Lanco Manual Winding · Watch Lover

Jun '24 (edited) • WOTD ⌚

Lanco Manual Winding

This is the watch I purchased from Oxfam, at the start of the week, and have been wearing every now and again to test its timekeeping. So far it seems to be losing two minutes a day, and once stopped completely due to not winding. I haven't found out much about my particular watch, other than it is possibly from the late 50s to early 60s comparing it to similar Lanco watches I've found. Regarding the company, Lanco was a brand of Langendorf Watch Company, which was a large Swiss watch company founded in 1873. As an abbreviation of Langendorf Watch Company, Lanco was launched as a brand name in the late 1950s. The brand soon became successful and known for fine craftsmanship and attention to detail. Lanco watches are still considered to be of very high quality, and they are traded today as vintage watches. During the 1950-60s the Langendorf Watch Company started to focus most of its attention on its other brands, most notably Lanco. During the early 1950s the Lonville brand, part of the group, was abandoned and was never used again. The Lanco brand was also discontinued in the late 1960s, then revived again from 1971 to around 1980.

The Langendorf Watch Company, itself, was bought in 1965 by SSIH (Societe suisse pour l'industrie horlogere SA, Omega-Tissot-Group), a holding under which many other companies existed. The Lanco brand continued into the seventies and was ultimately Langendorf’s greatest success. Unfortunately the post-war Swiss watch industry decline, the introduction of Japanese inexpensive quartz watches in the 1960/70s (the main rival of SSIH, just as quartz was a fearful competitor to the majority of mechanical watches), and fierce overseas competition saw the Langendorf Watch company decline, being sold and subsequently being closed for good in 1973, exactly 100 years after foundation.

Interestingly in 1973 SSIH reached it's peak, selling approx. 13.6 million timepieces, of which 70 percent where pin lever watches. At the end of 70's the holding was in financial trouble. In 1983 the ASUAG and SSIH merged forming SMH (Swiss Corporation for microelectronics and watchmaking industries LTD). This created the largest watchmaking company. Both ASUAG and SSIH where holding companies, so the merger took a few years to implement. In 1998 the company changed the name to Swatch Group.

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