, which was manufactured in-house by Helvetia. It was introduced in the mid 1940s and had an improved setting level, crown wheel and shock protection. It is a 15-jewel manual wind calibre with a beat rate of 18,000 BPH. It has been recently serviced and is keeping time to within 20 seconds variation a day. 
This is a neatly designed classic 1950s watch, with a good quality in-house movement with shock protection. Running well, and keeping time. 33mmx43mm
Helvetia
Helvetia watch company dates back to 1848 with Louis Brands. By 1880 Louis and his brother set up a watch manufacturing business called La Generale Watch Co (General Watch Company). The watches incorporated the new Swiss lever movement in 1885, allowing them to produce timepieces accurate to within 30 seconds a day. By 1898 they were the largest producer of watchs in Switzerland.
Omega had a financial position in General Watch Co at the start of the 20th century, but relinquished this in 1911, allowing the company to be fully independent. From the late 1920s the company adopted the ‘Helvetia Watch Company’ name and began to mark movements and watches as this. The main importers of Helvetia into the UK during the period was Robert Pringle and Sons, of London.
Helvetia were leaders in watchmaking technology and filed patents for shock protection in movement in 1929, a waterproof crystal in 1931 and anti-shock movement mounting in 1933. They also developed central sweep second movements, calendar watches and Stop Seconds chronographs in this period.
The company was a well known provider of wristwatches for the German armed forces during WW2, marked with a ‘DH’, or ‘DI H’ on the case back.
The company's production rose post war and this period is widely seen as Helvetias best. Many watches they produced were larger than average for the era. They also offered military style watches to cater for the large market of ex-servicemen. In-house movement production continued throughout the 50s and 60s.