Unknown/Identification required Sony De Luxe
It has one jewel and sounds like a diesel tank, it has an unbreakable mainspring. Movement is by Claro in Switzerland. I have not been able to find any history of Sony in the automatic watch space and assume this is either a frankenwatch or a strange dial on a standard movement. Any one have any thoughts?
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Anthony
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Manchester
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I’ve ran into a similar situation with a Bernard Schaffel watch.
If you search for Claro De Luxe you’ll find similar/ identical pieces with different Branding. What I’ve pieced together is there was a basic design and different companies would order them as promotional items or office party prizes etc.
It's been discussed here before, Sony commissioned watches for their employees, most common manufacturer is Seiko, if you search Seiko Sony there's a few out there, not sure about this one.
I’ve ran into a similar situation with a Bernard Schaffel watch.
If you search for Claro De Luxe you’ll find similar/ identical pieces with different Branding. What I’ve pieced together is there was a basic design and different companies would order them as promotional items or office party prizes etc.
That is very interesting, I'd searched Claro but only for the movement, not the case style. It makes sense, although IMO would be at odds with a "high tech"company like Sony's brand to offer mechanical watches in what I assume would be the 70s/80s instead of a Casio or game watch. I'll do some more research. Thank you!
It's been discussed here before, Sony commissioned watches for their employees, most common manufacturer is Seiko, if you search Seiko Sony there's a few out there, not sure about this one.
I just searched for the old post you mentioned. The Seiko Sony looks much more refined than this. The one I have must have been for people they didn't like much 😀
I find this about claro watch sa.
Claro Watch SA in Liquidation is a deregistered SA based in Biel/Bienne, in the canton of Bern, founded in 1961. Its identification number UID is CHE-104.079.099. It was active in the "watchmaking" sector. The bankruptcy of the company was pronounced by the court and published in the SOGC on November 8th, 2010. Claro Watch SA in Liquidation was deregistered from the commercial register in 2013.
Seems like that they made some promotional watches as @ThirdWatch mentioned.
That is very interesting, I'd searched Claro but only for the movement, not the case style. It makes sense, although IMO would be at odds with a "high tech"company like Sony's brand to offer mechanical watches in what I assume would be the 70s/80s instead of a Casio or game watch. I'll do some more research. Thank you!
They probably contacted a jeweler and made a bulk order. I doubt it was something a lot of thought was put into. There’s a lot of businesses that did that.