March 16th, 2010 
admin Everyone knows that Switzerland is the place to go for the latest, greatest, and perennially classic wristwatches. Most of the top brands have been around for over a century. Still, everyone once in a great while a small company comes along and kicks up some dust. For the watch industry, that company was U-Boat. Just over a decade ago the brand didn’t exist, but today it’s so big you can even find U-Boat replica watches for sale across the internet.
During the Second World War a small watch manufacturer called Officine Fontana was on the verge of a contract to make timepieces for Italy’s submarine crews. Things sometimes happen though, and as it turned out the Italian Navy never ended up placing an order. The company was left with their designs, parts, but no contract and fell into obscurity. Nearly forty years later a cousin of that original watch manufacturer, Italo Fontana, picked up where his predecessor had left off.
Starting with the original designs, Italo spent seven years refining the initial products for his new brand before launching his new brand, named for the Italian submarines themselves, U-Boat. Fontana’s watches were chunky, unique looking, and contained hand-made precision timepieces. Today the brand offers an enormous line with styles as varied as many of their more senior competitors, and quite a few more than some. Their watch designs range from classical and elegant to downright sporty, and each of their styles has a distinct “U-Boat” look.
U-Boat is still building their brand and expanding their distribution throughout the United States and Europe. Ironically the distribution for U-Boat replica watches seems to have outpaced the real thing, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and if the replica watch industry is anything to go by then U-Boat will likely be around for a long, long time.
