Wyler

I was browsing some of my favorite watch forums, and I'm pretty sad to learn that Wyler filed for bankruptcy in 2009.  I have a manual Wyler that was given to me by my godmother sometime in the early seventies.  I cracked and replaced the glass casing thereof in the mid-eighties, and broke the spring soon after.  It no longer functions, but I keep it as a memento of childhood.  Now the company that made the watch is no longer, and in a sense, a part of me feels missing.  Wyler was famous for the sturdy Incaflex mechanism that protected their watches from shock.  For marketing purposes, the company dropped its watches from atop the Eiffel Tower in the late sixties and despite the fall, the watches would continue to function.  In the decade before the company folded up, they launched bold watch designs (as you can see above), but I would think that sales have been limited.  After all, the mechanical watch business is very marketing oriented, and technological triumphs are really few and far between; outside circles of watch enthusiasts, the brand is not known at all.  Well, such is life...