# Darwil - from familiar to obscure



## Marijan (Jul 6, 2009)

As stated in some old thread, an obscure company. 
But in the same time it is a company I grow with when I was lurking around that few watch repair shops and stores in my town as a kid. Allways wanted one. 
It was the most popular brand of one of few, that reached us on the sunny side of Alps in former Yugoslavija, legaly. Nothing special, as someone stated, but well balanced relation betwen price and quality. Two I have are reliable and acurate machines.
These where a kind of substitute for Longines, Omegas like Geneve and like many that where a rarity in this places. 
I still like that style and design a lot, somehow this little timepieces formed my taste, and this is what I`m still looking in vintage or contemporary watches. 

There is not a lot of those here, so I hope that you would not mind few shots of this obscurity.

Gold plated 10 mic. Darwil Special flat - Lux, 
mevement - Darwil signed, modified Unitas 6310 - early 50`s I presume.

New straps only, otherwise in pristine condition.

Marijan Radaljac


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## jedanzoom (Mar 29, 2008)

More like lately 60's or even 70's,then early 50's,I would say.

I have about 20. of those:from Lux 66. to Lux 71.and "darbloc"models;from gold plated to steel cases.I even saw "Darwil" chrono recently,colleague from Rieka had one.Those,and "Omikrons",were watches for the people on the comunist Balkan,so thousands of those are still in the area.


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## Marijan (Jul 6, 2009)

Yup, Omikron, that was a watch for us too. I have one.


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## Somewhere else (Feb 17, 2006)

I'm a bit curious about Omikron. I heard that some of their chronographs use a rare system where everything is operated from the crown.

On "Darwil", I wonder. I know that that many good watch companies made their watches under special brand names fro some countries. I think Longines used to make their watches under the "Venus" brand name for Greece and the West End Watch Company made their watches under the brand name "Suwar" for India.

with a name like "Darwil" I wonder if it was perhaps originally intended for the Indian market?


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## four of diamonds (May 12, 2007)

It's interesting to note that the Omikron name was purchased and from time to time timepieces are made under that name. I bought one a couple of years ago.


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## Marijan (Jul 6, 2009)

I wonder, what actually, was a purpouse of makers, targeting particular countries with a paricular model or brand name. European market, as I can see, was loaded with "obscure" swiss brands lesser quality than Darwil or Omicron for example. Why not treat all the market the same way. What was the calculation? Maybe old designs where used and old stock of movements. Something like out of date products selling?

Take 10 years old model of housing, 15 years old movement, rename it and offer to India, Yogoslavija..... Maker will clear old stock stock, quality of parts will be manly good, old but good, buyer will get a decent watch affordable to masses, and everibody is happy.

Marijan Radaljac


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## Somewhere else (Feb 17, 2006)

Marijan said:


> I wonder, what actually, was a purpouse of makers, targeting particular countries with a paricular model or brand name. European market, as I can see, was loaded with "obscure" swiss brands lesser quality than Darwil or Omicron for example. Why not treat all the market the same way. What was the calculation? Maybe old designs where used and old stock of movements. Something like out of date products selling?
> 
> Take 10 years old model of housing, 15 years old movement, rename it and offer to India, Yogoslavija..... Maker will clear old stock stock, quality of parts will be manly good, old but good, buyer will get a decent watch affordable to masses, and everibody is happy.
> 
> Marijan Radaljac


Actually, some of these watches like Suwar, Omikron and Darwil were not only good quality, but also fresh and contemporary designs at their time.

There are several ways this happened: in some countries, the brand name was not available. In the USA, for a long time Zenith radio company jealously guarded their brand name, so you didn't find Zenith watches.Or so the story goes. Also, once again from the USA: the importer, Wakmann used his own name instead of Breitling.

Suwar became so well known in India (apparently it means "warrior") that the West End Watch Company just stopped using their name. Omikron was a something of a special case. For some reason they caught on in some countries, but not in others. Favre-Leuba and Enicar were also brands like this. You can find plenty of them in the UK and India, but very few in the USA.


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## Marijan (Jul 6, 2009)

Thank you. Huh, I need to learn a lot here. Trade politics is something I do not know nothing about. Whay than Darwil wasnt ofered to Hungary or Austria allso for example. Was the price only thing that it was adopted for particular market or was the drop of quality so large that let say Austrian market would not take it.?

Marijan Radaljac


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## jedanzoom (Mar 29, 2008)

During the communist regime in the Balkan region,there were 3.diferent class of watch that ordinary people could buy on the legal market-there were "Doxa" watches as a high class watches,than there were "Darwil" and "Omikron" watches,and finally there were different russian brands wrist watches that were very cheap and affordable.

I think that you shouldn't ignore fact that communisam was(is) totalitar and oppresive regime in all his prevalences,including trading and economy too.There was a political clique of selected that was deciding for all the people and in the name of the people.Those people probably decided as well,that certain brands of watches will be accessible while other will not.That had nothing to do with economy,trade,quality of products or their price,those decisions were simply political.


