Joseph Gunzinger
Encyclopedia
Josef Gunzinger was born in Welschenrohr
Welschenrohr
Welschenrohr is a municipality in the district of Thal in the canton of Solothurn in Switzerland.-History:Welschenrohr is first mentioned in 1179 as Rore. An important watch manufacturing place up to the 1960s, its economy was heavily affected by the late 1960s watch crisis...

, Solothurn
Canton of Solothurn
Solothurn is a canton of Switzerland. It is located in the northwest of Switzerland. The capital is Solothurn.-History:The territory of the canton comprises land acquired by the capital...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 on March 23, 1892, and died on May 1, 1970 in Heiligenschwendi
Heiligenschwendi
Heiligenschwendi is a municipality in the administrative district of Thun in the canton of Bern in Switzerland.-Geography:Heiligenschwendi has an area, , of . Of this area, or 48.8% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 43.6% is forested...

. He was made "citizen of honor" of the city of his birth in 1962.

Son of Melchior Gunzinger, watchmaker, and Elizabeth Allemann. Married 1920 to Rosalia Allemann, household skills teacher.

Upon his apprentiship as a watchmaker in his father’s workshop, he went to La Chaux-de-Fonds
La Chaux-de-Fonds
La Chaux-de-Fonds is a Swiss city of the district of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the canton of Neuchâtel. It is located in the Jura mountains at an altitude of 1000 m, a few kilometres from the French border. After Geneva and Lausanne, it is the third largest city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of...

 for a one year furthering of his skills.

Business

1920 he took over the family business and changed the name of the company into Gunzinger Brothers SA. As from 1924, the company started manufacturing watches under the TM Technos
Technos (watches)
-TECHNOS:The trademark ″Technos″ was firstly registered in and used since 1924, with an increasing success, thanks to the quality of its mechanical and automatic watches. After WWII, it has had years of significant market shares, especially in Japan and in Brazil...

 that he had previously been registered.

At its peak in 1970, Technos employed 450 people and exported around the world, particularly in Brazil and Japan. It was by far the biggest employer of the whole valley.

He sold the whole company to General Watch Co
General Watch Co
General Watch Co. was the watch companies Holding of ASUAG.-History:ASUAG had been founded in 1931, with the assistance of the Swiss Government and the Swiss Banks, to combat the severe economic crisis and ensuing unemployment by means of refinancing General Watch Co. (GWC) was the watch companies...

mpany in 1971, a sub-holding of ASUAG.

Personalities

Josef Gunzinger was a co-founder of the Federation of the Swiss German watch manufacturers in 1924.

He was Welschenrohr Community Councilor (Executive) between 1917 and 1931, and a member of the Canton of Solothurn Grand Council (1921-1925).

He proved to be an entrepreneur doted of a patriarchal fiber with a social touch, although as a politician he was definitely right wing.

Josef Gunzinger is one of the leading figures of the twentieth century flourishing watch industry, whose exemplary-worth values went far beyond Welschenrohr, where he had been for so long the "king of the village".
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