FOUNDING ERA The groundwork that laid the foundation for the Waldan International watch brand goes back to the late 1970s during a period when founder Oscar Waldan supplied retailers in the United States with inhouse-branded timepieces .
A polish immigrant , Waldan arrived in the U . S . in 1946 as a rare survivor of not one , but two separate German concentration camps – thanks in large part to his ability to service and repair wristwatches . The decades between Oscar ’ s arrival in the U . S . in 1946 and the launch of his own brand in 1979 saw Oscar working in various watch industry professions in the U . S . offices of Tissot , Universal Genève , Van Cleef & Arpels , and others .
A little more than three decades after his arrival in the U . S ., Oscar took his experience gleaned at the various watch houses
with which he had worked and decided it was time to start his own brand . In 1979 the eponymous Waldan brand of watches was born . He designed his own series of mechanical watches around the movements within and built his cases and dials to embrace the innate nature of these fine engines .
HIS OWN VISION At one point I mentioned that he might consider adding a few millimeters to his case size and I can still hear his vocal depredations as he decried the over-sized watch an abomination and anathema to real watchmakers and watchmaking . In his own vision of the timepiece Oscar Waldan designed exquisite dials that incorporated chronographs , calendars , world timers , alarms , and more into their displays in sizes that embraced ergonomics not egomania . These were
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