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## Somewhere else (Feb 17, 2006)

jedanzoom said:


> During the communist regime in the Balkan region,there were 3.diferent class of watch that ordinary people could buy on the legal market-there were "Doxa" watches as a high class watches,than there were "Darwil" and "Omikron" watches,and finally there were different russian brands wrist watches that were very cheap and affordable.
> 
> I think that you shouldn't ignore fact that communisam was(is) totalitar and oppresive regime in all his prevalences,including trading and economy too.There was a political clique of selected that was deciding for all the people and in the name of the people.Those people probably decided as well,that certain brands of watches will be accessible while other will not.That had nothing to do with economy,trade,quality of products or their price,those decisions were simply political.


This is very true. The same thing happened in China also. For some reason, the communist government decided to let in the watch brand "Titoni". this brand is known almost nowhere else in the world, but enjoys an enormous reputation in China, which to this day is 90% of their market.


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## tiha (Jul 15, 2011)

I remember Omikron my father bought in the '80s. It even had day names inscripted in Serbo-Croatian language.


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## jedanzoom (Mar 29, 2008)

tiha said:


> I remember Omikron my father bought in the '80s. It even had day names inscripted in Serbo-Croatian language.


Good for your father,he was probably hard working man.Though,I'm not familiar with meaning of "serbo croatian language".Is this something like anglo-american english,something between british and american english,but in deferent context?


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## tiha (Jul 15, 2011)

jedanzoom said:


> Though,I'm not familiar with meaning of "serbo croatian language".Is this something like anglo-american english,something between british and american english,but in deferent context?


Serbo-Croatian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


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## jedanzoom (Mar 29, 2008)

Oh,I see some similarities with this article:

Hansel and Gretel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I lived in that state(YU) for most of my life,but I never spoke that language that you mentioned,only Croatian.And so my friends,my neighbours,my family did.This language was fairy tale,but not nice one,like that state was.

If your fathers watch said SRI,for day name(SRIJEDA-Wednesday),than it said in Croatian.But if it said SRE(SREDA),than it was in Serbian.


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## nwolfe (Oct 7, 2011)

I've got couple of darwils and although they all run rather fine (+-15 sec daily accuracy), the cases seem to be of awfully cheap quality and are in a very bad shape.

And, by the way, Serbo-Croatian is a linguistically recognized and classified language, so, I'm really sorry for your ignorance, but when speaking Croatian, you are actually speaking a variety of Serbo-Croatian language. Politically speaking, there are several officially accepted names (4-5) for Serbo-Croatian language in countries it is spoken. Also, the word "srijeda", as well as other words in "ijekavica" are also used by Serbians in Croatia and Bosnia who claim that they are speaking Serbian.


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## howards4th (Jan 22, 2012)

You got to love vintage watches! I learn someting new every day about them. Thanks and very nice watch.


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## bubba48 (Jan 25, 2012)

Somewhere else said:


> I'm a bit curious about Omikron. I heard that some of their chronographs use a rare system where everything is operated from the crown.
> 
> On "Darwil", I wonder. I know that that many good watch companies made their watches under special brand names fro some countries. I think Longines used to make their watches under the "Venus" brand name for Greece and the West End Watch Company made their watches under the brand name "Suwar" for India.
> 
> with a name like "Darwil" I wonder if it was perhaps originally intended for the Indian market?


Omikron is one of the many brands registered by the swiss firm Fulton Watch Co. Ltd. / Gustave Homberger (Biel).

Suwar is not a brand by West End Watch Co., but simply the name of a model and the logo WEW is always present on the dial.
I am not aware that Longines "_used to make their watches under the "Venus" brand name for Greece_". Have you some pics or documentary sources?


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## Porsena (Feb 20, 2013)

Wow troll, trolls.



jedanzoom said:


> Oh,I see some similarities with this article:
> 
> Hansel and Gretel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
> 
> ...


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## S0nic (Mar 14, 2014)

hello great watch's


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## Ermirxxxxx (Sep 15, 2021)

Marijan said:


> Yup, Omikron, that was a watch for us too. I have one.


I inherited a Prim wristwatch, a Raketa pocket watch from my granpa and an my parents ald Atlantic and Omikron, i wonder if it could get any more eastern block then this . Im from Albania


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## Stephen2020 (Aug 14, 2014)

I have owned a few Darwils, still got an automatic. I did sell it on ebay, then bought it again off ebay 9 months later!


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## Chascomm (Feb 13, 2006)

Ermirxxxxx said:


> I inherited a Prim wristwatch, a Raketa pocket watch from my granpa and an my parents ald Atlantic and Omikron, i wonder if it could get any more eastern block then this . Im from Albania


If you can find an Orex, then you will have the full set.


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## eri231 (May 1, 2012)

Darwil – a brief history and a personal relationship


As it comes to Darwil, since I became interested into whole WIS thing, I had a bit of sweettooth for these vintage watches. Why? Well, they were very popular in ex-yugoslavia area, and even sung by a local punk band KUD Idijoti in song named..well..“Da…



www.christopherwardforum.com




Regards enrico


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