Victorinox

Victorinox was founded in 1884 by the cutler Karl Elsener in Ibach, in the canton of Schwyz, where the company is still headquartered. It began supplying soldier's knives to the Swiss Army in 1891, and the name adopted in 1921 combines Victoria, the founder's mother, with inox, the French abbreviation for stainless steel. The company remains under family control through two foundations and, since absorbing its former competitor Wenger in 2005, is the sole supplier of the Swiss Army knife.

Watches came in 1989, first under the Swiss Army name in the United States, and are today made in Switzerland under the Victorinox Swiss Army label. The catalogue is built around field and tool watches rather than complications: the I.N.O.X. of 2014, designed to pass a series of 130 durability tests, the Maverick and the Journey lines, using mostly Swiss quartz and automatic movements. Watches form one part of a company whose products also include cutlery, luggage and fragrances.