On 31 May, 1961, the Union of South Africa left the crown and changed its name to the Republic of South Africa. They scraped Queen Elizabeth and George VI off of the coins and replaced them with Jan van Riebeeck. Along with this came the change to decimal currency. No more shillings and pence, just cents and half-cents. With these changes came some new leaders. Most of them were good politicians, but not good humanitarians. In fact, most of them were just plain bad people.
South Africa’s history with watches is cloudy. Collecting watches before the internet was difficult and not done as widely as it is today, so the number of resources on the topic is small. There is a bit about another South African “brand,” Zaigor, buried in some forums, which I will discuss in another post. South Africa celebrates Heritage Day on 24 September, so consider this some sort of special for that holiday, even though I only got the idea once it was over.
Union Special stuck out to me recently, because I have seen quite a few for sale locally, but have never seen one anywhere else. From what I can tell, they were, like most watches of the day, jobbers, and used basic, but decent quality movements and cases. The trademark “Union Special,” according to Mikrolisk.de, was registered to American-Swiss, a jewellery retailer that first opened in 1896, although the name “Union Special” was only used after 1922.
To ensure that this post is more than a skeleton, I’ll discuss some of the history of American-Swiss. It was started by Russian (as in from the Russian Empire, he was born in modern-day Estonia) immigrant Isiah Hirschsohn after he arrived in Cape Town with some watches in his suitcases. Half were American and half were Swiss, hence the name: American-Swiss Watch Company; at least that’s how the story goes. This was a clever marketing move in my eyes, as American and Swiss pocket watches were seen as things of quality, so the name creates something of a sense of prestige, without any Americans or Swiss running the shop. After going door-to-door selling these watches, he set up the first shop in Caledon street with five hundred pounds capital in partnership with Abraham Epstein. In June 1900 this partnership was dissolved and Epstein was paid eight hundred pounds for his share. In 1912, the shop, which was now manned by Hirschsohn, his cousin, a Mr Rosenzweig, (or a Mr A Grusn, some sources are conflicted in that regard,) and a Mr Howell, a Malay messenger, moved from Caledon street to the corner of Parliament and Longmarket street.
Phillip Hirschsohn, Isiah Hirschsohn’s son, joined in 1922, which was when Union Special hit the shelves. The brand was named after the Union Ltd Special, a train running from Cape Town to Pretoria. I have seen some 1930s Breitling chronographs branded “Union Special,” but the majority of the lineup was basic from what I can tell. Quality did see a drop between the ’30s and the ’80s, when Union Special became a sort of budget watch for American-Swiss.
What I found very interesting is that American-Swiss used to stock Rolex and Omega. I have only bought one thing from American-Swiss, my Casio Edifice chronograph, but that’s really as premium as their stock gets these days. To imagine a shop where all of the watches are quartz, most of which being fashion-branded stuff that isn’t all too well put together, stocked gold Rolexes once upon a time messed with my little brain. Ah well, I blame the decline of watchmaking.
They also stocked Seiko, Delfin and Tissot, so the Delfin twins I unearthed recently (more on those in upcoming “On the workbench” posts) may well have come from an American-Swiss shop.
It’s unclear when Union Special was laid to rest, although I suspect it was in the mid- or late ’70s. Its replacement brand, Tempo, is probably to us today what Union Special was to the folks half a century ago: okay, maybe even nice, but nothing to write home about. I’d love to add a Union Special to my collection soon, as I had always been under the impression that there were no South African watch brands. Whether or not Union Special counts as South African or even as a brand comes down to your own opinion and some paperwork that has been swallowed by the mouth of time.
Much of the information in this post came from a 1983 case study of American-Swiss, featuring Philip Hirschsohn, great-grandson of founder Isiah Hirschsohn. It’s worth a read if you’d like a little bit more information than what I discussed here.
There’s some more information here too.
The Escapement Room 