Watchlords

In the early 1950s, two American darlings of the watchmaking industry went head-to-head in a court battle to be remembered. This 1953 standoff was not their first, but it was one that ended decisively for one of the two companies.

Hamilton, the plaintiff in this case, alleged that Benrus was breaching antitrust laws by acquiring large blocks of Hamilton’s common shares – presumably to gain control of the company. This would’ve been a breach of antitrust law that prohibited companies from acquiring their competitors to create monopolies. At the time, Benrus made a couple million dollars more in revenue than Hamilton – it had recently overtaken its Pennsylvania counterpart, becoming the third largest watch company in America behind Bulova and Elgin. Both companies had revenues of less than (but close to) $20 million for the years of 1951 and 1952 and their sales each accounted for approximately 10% of the sales of timepieces in the United States.

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An interesting read...