Repco

The 1950s were a fabulous time for novelty items. The post-war economic boom had given rise to a gigantic middle class that had plenty of discretionary income to spend on everything from cars to hula hoops. The watch world was no exception. The '50s gave rise to mystery dial watches, alarm watches, chronographs, multi-timezone watches, and more.

One of the more interesting, and questionably useful, watches to come out of the '50s was the cufflink watch. Here, we have one called the "Cuffette," by the Repco Watch Co.

Little is known about the Repco Watch Co. They were located in Tramelan, Switzerland, and registered their trademark in 1944, although they were possibly in business earlier than this. Their principals are listed as Messrs. Balmer and Gagnebin. It also appears they were affiiliated with the Charles Nicolet Watch Co., also located in Tramelan and probably better known in the watch world. In addition to the Cuffette, Repco's their other models/sub-brands included the Formida, Imperial, Styllux and Telda. A search of Repco watches on Google turns up a variety of styles, including time-only, multi-date, and chronographs. It was not unusual back in the day (and still to this day) for watch companies to form subsidiaries for purposes of market penetration. Repco was listed as a going concern in various industry directories until 2001.

Anyway, back to the Cuffette. I can think of few watches more impractical than one worn on the cuff. For one thing, the French Cuff shirt is sort of a novelty in itself, worn by few men. The shirt style all but disappeared in the more casual 1960s and '70s. It is making somewhat of a comeback in business circles, but I think it's safe to say most men wear button cuff shirts

Secondly, a watch worn on one's cuff is cumbersome to read. It's fine (and fun) to show off, but when it comes to reading the time, it's hard to beat the gold ol' wrist. Plus the watch is small and hard to read under the best of situations.

For these reason, the Cuffette (and other similar cufflink watches by other manufacturerss) didn't do very well. It was a fun idea, but not a practical one. Today, you almost always find find the watch cufflink, but not the matching "normal" one.