Here’s a beautiful Ralco watch from the late 1940’s or early 1950’s. "Ralco" watches were produced by Movado, the name originating from the first letter of the names of three members of the Ditesheim family (owners of Movado), Roger, Armand and Lucien. The watch has a very nice quality Swiss 15-jewel bumper automatic movement which is working perfectly fine. Some additional information I found on the internet: On Saturday, October 11, 1941, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for RALCO by Movado Watch Company. The USPTO has given the RALCO trademark serial number of 71447707. The current federal status of this trademark filing is EXPIRED. The description provided to the USPTO for RALCO is WATCHES. When I came across this Welsbro vintage watch I was eager to find out about the history behind the company that manufactured or assembled this watch. Through my research I discovered that Welsbro was a trademark of Weissman Watch Co., New York, importers of fine Swiss Watches. Welsbro watches actually began in the pocket watch era. The name was initially 'Weisbro', for the Weissman Brothers (Weis + Bro = Weisbro). But when the name was capitalized, as is typical for a name on a watch, Weisbro became “WEISBRO” which looked like “Welsbro”. Well….. guess what…the company took that name and ran with it. Welsbro watches were typically good quality Swiss watches with jeweled movements from one of a few Swiss movement manufacturers. The cases were also typical for that era, being either gold plated or chrome plated. Late 1930s to 1940s Welsbro watches shared the same cases used by other quality Swiss watch manufacturers. In the world of vintage timepieces, Welsbro watches were like Bulova watches, in that they were both New York City based companies that imported quality Swiss Watches. Samuel Weissman, Sylvia Shapiro and Florence Weissman, were doing business as Weissman Watch Co., Welsbro Watch Co. and Weisco Watch Co., 20 W. 47th St., in 1943. This particular watch has a Swiss movement stamped “Hilton Watch Co. So, I think it’s even more rare since it appears to be a mix of two companies. Hilton was a company based in New York City and distributed watches usually made with 17 jewel Swiss movements and cases from a variety of sources. It was a marketing company rather than a manufacturer. What is fascinating and rare about the movement is that it is stamped “AS 1187/94” which is the same movement that Rolex purchased from 'A Schild' in Grenchen for use in its Tudor range of watches in the 1950’s and 1960’s. (Google ...TUDOR AS 1187/94 MOVEMENT). There is a misconception that because of the Rolex prestige, it is automatically assumed by most buyers that Rolex manufactured its own movements in-house, but in fact, during its golden age this was never so. The majority of Rolex mechanisms were purchased from the 'Aegler' company, not least because Rolex had a strong financial interest in Aegler. Other movements were also sourced from Fabrique d’Horologerie de Fontainmelon ( F.H.F) and A Schild (AS), which is the exact same movement in this Welsbro/Hilton watch. Then as now, the standard of components needed to satisfy Rolex quality control was nothing short of remarkable, and whichever one of these makers were responsible for a particular Rolex movement from the 1950s and ‘60s, its build and finish standard will always be second to none. The case of this particular watch is stamped W.M.R Watch Case Co. which was an entity registered at NEW YORK county at the address of 11 W. 42Nd St. New York, NY10036. The company was incorporated on June 19, 1959. and it seems to have supplied cases for some other brands such as "Vantage" (Hamilton) and "Halgreen”. This is a very interesting and beautiful watch indeed! A bit of background on "assembled" watches: Literally thousands of watch companies have existed. Some actually "manufactured" watches while many other companies "pieced together" components that were manufactured by other companies. They would purchase the movement, dial, case, hands, etc. from different suppliers and assemble them in their own factories. Watches were sold under whatever name they had chosen to put on the dial. These are collectively referred to as "generic" Swiss watches, or "assembled" watches. The movements inside these watches are referred to as "ebauches" (pronounced ay-boshe). Ebauche, S.A. at one time was an affiliation of 17 firms manufacturing raw Swiss watch movements. It doesn't mean they are "bad" or of poor quality either as some ebauche movements were used by early Rolex and Breitling watches. When it comes to researching about these companies, the longer a company was in existence, the better the chance that history is available, and probably the watch is more collectible (and may have a higher value). Here are some examples of companies with ‘ebauche’ movements:
