Wrist watch
Item
Title
Wrist watch
Description
Stainless steel wrist watch belonging to Frank Kenwood. An inscription on the back of the watch reads, "To Frank From Mother & Dad". The inside of the wrist band has the name, "BENRUS" stamped twice into two of the links. This watch has the calendar months running around the outside of the dial.
Identifier
004.087.116
Format
Provenance
With the outbreak of World War II the other American watch companies (such as Waltham , Elgin and Hamilton ) were pressed in to service & required to make watches for the US Military. Some of the watch companies also had to “re-outfit” in order to make other goods (completely unrelated to watches) required by the war effort. Since Benrus had neither a watch movement factory nor the machinery needed for it here in the US , they were not required to do this. They managed to continue bringing Swiss watch movements into the US during the war and were able to keep selling their own watches. This gave them a great advantage when the war ended. It was during the 1940s that Benrus produced some of their best watches. The most notable of these would have to be their infamous calendar watch which was introduced in the late 1940s. This was a manual wind watch that featured a “window” in the dial to show the month and a “hand indicated date” that had the days of the month running around the outside of the dial. The date would advance as you pushed the crown in. This would turn out to be the most mass produced “complicated” watch of all time.
Abstract
Good
Date Created
1940