J. Kaiser watches Villingen
The J. Kaiser Uhren GmbH Villingen even watch factory J. Kaiser Villingen GmbH or Uhrenwerke J. Kaiser GmbH is a former Black Forest industrial companies in the watch industry.
In the middle of the 20th century, J. Kaiser GmbH was one of the ten largest watch manufacturers in Germany . The entrepreneur Josef Kaiser (father of the entrepreneurs Franz-Josef Kaiser and Oskar Johann Kaiser ), who took over parts of the watch factory Villingen AG, was one of the founders of the industrialized watch industry in the Black Forest together with the Junghans , Mauthe and Kienzle families . The Kaiserwerke Villingen had to file for bankruptcy in 1972 and were closed in 1975 after bankruptcy .
history
Joseph Kaiser joined Villinger Uhrenfabrik AG in 1914. After its bankruptcy, Josef Kaiser acquired the Villingen plant, and Andreas Peter acquired the Niedereschach plant, thereby establishing the Peter watch factory . Josef Kaiser came from an old family of clockmakers in the Black Forest. His ancestor Johannes Kaiser probably immigrated to Lenzkirch (formerly Habsburg ) in the second half of the 18th century . His son Josef was a farmer, weaver and watchmaker and was born in Lenzkirch in 1792. Since Josef Kaiser, all members of the family have been watchmakers either on a full or part-time basis. The family lived in Lenzkirch from the end of the 18th century to the end of the 19th century, then in the Zähringer town of Villingen (since the incorporation of the Württemberg town of Schwenningen: Villingen-Schwenningen). Wilhelm Kaiser was the first fully trained master watchmaker, as was his son Franz-Joseph (also Josef).
Johann and Joseph Kaiser (around 1875) were the first members of the family to gain work experience abroad. Joseph Kaiser received a commercial training in the then world-famous watch factory in Lenzkirch . After various activities abroad, he was hired in 1914 at the watch factory Villingen AG in the Niedereschach section. The watch factory Villingen AG went bankrupt that same year.
After the bankruptcy of the Villingen watch factory, Josef Kaiser acquired the Villingen factory. The Niedereschach factory (former Wilhelm Jerger watch factory) was sold to a competitor. Josef Kaiser expanded the operations in Villingen in the following years with modern production halls on the outskirts. Initially with only 125 employees, the company quickly developed into one of the largest watch factories in Villingen. In 1925 Kaiser took over the “Black Forest Special Watch Factory GmbH” in Mönchweiler. In the thirties Kaiser achieved a production rate of up to 6,000 alarm clocks a day. The company specialized mainly in travel alarm clocks and normal alarm clocks, large clocks as well as fine mechanical decorative clocks.
In 1932, the "BADUF" (Badische watch factory) in Furtwangen had to file for bankruptcy. Josef Kaiser acquired Baduf in 1933, which from then on was continued to be legally independent from his son Oskar Kaiser. In this context, the Baduf radio department was relocated to Villingen. The company was run by Joseph Kaiser's sons Franz-Josef, Rudolf-Edgar and Oskar Kaiser. They received power of attorney in 1937. Since the Kaiser company was involved in armaments during the Second World War, several parts of the Kaiser company were dismantled by the Allies after the war. Franz-Joseph Kaiser (holder of the Federal Cross of Merit) was, among other things, on the regional advisory board of Deutsche Bank for Baden and was a member of the employers' association and the association of the Baden watch industry. There was also family ties to the supplier company Gebr. Heinemann Maschinenfabriken in St. Georgen . Until the end of the 1960s, Kaiser also produced refrigerators and televisions and electronic devices (including contract manufacturing). These product areas devoured high development and investment costs, which let the Kaiser company bleed more and more. The refrigerator production was therefore discontinued, and the radio and television department was sold to Grundig AG in 1969 .
At the beginning of the 1970s, the Kaiser company got into difficulties due to the competitive pressure of the new quartz and cheap watches, especially from Asia, as well as a far too wide product range and had to file for bankruptcy in 1972. With only 150 employees, bankruptcy proceedings continued until 1975, when the Kaiser watch factory in Villingen was closed. The clock production facilities were sold by the bankruptcy trustee to the GDR and continued to be used there by the Uhrenwerke Ruhla , which caused a considerable stir in Villingen and also caused a lack of understanding. (For reasons of foreign exchange, the GDR was very interested in acquiring West German technology and selling GDR watches in West Germany at that time.)
The subsidiary Badische Uhrenfabrik (Baduf) in Furtwangen existed until 1983 and was also closed as part of bankruptcy proceedings.
Trademarks of the Kaiser companies
The trademark of the Kaiser company was a diamond in a circle with the letters J – K. The Kaiser diamond was also depicted within an ancient dial - the colors were mostly red, yellow, black.
This symbol goes back to the former watch factory Wilhelm Jerger in Niedereschach, which had already used a diamond just the letter “J” as a trademark.
literature
- Hans-Heinrich Schmid : Lexicon of the German watch industry 1850–1980: company addresses, production program, company logos, brand names, company histories . (3rd expanded edition 2017) Publisher: German Society for Chronometry 2017; ISBN 978-3-941539-92-1
- Südkurier, detail 1970s, undated.
- Kaiser Uhren - Ein Katalog, 1922, Universitätsdruckerei Freiburg, author unknown
- J. Kaiser AG, goods and prices, catalog, self-printed by J. Kaiser. Approx. 1949
- Neue Uhrmacherzeitung, Ulm, article, undated, Freiburg State Archives
- Furtwangen watch museum, extract from catalog, undated, 1980s L.
- The response: With supplement German Export Revue. Weekly newspaper for politics, literature, export and import, volume 53