Welcome to Erin Mankie's Cabinet of Curiosity's, a production of I Heart Radio and Grimm

and Mild.

Our world is full of the unexplainable.

And if history is an open book, all of these amazing tales are right there on display,

just waiting for us to explore.

Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosity's.

An inventor doesn't know they're ahead of their time in the moment.

When they create something new, they hope to accomplish two goals.

One is for their creation to catch on with the public.

After all, if it worked for them, surely there are others out there who might benefit

from its existence.

The other goal is to scratch a particular itch.

Maybe their invention was meant to lighten their load or save them time.

For watchmaker Charles Vermeau, it was to keep time.

Vermeau had worked for the Martel Watch Company, a Swiss chronograph supplier that was acquired

in the 1950s by one of its biggest customers, the Swiss-based Zenith Watch Company, not

to be confused with the American Zenith Electronics Corporation.

Back in 1962, Zenith Watch started working on a new type of chronograph movement, one

that was self-winding and highly accurate.

A chronograph watch was a timepiece that combined a standard time-telling display with

a stopwatch.

Now, most chronographs today incorporate two or three sub-dials to measure things like

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