Halda

Halda was founded in 1887 by Henning Hammarlund in Svängsta and was a Swedish manufacturer of pocketwatches. In 2009, Halda was given new life at the initiative of the watch entrepreneur and engineer Mikael Sandström

Halda was founded in 1887 by the factory owner Henning Hammarlund (1857-1922) in order to primarily produce pocket watches. Its name is formed by a contraction of the founder's surname -Hammarlund( a).

Hammarlund had, after an education in particularly Switzerland, returned to Sweden determined to start a Swedish pocketwatch factory. The location of this purpose he found in the small community of Svängsta by Mörrumsån in Blekinge. The first pocketwatches, Haldauren was presented 1889. In 1893, they were rewarded two medals at the World Exhibition in Chicago. In 1890, Halda also began to produce typewriters and taximeters.

To cope with the ever decreasing demand for pocket watches during World War I, Hammarlund developed new ideas for the manufacturing of typewriters and taxi meters. After financial problems however, the pocket watch production was put down in 1917 (about 8,000 pocket watches was manufactured from 1888 to 1917) and in 1920 the company was liquidated. Instead, a new company, AB Halda Fabriker, took over the manufacturing of typewriters. The successful production of taximeters, took the Fabriks AB Halda taximeter (which is the origin of today's Haldex AB (gearboxes, four-wheel drive, etc.) and Halda Trancometer AB (taximeters)) and production was moved to Halmstad.

Even the production of pocket watches lived on under the watchmaker Carl Borgström's housing, an employee of the Halda Fickursfabrik since 1904. Borgström bought up the remaining stock of watch parts and some machinery and again, along with some watchmakers from Fickursfabriken, started produce watches. The company, AB Urfabriken (ABU), came to produce pocketwatches until 1926 and then included fishing equipment. ABU, now ABU-Garcia AB, is still located in Svängsta.

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