CLARO Watch - A History

#The CLARO watch range has a long history behind it.

CLARO Watch SA began in 1965 in Switzerland and was run by George J. von Burg I. His factory at the time was already a big manufacturer of pin lever mechanical movements and watches. In this period, he produced a watch line, under the Old England brand, for the Loftus family in London, England. The Loftus family controlled the styling and design and CLARO Watch SA was responsible for the manufacturing and assembly of the watches. At the time, several hundred thousand units were very successfully produced and sold.

CLARO Beach Star Watch, era 1969 - 1973

The CLARO brand trademarked and introduced in 1969, to be used in a new watch project.

The CLARO Beach Star watch was a watch concept developed to make large-scale production of top loaded sport watches using mechanical movements, completely water resistant, in a new Noryl-Fibre plastic and metal alloy.

Both the concept and the manufacturing technique of these watches became the precursor to what Swatch® later developed in the 1980’s with their watch designs.

During the Basel Spring trade fair, CLARO set up a display (the first ever of its kind) showing the entire manufacture and assembly of the complete mechanical movement and watch assembly under the Beach Star brand.

The Basel City Fire Department was so impressed with the quality and durability of the Beach Star watches, they made the watches “Standard Issue” for all firemen in the city.

Beach Star watches sold very well over 4 year period, with year sales topping 7 figures.

In 2015, George J von Burg III decided to relaunch the CLARO watch brand and use the design heritage of our successful watch lines and designs a new vintage inspired watch collection. Today we have 6 new models exclusively available on Boutique von Burg. We use only top quality components and have developed both a mechanical automatic and quartz analog line.

The CLARO watch range is now available on Boutique von Burg and can be viewed here.