Eterna is a Swiss watch company founded in Grenchen, Canton Solothurn, on 7 November 1856 by Josef Girard and Urs Schild.

After the death of Urs Schild, his son Max took over the company and soon made a business trip to the United States.

Discouraged, he left the company and handed power over to his brother Theodore, with whom Eterna entered a prosperous 20th century.

Schild Fréres, as the company was then known, started to produce ladies’ wristwatches adapted from small pocket watches.

[citation needed] In 1948, Eterna advanced self-winding watch technology with the development of the Eterna-matic automatic movement.

The use of five strategically placed ball bearings made the movement very efficient and significantly reduced friction and resistance on the oscillating weight that wound the mainspring.

[3] The Golden Heart for Ladies watch model, powered by Eterna-matic, was worn by actresses Gina Lollobrigida and Brigitte Bardot.

Porsche Design sold Eterna to International Volant Ltd, a subsidiary of China Haidian on 29 June 2011.