As is tradition, when we work with brands, as we go over their history, as we wrap up our first time working with Yema, it is only right to go over their near 80-year history. If you have not yet seen the first part of our highlight of Yema, where we reviewed their Superman Skin Diver, please take a look at that after you finish this article, as it helps us a lot.

The history of Yema starts in 1931, as Henry Luis Belmont finishes his studies and becomes a full-fledged watchmaker. 17 years later, in the aftermath of World War Two, he founded his own company, Yema. Henry and Yema would be extremely important in automating French watchmaking. Personally, he specialized in tool watches made for the roughest of conditions, which is something that we see in the company’s current DNA as well. This would range from racing to field military watches, the deepest depths of the ocean for divers, all the way up to space, but that all happens a bit later.

The 50s were a critical time for Yema as they started to produce their first set of pieces early in the decade, in 1951 he equipped most new Yema watches with their first automatic caliber the Lorsa 237 B which Henry renamed the Yema 231 A. Henry was quick to realise where he should position the brand as in 1953 he opted to position them directly to the military and adventure seekers as they became one of the first brands to manufacture dive watches that could withstand 100 meters of pressure, they were mass producing these watches as sales numbers reached 130.000 units in 1954. As the 60s rolled around, business was going great for Yema. In 1962, the company rebranded as Yema International, which is a very appropriate name, as in the period 1965-68, the brand was the leading watch exporter in France, exporting around 400.000 units to over 50 countries.

In 1966, a collection which is arguably my favorite from Yema, the Yachtingraf was born, a Regatta chronograph that includes the ETA Valjoux caliber with a chronograph and the iconic countdown timer for the Regatta. That piece would be passed on to the most renowned french yachtsman and former navy officer Eric Tabarly This period as previously stated might be the hottest in the brands history as a year later the original Superman is born, this model would include the patent for Yemas in-house bezel lock system which we see a variation on the modern watches as well, for the first time in French watchmaking a watch in regular production had the capabilities of reaching depths of 300 meters making it quintisential for any diver.

Despite the brand’s positioning and obvious use case for military purposes, they only first got issued 22 years after founding, with the newly minted Flygraf being released in 1970 and subsequently being issued to the French Air Force, specifically the unit of search and rescue swimmers. In 1982, the company joined Matra Horolegerie, which was a French industrial conglomerate. Henry Luis Belmont’s son, Henry John Belmont, takes over the role of CEO from his father, with a future icon in watchmaking, Richard Mille, and takes over international development. In June the same year, Jean-Loup Chrétien set off into space, becoming the first Frenchman to make the journey. On his wrist sat the first French watch to go to space, the Yema Spationaute 1. Further editions of the watch are made to accompany future trips of the French Space Agency. In 1986, Yema, thanks to the wisdom of Richard Mille, looked for an earthly expedition to rival space, thanks to Richard Mille’s contribution of a Titanium case design sturdy enough to survive the cold and harsh conditions of the north pole a Yema watch with a compass bezel insensitive of magnetism accompanied Jean-Louis Étienne on his 800 km solo journey across the North Pole.

The same year as the North Pole expedition, Seiko became a major player in our story as they bought the majority shares of Matra, making them the majority owner of Yema. This era of Japanese management would last for 18 years, all the way into the next millennium. This leads to many of the iconic Yema designs becoming heavily inspired by Seiko, and the Japanese Kaomi Matsumoto becomes president of Yema, with many Yema pieces now using Seiko movements. However, in 2001, Matsumoto appointed Louis-Éric Beckensteiner as the brand’s managing director. Three years later, he would acquire the brand, taking full control away from Seiko. His ownership reign would not last long, as in 2009, the independent watchmaker Ambre France took over and is still the owner of Yema today.

Now Ambre France is a family-owned watchmaking group based in Morteu, right along the France-Switzerland border. The company is far from young, having been founded in 1965. Their first order of business with the Yema brand was to create an in-house caliber, and after 4 years of development and 3 million Euros invested into the project, the MBP1000 was unveiled. This was a standard grade caliber that provided great reliability and accuracy without being overly expensive. To date, they have produced over 250.000 units of this caliber. In 2021, after the pandemic, they released the second generation of in-house calibers, with them constantly evolving and improving their calibers since that point. Now they have started to incorporate more Swiss-made calibers to diversify the product range.

Thank you for reading this overview of the history of Yema. I hope you enjoyed it. As I said before, I implore you to read the previous article where I reviewed the Yema Superman Skin Diver. I want to thank Yema for working with me on this, and I hope we can work together again.