{"id":102919,"date":"2020-12-16T12:12:47","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T17:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sobarnes.com\/all-destinations\/victorinox-la-legende-du-couteau-suisse\/"},"modified":"2021-05-17T06:53:00","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T11:53:00","slug":"victorinox-the-legend-of-the-swiss-army-knife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sobarnes.com\/en\/so-barnes-en\/so-trendy\/victorinox-the-legend-of-the-swiss-army-knife\/","title":{"rendered":"Victorinox, the legend of the Swiss Army knife"},"content":{"rendered":"

Produced in a form almost unchanged since the end of the 19th<\/sup>\u00a0century, the Swiss Army knife is intrinsically linked to the brand created for it, Victorinox. Or to phrase it differently, when an accessory commissioned by an army for its soldiers becomes a worldwide icon, praised by both the MoMA and MacGyver.<\/h4>\n

Luxury isn\u2019t a question of price, and that's a good thing, since a Swiss Army knife only costs a few dozen euros! In 1890, the Swiss army decided to equip its soldiers with a folding knife suitable for three uses: cutting bread, opening cans and dismantling a standard-issue rifle. It therefore needed to be equipped with a blade, can opener, flat screwdriver, punch and saw. Once the concept was approved, the first order was placed with a German company, the only firm equipped to fulfil this invitation to tender. This ruffled the feathers of proud Swiss knife-maker Karl Elsener, who had been based in the canton of Schwyz since 1884. So he immediately created a lighter, civilian version of the knife \u2013 equipped with a corkscrew. This essential addition proved to be an incentive for officers to buy Elsener's knives (albeit on the sly!). As a result, in 1897, he patented his \"Swiss Army and sports knife\". He named it after his mother, Victoria. And in 1921, when steel became stainless steel, he created the Victorinox brand.<\/p>\n

The GIs stationed in Europe would make it a triumph after the Second World War. The Swiss Army knife, khaki or camouflage for the military, red for civilians, would soon become a legend. And would even become an addition to the Architecture and Design section of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York.<\/p>\n