Gabriel Heim is a book and film author and exhibition organiser. He is principally concerned with research into topics of modern and contemporary history and lives in Basel.
It’s quite rare for a lawyer to invent a soft drink. And the fact that he used a by-product to do so is almost impossible. But that’s exactly what happened. The result was Switzerland’s national drink, Rivella.
In 1937, chemist Max Morgenthaler invented the Nescafé we still know today. His invention made it possible to preserve coffee, a feat that had never been achieved before. In some cases, the raw material even ended up in locomotive boilers.
In 1947, watch brand VULCAIN launched the world’s first wristwatch with built-in alarm that could be mass-produced. The “Cricket” became a symbol of the post-war period and has gone down in watchmaking history as the “President’s Watch”.
