====== Stamm, Heinrich ====== **Heinrich Stamm** was a Swiss watchmaker who rose to become head of design engineer at [[ETA]] after World War II. He is credited with the design of the [[Eterna 3000]] automatic movement, which was the basis for the [[ETA 2892]] still used today. ===== Biography ===== Stamm was born in [[1898]] and began his career in [[1925]] at [[A. Michel]] as a design engineer. He was an instructor in watchmaking in [[1938]] and [[1939]], helping unemployed watchmakers train for the emerging industrial watchmaking in Switzerland. He also worked on gear tooth profiles, developing a unique design of his own. On December 16, [[1939]], Stamm joined [[ETA]], then one of the larger watch movement makers but not the dominant company known today. He became head design engineer in [[1943]] and is credited with many inventions, including the ball bearing mounted [[automatic winding]] [[rotor]] and [[bi-directional winding]] reverser mechanism. He also created the so-called "ETA toothing", a gear profile introduced with the [[Eterna-Matic]] in [[1948]], adopted across ETA in [[1951]], and still used today. Stamm was well known for clashing with ETA boss [[Schild-Comtesse, Rudolf|Rudolf Schild-Comtesse]], but the two oversaw a dramatic expansion of the company and development of many important movements. In [[1961]], Stamm was tasked with creating a next-generation automatic movement for the [[Eterna-Matic 3000 Dato]] watch. The resulting movement used Stamm's ball bearing rotor, bi-directional winding reverser, and tooth profile. This would be the thinnest movement to date with a central automatic winding rotor, thanks to the steeply beveled base movement, close spacing of components, integrated automatic winding gears, and stepped rotor. The original [[Eterna 1466]] was updated with 21,600 A/h operation as [[Eterna 1504]] a few years after the [[1963]] debut. Stamm took on an apprentice, [[Bally, Anton|Anton Bally]], in [[1962]]. Bally would lead the evolution of Stamm's Eterna 3000 to the [[ETA 2892]] in [[1975]], continuing his legacy to the present day. Stamm retired from [[ETA]] in [[1969]] and received a gold medal from the Swiss Society for Chronometry a decade later. {{tag>Biographies}}