Within the Sixties Benrus was considered one of America’s largest watchmakers, producing about one million watches a 12 months. It made the massive clock that stored time at Pennsylvania Station in New York Metropolis, equipped watches to the U.S. army and had its timepieces worn by President John F. Kennedy, Steve McQueen, Charles Lindbergh and Babe Ruth.
Now, following a multimillion greenback funding by a small non-public fairness group, Benrus is again.
“I fell in love with the model due to its historical past and significance,” mentioned Michael Sweeney, the model’s new chairman and a companion in an funding group that purchased the identify in 2017. “It was a High 3 American watchmaker, with Hamilton and Bulova. Now, it’s the one one nonetheless U.S.-owned.”
Final week the Benrus model was reintroduced on the Time to Watch exhibition in Geneva. Its new assortment included: the Mannequin 3061, a steely time-only piece based mostly on the watch that McQueen wore within the 1968 movie “Bullitt”; the DTU-2A/P, a 34-millimeter cuff watch impressed by a 1962 army watch worn through the Vietnam Struggle; and the Sort 1 and Sort 2 fashions, each water resistant to 360 meters (1,180 ft), just like watches worn by the U.S. Navy SEALs and Military Rangers within the Seventies.
Benrus was based in Manhattan in 1921 by three brothers from Romania; its identify was a contraction of one of many brothers’ names, Benjamin Lazrus. The enterprise later moved to Switzerland, a mannequin its present house owners plan to copy: This 12 months, Mr. Sweeney mentioned, Benrus will open amenities within the Swiss watchmaking city of La Chaux-de-Fonds, though its headquarters will proceed to be within the Hippodrome Constructing on Sixth Avenue, the identical Midtown Manhattan property the place it was based.
“It’s historical past repeating itself,” Mr. Sweeney mentioned, including that the corporate would depend on Swiss actions and manufacturing. “We don’t see manufacturing taking place within the U.S.”
Costs will begin at $964 for the DTU-2A/P and go as much as $2,000. “We’ve watched the drift to increased pricing and we consider it’s created a white house” for midrange mechanical watches, he mentioned. “Swiss Made watches from a cool model between $1,000 and $2,000 — there’s not a lot on supply. We’re filling a requirement.”
If the model identify appears acquainted, it could be as a result of Mr. Sweeney and his staff produced a handful of short-run restricted version items lately that have been bought by way of on-line shops such because the specialist watch website Hodinkee. “We’ve bought thousands and thousands of {dollars} of watches the final 5 years and now we’re able to do a worldwide assortment,” Mr. Sweeney mentioned, including he needs to have 100 world factors of sale by the 12 months’s finish. “We predict we’ll have robust acceptance.”
