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Guest
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Here´s a time table I gathered from different sources:
1927 Stowa is founded by Walter Storz in Hornberg/Kinzigtal. STO (Storz), WA (Walter)
1935 Stowa moves to Pforzheim, production of watches started in a rented space
1938 An own factory building is ready, located at the Bismarckstrasse 54, Pforzheim
1938 Presentation of some Bauhaus watches ("precursors" of the Antea models)
1939 Manufacturing of the 55mm Stowa Flieger watch
23.02.1945 The factory building was destroyed close to the end of WW II
1945 Stowa moves to Rheinfelden (which is a small town close to the Swiss-German border) and re-starts producing watches
1947 Walter Storz becomes founder member of the german "Uhrenindustrieverband" (Watch Industry Association)
1949 The "Deutsche Uhrenkooperation" (German Watch Cooperation) was founded by Philipp Weber under the brandname PARAT.
There isn´t much to read about the Parat Cooperation but from what I could find out the Arctos Uhrenfabrik Philipp Weber, Berg Uhrenfabrik (Berg was re-launched by W. Schumacher/HeinrichGeisen watches), Wilhelm Beutter, Osco Uhrenfabrik, Otto Schlund (brand was currently re-launched) and Stowa joined this co-op.
When wholesalers got into economical troubles and decided to sell the PARAT-collection to greater department stores the cooperation lost a lot of money and disappeared from the market.
1951 A new production facility is set up at Rheinfelden. At the same time, the building in Pforzheim was reconstructed, and the production capacity of both factories was expanded enormously. The proportion of exports rose to almost 50%, and STOWA watches were distributed to some 80 countries worldwide.
1954 Foundation of the RUFA (Rheinfelder Uhrteilefabrik / Rheinfelder watch part factory), production of shock protection for PUW (Pforzheimer Uhrenwerke) and Durowe (Deutsche Uhren Rohwerke).
DUROWE is now owned by Jörg Schauer (www.durowe.com).
1960 Werner Storz took over responsibilities at Stowa (mainly covering the overseas markets)
1963 The brand name "STOWA Seatime" is registered as a trade mark.
1970 STOWA launched the" smallest alarm watch of the world ("Kleinster Wecker der Welt" at the Hannover fair. At this time the Stowa collection is made of 1000 models !
1974 Walter Storz dies.
1974 STOWA gets partner of the German Watch Cooperation "Pallas". Other partners: PaRa (Paul Raff), Arctos, Hugo Weinmann (brand: Exquisit), Ormo.
Paul Raff was one of the men who founded Pallas.
Somehow a new marketing strategy in 1970 by using synergetic effects - that´s what it is called nowadays. (So it is quite possible to fetch a Stowa Pallas or Pallas Stowa or just a Pallas on ebay or elsewhere).
1996 Werner Storz continued to manage STOWA’s business until 1996. He found a successor (Jörg Schauer), who took over and continued the production of STOWA watches.
1997 70th anniversary of Stowa and launch of the limted Flieger with an Unitas cal. 6300N.
1998 Werner Storz died.
2002 75th anniversary. Presentation of the limited pilot´s watch "Bremen D 1167".
2007 80th anniversary with some limited Flieger watches.