There is a lot of mystery and speculation surrounding the watch brand called “SEKONDA”. One version of the history of the watch is that 'Sekonda' is a British company that sourced its watches from the former USSR until the early 1990s when the Soviet Union broke up. Established in 1966, Sekonda watches were originally produced in the Soviet Union, at the First Moscow Watch Factory in Moscow and the Petrodvorets Watch Factory in Leningrad. Many Soviet-era Sekonda watches exported to the West were re-badged Poljot and Raketa watches. The 'Sekonda' brand was created by ChasProm in 1966 for the export of the best watches from all the USSR's watch factories, including Slava. The names of factories that built Sekonda watches (re-relabeling their regular brands) were:
Additional historical data of the watch’s history is that Sekonda had been a brand of “Time Products Ltd.” who are now based in Leicester in the UK. From 1966 until the collapse of the Soviet Union, Sekonda sourced watches from the USSR. Indeed spares for Sekonda watches in the UK were provided by Southern Watch and Clock Supplies Ltd, Precista House, 48-46 High Street , Orpington, Kent. As mentioned earlier, there is speculation that the 'Sekonda' brand was originally created by ChasProm (the Soviet timepiece industry agency) in partnership with a British company. Sekonda 'paddle-hand Strela' chronographs were given as official gifts several months before the 1966 launch of the brand in Britain. It was within 18 months of the end of the USSR that Sekonda UK stopped sourcing any watches from Russia or Belarus. 'Sekonda'-branded Russian watches have continued to be available in Russia, from Poljot and Slava, right up until recently. The stamp on the movement shows it is a Poljot Russian type of movement. Internet sources of various Sekonda Movement Identification Manuals coming from London watch retailers dating from the 1970s showsnot only Poljot & Raketa, but Luch, Chaika, Slava, Vostok, Zaria, Agat & Molnia, all branded Sekonda for the UK market. So, Sekonda were definitely using Soviet movements during the 60s 70s. Here's a quote from the Poljot page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poljot: "During the Soviet era, Soviet watch brands including Poljot, but also Raketa watches, were marketed in the United Kingdom under the brand "Sekonda". Today's Sekonda company, a British distributor of ubiquitous fashion watches, has no connection to any Russian watches." Here’s another fine example of a 1930’s local jeweler’s house brand.
The Canadian Trademark Database shows that the name was registered as of 1926, but another reference book suggests that the actual registration was in 1945 (with claimed usage from 1926). Not sure if the database makes that distinction. See Canadian Trademark Data below. The brand was active for quite a while and only expired recently (1993). Unfortunately, that's long enough for many of the details to have been expunged from the database, so there's only a bit of information left. "Saunders Lorie & Co" was apparently a fairly large jewelry store at one point in Toronto, Canada; they show up as a registered silversmith. There is no direct reference to Sears, Simpsons, or Simpsons-Sears or Eaton’s stores though, so I don’t think there is any connection to these department stores. The movement appears to be a SWISS Fontainemelon (FHF) movement. It has a gold plated case with stainless steel back. Circa 1930’s case design. Very typical generic Swiss watch of the period. Interesting and fun to wear. Canadian Trademarks Details 0128427 - LORIE Application/Registration numbers 0128427 Registration number TMDA39773 Status: EXPUNGED Key Dates, Registered 1926-05-05 Interested Parties, Registrant SAUNDERS LORIE AND COMPANY LIMITED. Toronto ONTARIO Current owner LOIS R. ORKIN, 16 Edgar Avenue, Toronto, M4W 2A9 , ONTARIO Goods: Watches, watch movements, watch dials, watch cases and jewellery of all kinds and description. Precious and semi-precious metals, and jewellery Action History Registered 1926-05-05 Renewed 1976-05-05 Expunged - Failure to Renew 1993-05-28 |
Old Time WatchesI enjoy collecting mechanical (manual wind and automatic) and early electric and quartz timepieces. I take great pleasure in researching and writing about the companies and people that created these beautiful watches. PF
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