Tourist Everlight made by Adoph Alleman Co., introduced in 1957. Anyone ever seen one of these? Bulb was incandescent, pre-LED. Adolf Allemann was an active watch company in Moutier, Solothurn and Welschenrohr, Switzerland. They supposedly came out with many models, though the Everlight is the first and only I have ever heard of. Anyone else seen Adoph Alleman Co.? Please comment and post pics! There is an excellent article on the Fratello web site on this watch here:
It's a great article (2-parter) and covers the topic exaustively.
Here is an ad and also a writeup for the watch from Swiss Horological Journal. This is from my collection of old advertisements:
And here's a photo of one Everlight in the flesh that was painstakingly restoresd :
Another weird watch from Adolf Allemann was the "Radio Top" dead seconds watch. The seconds hand moves in one-second ticks rather than a sweep. One has to question the usefulness of such a feature, but apparently there was a perceived market for such a watch. Other manufacturers had such a watch including Doxa (the Lunesol model), and Rolex made a dead-seconds called the Tru-Beat. Here is the link to the article on the radio Top:
Anyway, the Alleman watch company went out of business in 1963, having been founded in 1893. Alleman is said to have produced 100,000 Everlights, but many were returned to the factory due to leaking batteries. Hence, they are rare to find, and many collectors have specimens where the watch runs, but the light does not light due to a dead battery. And battery replacements are practically non existent. Nevertheless, "tech" collectors like them as showpieces because the watch is a great example of an early solution to a problem -- in this case seeing a watch dial in the dark!
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