It makes it seem that Norman Morris Co. really punched above their weight class, but when are the exclusive distributor for 50 years to one of the largest international markets.... that's clout. He must have been quite the character.
Given the monopoly, I'm surprised there are not many more of these kinds of dials, prototypes and US Market watches. The KL6312 can't be such an outlier.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/26/...watch-seller-and-foundation-president-99.html
Norman Morris, Watch Seller And Foundation President, 99
See the article in its original context from November 26, 1997, Section D, Page 21
Norman M. Morris, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, died on Monday at his home in Harrison, N.Y. He was 99.
Born in Austria-Hungary, he was brought to New York at the age of 3. He got his start in the watch business as a delivery boy for an importer at 15 and went to school at night.
By the time he turned 25, he had opened his own company and then spent his career dealing in high-market watches. By 1933 he had become the country's sole distributor of Omega watches from Switzerland and later brought other prestigious brands, like Tissot and Audemars Piguet, into the American market.
He was an early promoter of pink gold, an alloy of copper and gold used in the watch industry. It became popular with the Art Deco styles of the 1920's and 1930's and remains in fashion today.
Mr. Morris became active early as a philanthropist. He was a founder and past president of the Jewelers Security Alliance and a past president of the Jewelry Industry Council, a trade organization. Through those groups, he worked to promote the charitable activities of jewelry, watch and diamond dealers.
He established the Norman M. Morris Foundation Inc. in 1947. Now with headquarters in White Plains, it became his main concern in 1980 when he sold his Omega distributorship back to the watchmakers in Bienne, Switzerland, turned Norman M. Morris Corporation into a diversified holding company and retired from business.
As president of the foundation, Mr. Morris investigated every charity to which he contributed and signed every check for his donations, said his son, Robert E. Morris, the foundation's secretary-treasurer. He said his father usually gave to more than 200 charities each year.
According to its report for 1994, the most recent available, the foundation was worth $7.7 million and paid out $434,000. The grants ranged from $200,000 for the White Plains Hospital Center to gifts of $50 to smaller beneficiaries.
The hospital's ambulatory surgery wing carries Mr. Morris's name. The pediatric floor of the Hospital for Joint Diseases was named for him.
Among his other favored institutions were Mount Sinai Medical Center, the National Conference of Christians and Jews and UJA-Federation. He was a longtime supporter of the Hebrew Home for the Aged at Riverdale.
Adele Groden Morris, his wife of 61 years, died in 1989. In addition to his son, of Greenwich, Conn., Mr. Morris is survived by a daughter, Arline Lubin, also of Greenwich; a brother, Edward, of Great Neck, N.Y.; 8 grandchildren, and 11 great-grandchildren.
