History

On September 4, 1927, the so called “Markenuhren-Verein” with its trademark “Centra” (from Central Association of German watchmakers or Central Association of German watchmakers) was founded in Berlin. The so-called „ZentRaisten” had only one goal from the very beginning: to supply the specialized trade with high-quality watches at affordable prices, value for money we say nowadays.

A „technical committee” examined the caliber of different manufacturers before they were released in ZentRa watches. In Germany, four contract wholesalers, E.Dohrmann / Bremen, C.Filius / Berlin, Gerl & Schipper / Cologne and Stüwen & Spann / Ulm shared the procurement and distribution.

The ZentRa developped parallel to the competing DUGENA cooperative in the following years (1930-1970) and became a well established and recommended source for the German watch shops and jewellers. In the 30’s and 40’s, almost every German city had one or more ZentRa retailers. Those were easy to recognize due to uniform advertisement.

For example, the „Verein” counted more than 2,500 members at times, which means that ZentRa offered enormous coverage in good old Germany. The „Markenuhren-Verein” later became the the „ZentRa-Markenuhren GmbH” based in Cologne. In the Netherlands, a ZentRa dependance was founded, which partly cooperated with Zentra Germany. In the 1970s ZentRa’s turnover was about 65,000,000 Deutsche Mark [DM]. Remarkable for those times.

During the 60ties and 70ties ZentRA watches have been wide spread. The average price was about 180 Deutsche Mark. The collection consisted of simple sports watches for ladies and men, classy square watches. Movements have been both swiss (A.Schild) and german (PUW, Otero).

The movement