Why do some mid-century Canadian watches have Russian movements? What is the connection between Marathon watches and the Cardinal watch shown here? The exploration of vintage watches continues with the fascinating story of one family's perseverance and survival as they navigated over 100 years of watchmaking. Thanks to Worzel and his blog for the excellent history: "The Wein family, formally Weinzieher, originally emigrated to the US [and Canada] from Russia but it's a little unclear how many of the family travelled with the head of the family, Hersh Wein, and how many arrived later. Hersh Wein had a large family that would diverge and go on to form important branches of the North American watch industry [Including Cardinal in Canada]. Nevertheless, the foundations were established in 1904 with the incorporation of Weinstrum Watches, who became the authorised dealership of "Abra Swiss Watches" and were situated at 93 Nassau Street, New York City. Later the concern would be known as Wein Brothers. Hersh (or Hirsch) left a number of his sons and sons-in-law in the business. Family lore had it that the larger family enterprise broke up due to fighting among the wives.​ Monya Wein moved to Switzerland....and helped to keep the family business alive by scrounging enough movements and parts to send back to the families in the US and Canada. Monya's son is Boris Vansier the artist. Rose Wenger, nee Weinzieher, and her husband went to Montreal and in 1923 started Wenger Ltd. owners of the Cardinal Watch brand. The current President is Myer Wenger the great-grandson of Hersh. The Canadian Wenger Watch Company (Wenger Ltd.) are not affiliated with Wenger Switzerland or their sister company Victorinox. Wenger Switzerland did not start producing watches until the late 1980s. Morris Wein would become the founder of Marathon Watch in Montreal Canada in 1939, which is run today by his grandson Mitchell Wein (family pronunciation 'ween'). One brother moved to New York and another went to live in Los Angeles. Last but by no means least there was Hyman Wein (family pronunciation 'wine'), born in 1888 in the city of Kiev, then a part of the Imperial Russia Empire, today the capital of the Ukraine. He was 34 years old when he emigrated to the US with his wife Susan, also known as Sasha. He had formerly been an officer in the Russian Army and had witnessed the horrors of the pogroms following the revolution. Between 1920 and 1922 as many as 30,000 Russian soldiers, aristocrats, professionals and intellectuals left"white émigré", so named for their opposition to the Bolsheviks (Marxist, Leninist faction of Communism). They settled in Chicago Illinois where he [Hyman Wein] founded the Clinton Watch Company in 1922 at 29 East Madison Avenue. Clinton is the name of both an Illinois county and an area in Chicago. The company were like many others of that time 'watch designers and compilers' bringing-in movements, dials and cases and assembling them in their workshops." I hope some of you found that bit of watch history enlightening. Opening a Cardinal watch to sometimes discover a Russian movement had puzzled some Canadian watchmakers over the years so learning that Monya Wein deserves credit for that is pretty cool. Mitchel Wein, head of Marathon Watch, occasionally posts about his family's watchmaking history and it's neat that I'm wearing a piece of that history with all it's quintessential 70's design cues when earth tones and gold tones were popular.