The history of the company "F.Vinter in St. Petersburg"
Friedrich Winter has arrived in Russia in 1856 after the death of a parent. He settled in St. Petersburg, where since 1836 he lived his uncle on his father. He married a German woman Linshtedt Alvin, who was born in 1851 in Irkutsk, where her father was invited as an expert for the organization of the ship's motion on Lake Baikal.
The firm Fridrih opened in 1867 (at the beginning of the twentieth century. She worked as a commercial building on Nevsky Prospect, 78). It sold a variety of watches, which the wizard was collected, repaired or reworked purchased from wholesalers of parts and finished products. The company also traded hours of other manufacturers. Fridrih Vinter died in 1893 after an accident at work on one of the towers. Almost ten years later Alvin Winter successfully operated a small firm of the late husband of more than 20 employees. She lived in the workplace, in the apartment on Nevsky Prospect, is placed over the warehouse hours. Judging from the address books of St. Petersburg in 1908, the widow of Winter held in the capital of the four houses. Of those address books to be that later she had time to sell his property and moved to Dresden.
From 1902 to 1914. co-owner of the company "Fridrih Winter in St. Petersburg" and the actual manager was an experienced businessman - Swiss Otto Hefele. Initially he rented from the widow of F. Winter's room. Later, when in connection with the expansion of the production of the latter was necessary for the needs of the firm, A. Häfele semikomnatnuyu moved to an apartment in a separate, newly built house. Of his memories is known that at the beginning of the twentieth century. business based F. Winter, flourished. In particular, the increased number of orders from the railways management traditionally delivered by the station clock to railway stations, to large pocket watches for the railroad. There were applications from the military. Among the customers were the Grand Dukes, a lot of rich people, the owners of the banks and factories, which are also required to come into vogue wall clock. An additional source of income was the assembly and delivery of rental counters for cars - taximeter. The company "F. Vinter in St. Petersburg "was the first, where they are in stock.
Since the beginning of the First World War, German business representatives hostile belligerents were forced to leave the Russian Empire. After German Carle Albert Winter, Fridriha Vintera's nephew, was interned, Hefele managed through the courts to challenge the right of the partner firm and renamed in "Otto Hefele, ex. Friedrich Winter, St. Petersburg. " But events in Russia were such that the case is already winning did not matter, and the perfidious Swiss, soon lost all that could not sell in the summer of 1917 various Russian partners. In 1918 he returned to Switzerland Hefele. (Source: City Clock Newspaper "Your Chance")
Since 1928, the brand fully redeemed Hefele (Otto Haefeli), Bern, Switzerland
