Quote Originally Posted by Henry Krinkle View Post
Exacto became Rado. There were a few copyright issues, in America I believe, with the Exacto name. Schlup changed the name to Rado.
yes in one of my links it seem that rado was one of the names under there belt quiet a good read

Exacto

Exacto was another brand from the mid / end of the 1930s until 1957 for watches of the watch factory Schlup & Co. in Lengnau. From about 1958, only Rado models were offered by the Rado Watch Co., founded in 1937 as a subsidiary in the same company. RadoWatch Co. was probably intended to offer fully assembled watches under a different name after Schlup & Co. had previously only been a raw material producer.
A little earlier or at the same time Exacto was used as a second brand for the same purpose, and so at least these two brands existed side by side. Some Rado and Exacto models of the 1940s / early 1950s use the same housings and works and differ only by dial and hands.
The "Swiss watchmaker, 42st edition of 1955", a "Who-is-who" of the Swiss watch industry, is listed under "Schlup & Co." As used brand names: Conway, Cornell, Eastermann, Eastsan, Eastson, Eastsum, Emco, Exact, Exacto, Felsser, Fiel, Gladys, Happy, Harco, Oriente, Rado, Radomatic-Toto, Toto, Totowatch and Varsity. Exacto is certainly next to Rado the brand with the highest degree of recognition. In at least one country in the Far East Exactos with the additional brand name "Golden Lion" were also sold.
Other brands may have been used as a private label only for certain major customers. "Conway" was later used as a name for a well-known and frequent Rado model. Under the name "Cornell" I have already seen some watches, they seem to have been mainly sold in the USA. If you own or know a watch with one of the other listed names, please send me a photo.
Problems with the naming rights for Exacto and the success of the brand Rado then led to the fact that only under this brand was produced.
The problems with the names were: 1. "exacto" is the Spanish (and Galician) word for exact and therefore can not be protected as a brand name in Spain and countries with Spanish as an official language, 2. "Exacto" as a brand name was in the USA Already protected for the Harman Watch Co., New York. In Switzerland, the brand name "Exacto" is still registered today for the Swatch Group, today's owner of Rado.
With the end of the "Exacto" brand, the most successful models were renamed to Rado models.