The Watson
Sign.
Looking at some B&J
cameras you'll find the name "Watson" on the viewfinder and /or
"Watson" on the drop bed. Studying the B&J assortment, I
wondered if the name Watson was a manufacturer name or just a
Label. So I wrote to Lynn Jones the former Vice President of the
Burke & James Company. He most kindly replied on his own
humorously way;
Hi Jo,
George Drucker, my life long friend, had a sense of humour. For
example, the name of his finger print camera was called the
Watson/Holmes, nobody seemed to notice that it was stolen from
Sherlock Holmes. Lots of people liked the name so he put the
Watson name on several things. All of his film loading stuff was
named "Alden", George's middle name. He named some of his high
quality lenses, Karl Meyer. He was looking for a nice Germanic
name and as it turned out, his wives gynaecologist was named
Karl Meyer. He thought this was a really nice technical name, so
every time you see a Karl Meyer lens, you'll smile, knowingly.
When I was vice president of B&J, we eventually named the air
spray can, Watson also, however the working name in development
was called the "Watson Blow Job". We always thought that not
using this name lacked a great deal of creativity.
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