THE ESSENTIALS
MAKE: ETERNA
MODEL: 154FTP-3
YEAR: 1969
BOX/PAPERS: NO/NO
CASE DIAMETER: 39mm
CASE MATERIAL: STAINLESS STEEL
BRACELET MATERIAL: STAINLESS STEEL
MOVEMENT: MANUAL WIND
As you can probably tell from our line-up, we’re big fans of 60s and 70s chronographs — and our love doesn’t stop at the Rolexes, Omegas, or Heuers. We’ve made it our mission to bring wonderfully made chronos from other, somewhat forgotten brands like Certina, Glycine, and Yema to the world.
Here we have the Eterna 154FTP chronograph. Eterna’s story begins in 1856 under the name Dr. Girard & Schild, founded by Josef Girard and Urs Schild — engineers before marketers, building watches from the movement up. The name Eterna wouldn’t appear until 1906, and up until the 1960s, the brand primarily produced small but robust time-only sports and dress watches.
What we have here, however, is Eterna’s answer to the 60s sports chronograph renaissance. Although somewhat of an anomaly in Eterna’s history — what a watch this is. The 39mm cushion case houses the legendary Valjoux 72 movement. But unlike the more monotone designs from Heuer or Rolex, Eterna painted a very different picture.
The three subdials, while all white, are each uniquely decorated and designed (even the fonts are different), set against a matte grey background that creates a striking "reverse panda" look. The dial is largely free from imperfections, and the lume has aged to a rich, dark pumpkin patina. The bezel insert is the star of the show here — the “red wine” colored bezel has beautifully faded to a coppery hue, completing the watch perfectly.
The caseback engraving reads 154FTP-3, with the "3" correctly denoting the dive bezel (for example, the 154FTP-7 features a tachymeter bezel). The case is in fantastic condition and likely hasn’t been polished more than once or twice. It even comes on the very rare original Eterna bracelet, with no stretch.
We had our watchmaker inspect the movement, and it's running fantastically at +3 s/d, 250 amps, with a 0.3 ms beat error. Watches like this really remind us why we love vintage watches here at Fathom.