# Who, what or where is 'Perona'?



## Leveret (Mar 11, 2016)

Good afternoon, I'm new here, hoping someone might know something about 'Perona' . I occasionally wear my father's old Perona watch which I remember him telling me as a child (circa 1960) was his best timekeeper. I have 4 old Omegas including a 1967 Constellation, none of which can match the amazing Perona's less than 3secs a day over the past three days, using Radio 4's pips as a reference. Wikipedia has no significant information and I can find nothing about it on the internet. Posting a photo is beyond me, but it has a crown emblem, 17 jewels, incabloc on the face and a sweep second hand. On the stainless steel back is a number, 855-5.

Can anyone throw some light on the firm that produced this extremely well made and durable watch?


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## Krispy (Nov 7, 2010)

Welcome! Seems to be a number of images out on the web of Perona watches...

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=perona+watch&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=683&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiLsL6F6LjLAhXDGg4KHS0vAkoQsAQILw


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## hughlle (Aug 23, 2015)

I did a quick look around. The general opinion seems to be, there isn't one. It seems that this is just one of the numerous other low-cost Swiss brands which popped up left right and center using generic parts, whack a name on the dial, sell it as Swiss.

I googled Perona 855-5 incabloc and google found zero results...


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## Leveret (Mar 11, 2016)

Thanks for the images - what a lot there are, apart from all the Perona dolls! Although my Perona watch resembles one or two of them it doesn't look exactly like any of them, and there are a couple of very elegant classic designs IMHO. It must have been quite a large firm to have produced so many variants and the different styles indicate it must have been in production for a good few years. I have no idea when and what my father paid for it but he was clearly smart enough to pay for just quality workmanship and nothing extra for a heavily advertised 'name' like Omega or Rolex.

I am just surprised there is so little information about them... so far!


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## John Watson (Aug 12, 2021)

Leveret said:


> Good afternoon, I'm new here, hoping someone might know something about 'Perona' . I occasionally wear my father's old Perona watch which I remember him telling me as a child (circa 1960) was his best timekeeper. I have 4 old Omegas including a 1967 Constellation, none of which can match the amazing Perona's less than 3secs a day over the past three days, using Radio 4's pips as a reference. Wikipedia has no significant information and I can find nothing about it on the internet. Posting a photo is beyond me, but it has a crown emblem, 17 jewels, incabloc on the face and a sweep second hand. On the stainless steel back is a number, 855-5.
> 
> Can anyone throw some light on the firm that produced this extremely well made and durable watch?


 Yes, I can help - though not by much. The "Perona" watch range was manufactured by a small company in Solothurn in Switzerland between 1964 and 1967. The brand "Perona" was reserved entirely for the UK market and the principal importers were A H J Wood & Co of Scotland Street in Sheffield. Several Perona watches were sold by individual independent retailers in the mid sixties but the range found its greatest success in the specialist "loyalty presentation" market. At that time several northern companies used to present long-standing employees (usually people who'd been with the company for 25 years) with a gold watch as a mark of the company's gratitude. They really were gold and I think they were all individually engraved on the back. I have no idea of their value. They never seem to come up in auctions. But they were very popular with their recipients and, as you say, excellent timekeepers.

John Watson


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## spinynorman (Apr 2, 2014)

John Watson said:


> Yes, I can help - though not by much. The "Perona" watch range was manufactured by a small company in Solothurn in Switzerland between 1964 and 1967. The brand "Perona" was reserved entirely for the UK market and the principal importers were A H J Wood & Co of Scotland Street in Sheffield. Several Perona watches were sold by individual independent retailers in the mid sixties but the range found its greatest success in the specialist "loyalty presentation" market. At that time several northern companies used to present long-standing employees (usually people who'd been with the company for 25 years) with a gold watch as a mark of the company's gratitude. They really were gold and I think they were all individually engraved on the back. I have no idea of their value. They never seem to come up in auctions. But they were very popular with their recipients and, as you say, excellent timekeepers.
> 
> John Watson


 Hello, John, welcome to the forum and thanks for bringing us that information about Perona. The original posters are long gone, but many of us are still interested in these lesser known vintage brands.

There are actually quite a lot of Perona watches on Ebay and, as expected, the solid gold ones do better compared to the plate. Given your dates for the Solothurn company, I was interested to see a 1970s Valjoux 7750 chronograph and a late 70s quartz model. Maybe A H J Wood changed their supplier, or someone else took the brand over.


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## Invisigoth (Aug 21, 2021)

John Watson said:


> Yes, I can help - though not by much. The "Perona" watch range was manufactured by a small company in Solothurn in Switzerland between 1964 and 1967. The brand "Perona" was reserved entirely for the UK market and the principal importers were A H J Wood & Co of Scotland Street in Sheffield. Several Perona watches were sold by individual independent retailers in the mid sixties but the range found its greatest success in the specialist "loyalty presentation" market. At that time several northern companies used to present long-standing employees (usually people who'd been with the company for 25 years) with a gold watch as a mark of the company's gratitude. They really were gold and I think they were all individually engraved on the back. I have no idea of their value. They never seem to come up in auctions. But they were very popular with their recipients and, as you say, excellent timekeepers.
> 
> John Watson


 So much fun to read your post, and the info was wonderful. 
Do you happen to know anything about the Postola brand? 
I was given an all stainless steel (with lizard skin strap) "17 jewels unbreakable mainspring incabloc antimagnetic" wristwatch by a friend. I'm so curious about it: anything at all that I may be able to discover about it.


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## SolaVeritate (Mar 21, 2021)

Perona (ペローナ) is a member of the Mysterious Four led by the Warlord Gecko Moria and former Commander of the Wild Zombies and Surprise Zombies in Moria's Zombie army.

Strange but true (although probably nothing to do with watches).


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