He was considered one of the most powerful men in the Swiss watch industry of his time: feared by opponents, respected by business partners, esteemed by employees, driven by the shame of social decline in his childhood, and equipped with an unerring sense for talented staff. Rudolf Schild-Comtesse led his companies ETA and Eterna in Grenchen with an iron fist to success. As a member of numerous organizations, he influenced the history of the watch industry and that of his hometown in the 1950s and 1960s. Today, the flourishing ETA, a cornerstone of the Swatch Group, carried the watch industry through the crisis of the 1970s. Using previously unpublished archival material, Bettina Hahnloser traces the life and work of an old-school watch patron and offers a glimpse into the history of the industry and its consequential liberation.