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Laco

Germany · Founded 1925

Founded 1925 in Pforzheim as Lacher & Co. by Frieda Lacher and Ludwig Hummel; the sibling movement-blank maker Durowe (Deutsche Uhren-Rohwerke) was spun out by Hummel in 1933, and Erich Lacher joined in 1936 and took over management. During WWII, Laco was one of five manufacturers -- alongside A. Lange & Söhne, Wempe, Stowa, and IWC -- licensed to build Beobachtungsuhren (B-Uhr observation watches) to the German Air Ministry's (RLM) Baumuster A/B specification for Luftwaffe navigators. Production resumed in 1949 with Marshall Plan support; the company was sold to Timex in 1959 and later to Ebauches S.A. in 1965. Laco declared insolvency on 30 June 2009 and was restructured in 2010 around its pilot-watch heritage, still family-run and based in Pforzheim today. Laco brands its movements with its own "Laco" caliber numbers, most built on outsourced Sellita, Miyota, ETA/Valjoux, or Ronda ebauches and finished/regulated in-house rather than a from-scratch proprietary manufacture caliber; the specific designations "89000"/"93200" could not be independently corroborated and are not used here. Laco holds the only current DIN 8330 pilot-watch certification, a 16-test aviation standard partly evaluated by FH Aachen's aerospace engineering department.