Benrus Logo

[PAUL H.]

Does anyone know why only some Benrus watches have this red,yellow and blue logo?
thanks pjh

[JimH]

Does anyone know why only some Benrus watches have this red,yellow and blue logo?
thanks pjh

The logo is from the flag of Romania. The Benrus company was founded by Benjamin, Oscar and Ralph Lazrus who were immigrants from Romania.

Here are a few more examples:

[mrsnak]

That's a fantastic tidbit. Have had many Benrus' in my day, but never one with the flag. Never even researched the origin of the name (BENjamin LazRUS - I guess Oscar got shut out on this one

[Beau8]

Thanks for sharing~cheers!

[bjohnson]

I've also seen some that are the same colour pattern but in a triangle shape (with the point facing downwards).

There was some discussion on one of the forums that the logo may indicate when the watch was made since the coloured logo seems to be on watches from the 50s and 60s while earlier models had stars, but I've also seen stars on models that must be from the 50s or 60s and lots of models have no logo at all .. so it may have been a designator for some model ranges.

Also, the logos seem to have disappeared from dials after the company was sold off.

The logo is from the flag of Romania. The Benrus company was founded by Benjamin, Oscar and Ralph Lazrus who were immigrants from Romania.

Here are a few more examples:

[bjohnson]

Here's a little something else Benrus related.

It's a photo from the TV series Mad Men of the "Penn State train terminal" which was going to be torn down to build Madison Square gardens (I don't know enough of New York history to know if any of that is true.

Look at the sign below the clock in the black and white photo

[bograd]

Here you can find an extremely detailed history of this brand.

[jedanzoom]

Here you can find an extremely detailed history of this brand.

I saw that site before,and its really great.Guys that made that site have done a great job.:thanks

[JohnF]

Hi -

The destruction of Penn Central Station and its replacement by Madison Square Gardens is one of the ugliest stories in New York City's long history of ugly real estate stories.

The old Penn Central Station was a classic head station, i.e. the trains came in and left from the same direction (as opposed to a flow-through station, where trains come in from one direction and leave from another). Gorgeous architecture, Beaux Art style, eagle-topped, built in 1910, it "had" to make way for an architectural monstrosity that benefited only the real estate developers and the politicians that were in their pockets.

To give you an idea of what was lost, the main area of the train station was roughly the size of St. Peter's cathedral in Rome, i.e. absolutely huge.

The developers found a loophole in the laws of the day: they bought what were called the "Air Rights" for the area above the train station, and then closed the deal with Penn Central, the train company that owned the station, by promising them an air-conditioned train station under the Madison Square Gardens + 25% ownership. To suggest that money changed hands as well is a given.

The current Penn Station is a pigsty, always has been and always will be. A grubby third-rate terminal at best not worthy of a small town, let alone the greatest city in the world.

You can read about the old Penn Station here.

The only good thing that came out of the sordid story - and it is a sordid story - is that public outrage finally became politicized and led to very strong opposition to Robert Moses, one of the key developers in the history of New York. This opposition stopped his plans for the Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have basically meant that instead of Soho and Tribeca, we'd have 6-lane highway through Manhattan.

No one believed at the time that the station would actually be destroyed.

Vincent Scully, Yale architecture historian, put it this way:

One entered the city like a god; one scuttles in now like a rat.

Truer words have never been spoken. The best thing that could happen would be for Madison Square Gardens be torn down and the station replaced entirely. It is one the greatest abominations of architecture that this world has ever seen.



Sorry. I get carried away on this. Can you tell I'm a native New Yorker?


JohnF

[Eeeb]

Penn Station today seems totally utilitarian, devoid of artistic energy.

Now Grand Central Station is a different matter....