Benrus Ladies' Watch

One of the most unique LED watch designs ever made.

Description:

This Benrus watch uses a unique and inventive approach to fitting an LED display into a small LED watch suitable for a dainty ladies' watch. In order to reduce the size of the display to fit a watch of this size, this model uses a two digit display. When you push the time button, the watch first displays the hour, and then after a second or so, it blinks the minute. It's cute, intuitive, and unique.

Benrus was a well known midrange American watch maker that was very popular in the 1960s and 1970s. It was founded in 1921 by three Romanian brothers - Oscar, Benjamin (the middle child), and Ralph from the Lazrus family. The name is a combination of Benjamin's first and last names: (Ben)jamin Lazr(us). How the other two brothers felt about this is lost to history.

The Benrus company, headquartered in New York City, underwent a huge expansion during World War II, when they made timing devices for explosives as well as wristwatches. After the war, Benrus profited from the post-war boom as people longed for nice consumer products like fashionable wristwatches. By the 1950s, Benrus was the third largest watchmaking company in the United States after Bulova and Elgin (and before Hamilton). In the 1950s, Benrus attempted to take over the Hamilton Company by acquiring over 25% of the stock and appointing directors. Hamilton was able to stop the action through a court injunction. Business was booming for Benrus.

After the 1950s, Benrus's good fortune began to fade. In 1967, Benrus was sold to Victor Kiam, who became famous by founding the Remington Razor company. In the Korean and Vietnam wars, Benrus was able to continue to sell military issue watches to the government and they attemted to branch out into other consumer products in the 1970s, but this failed and Benrus finally went backrupt in 1977.

Condition:

Case: Excellent.
This case of this Benrus Ladies' Watch is in excellent condition. The case front, back, and sides are all in excellent shape with very little sign of wear.

Face / Hands: Excellent.
All LED digits and segments are complete and bright. Note that the digits use an early "dot" style display, which is unique and sought after by collectors.

Crystal: Excellent.
The tiny round mineral glass crystal is in almost mint condition with no significant scuffs or scratches. Under a magnifier, there are just one or two tiny marks, very close to pefect.

Band / Bracelet: Excellent.
The mesh type bracelet is in excellent condition with very little sign of wear and no significant bends or kinks.

Function / Accuracy: Excellent.
All functions work perfectly. Digital quartz accuracy.