Henning Hammarlund

Henning Hammarlund (1857-1922)

Henning Hammarlund (born December 30, 1857 in Varalöv near Ängelholm , † April 25, 1922 in Båstad ) was a Swedish watchmaker and manufacturer.

education

His professional career began in Helsingborgs Mekaniska Verkstad . Shortly afterwards, however, an apprenticeship as a watchmaker followed in Helsingborg, and he spent his time as a journeyman in Lund and Kristianstad . He then studied for a year in Stockholm before traveling to Europe and the USA for seven years to perfect his skills. The high point and conclusion of his training was his studies at the watchmaking school in Geneva .

Halda Fickurfabrik AB

Returning to Sweden, Hammarlund worked tirelessly on his vision of producing his own watch. When looking for a suitable location for his factory, he finally decided on Svängsta . The decisive factors for this choice of location were the railway connections and the favorable land prices. The proximity to the municipality of Karlshamn also played a not insignificant role. In 1887 Hammarlund founded the first pocket watch factory in Scandinavia, the Halda Fickurfabrik AB (Halda watch factory) in Svängsta . The name resulted from a play on words with the founder's letters " Ha mm a r l un d " .

The first Halda watches were presented to the public in 1889. He made high quality pocket watches with bridge movements and won gold medals at exhibitions in Stockholm and Chicago. The machines and tools required for their production also came from our own production. In 1896, Halda expanded its product range with clock production due to insufficient capacity utilization; typewriters and charge meters for telephones were manufactured, and from 1902 taximeters as well. For a time, only Halda taximeters were used in London.

Hammarlund was committed to the living conditions and social life of its employees and employees outside of the workplace. He owed this social attitude that his workforce did not take part in the great strike of 1909 , as the union demanded .

During the First World War, the demand for pocket watches decreased. In 1917 the banks refused him loans for necessary investments. This meant the end of his life's work. Already in poor health, he left Svängsta and his watch factory on November 8, 1918. In 1920 the company finally went into liquidation. The taximeter production was continued under the name Haldex .

Web links

Petter Thörning: Henning Hammarlund - grundaren till vår svenska fickurfabrik. (Henning Hammarlund - the founder of our Swedish watch factory), Swedish

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Fritz von Osterhausen: Callweys Uhrenlexikon. Callwey, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7667-1353-1 .
2. ^ Karlshamns museum. (No longer available online.) In: karlshamnsmuseum.se. Archived from the original on August 11, 2010 ; Retrieved August 10, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.