Paillard&Co traces its history back to 1814, when several watchmakers in the Swiss town of Sainte-Croix united joined skills to promote the export of their products and began working in small workshops. Moïse Paillard (1753–1830) was at the helm of this activity. He came from a family of watchmakers and had already proved himself as an inventor and designer.

In 1825, Paillard expanded competencies of Paillard & Co. by adding a workshop for manufacturing music boxes. After the founder's death in 1830, the firm was renamed E. Paillard & Co. S.A. and became a family business.

E. Paillard & Co. S.A. manufactured cylinder phonographs from 1898 to 1905 under the direction of Ernest Paillard. At the World Fair in Paris in 1900, Ernest Paillard was the only Swiss manufacturer to exhibit this type of phonograph. It was not until 1904-1905, that other Swiss companies followed his example.

In 1905, E. Paillard & Co. switched to producing disc gramophones and named them ‘Maestrophone’. The Company was manufacturing all parts by themselves, including spring motors. Paillard became widely known for its exquisite line of ‘Maestrophone’ gramophones,

from the iconic ‘Maestrophone’ to the iconic Maestrophone Stirling with a heat engine to portable models.

The company flourished between 1922 and 1929. In 1928, Paillard employed 862 people. By 1960, the number of workers had reached 3,519.

Musical mechanics and, later, audio playback and recording devices were not the only the manufacturing sector that the company developed. In 1913, Paillard opened a factory in Yverdon-les-Bains, where they began to develop and design a typewriter under the ‘Hermes’ brand. In 1920, the first machine was released, but the result was more like a prototype, and the product was not released to the market. In 1923, a second model was released, but it was the first one seen by consumers. Although the ‘Hermes 2’ did not achieve great commercial success, it was clear that the company had reached a good level and was capable of producing mid-range typewriters. In 1934, the ‘Hermes 3’ typewriter rolled off the assembly line, followed by the ‘Hermes 4’ the next year. These were high-end machines that were on par with well-known brands in terms of quality, but their sales were still low. In the late 1970s, the manufacturer E. Paillard & Co. ceased production of typewriters for objective reasons – the era of computers was dawning. In 1981, the company was taken over by the Italian firm Olivetti & Co., which by that time had already begun developing electronic computers. In 1989, the factory was liquidated.

In 1930, production of film cameras and image projectors began under the ‘Bolex’ brand name. ‘Paillard Bolex’ cameras are still available nowadays. ‘Bolex’ continues to exist in Yverdon-les-Bains, manufacturing and repairing film cameras.
Paillard became one of the three leading Swiss companies of the 20^th century one of the three leading Swiss companies of the 20th century in its field of activity. Today, the ‘Swiss Made’ label on mechanical musical items mainly means ‘made by Paillard, Thorens or Phrynis’.

Re.:
https://www.mytypewriter.ru/typewriters_from_a_to_z/hermes/
https://www.antiquariat.ru/item/66749-grammofon_maestrophone/
https://www.gramophonemuseum.com/paillard.html