Oskar Kessler acquired a lot of professional experience as a watchmaker employed by famous watch companies. In 1919, he fulfilled his many years dream and founded his own company named WEGA.
In 1954 he moved to the new impressing factory and produced wrist- and pocket watches which were sold all over the world. All mechanical movements had been assembled in house and passed strict quality controls.
In workshops, more than 100 employees with a lot of professional know-how and feeling brought life into the small marvels. A network of outworkers in Grenchen supported the success of the enterprise.
All rough movements mainly had been provided by A. Schild Ltd. Movements such as AS 1250 with “hammer-winding”, and AS 1361 with “rotor-winding” bear witness to important technical innovations at that time.
The first launched waterproof watches had helped considerably to establish the brand name in Eastern Europe markets. The most famous movement was AS 1130 with small second hand. The most requested watch, the “Wehrmachtsuhr”, was sold by quantities of many 10’000 pieces to Argentina, Chile and Columbia etc. In the years of 50ies and 60ies more than 100’000 watches were yearly delivered in many countries all over the world.
The merger of WEGA and DELBANA was a result of family relations but also due to the watch crisis in years of 70ies. Goliardo Della Balda founded DELBANA in 1933. His son in law, Max Kessler, managed after the merger the new company named WEGA DELBANA .
Besides the well-known mechanical watches, quartz models strengthened the DELBANA collection. The brand name kept the famous reputation as a reliable source for mechanical time pieces. In many countries, but specially in former Eastern countries such as Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary etc., DELBANA remains among the best known and famous Swiss products.
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