Victorinox () is a knife manufacturer and

watchmaker A watchmaker is an artisan who makes and repairs watches. Since a majority of watches are now factory-made, most modern watchmakers only repair watches. However, originally they were master craftsmen who built watches, including all their part ...

based in the town of Ibach, in the

Canton of Schwyz The canton of Schwyz (german: Kanton Schwyz rm, Chantun Sviz; french: Canton de Schwytz; it, Canton Svitto) is a canton in central Switzerland between the Alps in the south, Lake Lucerne to the west and Lake Zürich in the north, centred o ...

, Switzerland. It is well known for its Swiss Army knives. The Swiss Army knives made by Victorinox are made of a proprietary blend steel from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

. Since its acquisition of rival

Wenger Wenger was a Swiss cutlery manufacturer that exists today as a line of once rival Victorinox, and a brand name for watches and licensed products owned by it. Founded in 1893, it was best known as one of two companies to manufacture Swiss Army ...

in 2005, it has become the sole supplier of multi-purpose knives to the

Swiss army The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, r ...

. It is the biggest manufacturer of pocket knives in the world; in addition, the company licenses its logo for watches, apparel, and travel gear.

History

Founding

The company was founded in 1884 as ''Messerfabrik Carl Elsener'', the workshop of

Karl Elsener Karl or Carl Elsener may refer to: *Karl Elsener (footballer) (1934–2010), Swiss football goalkeeper *Karl Elsener (inventor) (1860–1918), inventor of the Swiss Army knife *Carl Elsener Sr. Carl Elsener Sr. (also known as Charles Elsener, born ...

in Ibach. Elsener, in 1891 co-founded ''Schweizerischer Messerschmiedverband'', an association of Swiss knife manufacturers. Elsener and his colleagues from this time delivered

knives A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...

to the

. In 1892, most of Elsener's colleagues left the enterprise, as it became apparent that

Solingen Solingen (; li, Solich) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located some 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and, with a 2009 population of 161,3 ...

manufacturers could deliver at a lower price. Elsener persisted in competing with Solingen, incurring severe financial losses. Elsener's ''Schweizer Offiziers- und Sportmesser'' was patented in 1897, later marketed internationally as the ''Original Swiss Army Knife''. This knife was not adopted by the Swiss Armed Forces as ordnance, but its commercial success allowed the company to recover financially. On the death of his mother in 1909, Elsener named his brand "Victoria" in her honour. The introduction of the

Swiss coat of arms The coat of arms of the Swiss Confederation shows the same white-on-red cross as the flag of Switzerland, but on a heraldic shield instead of the square field. The federal coat of arms (''eidgenössisches Wappen'') was defined by the Swiss Diet ...

as company logo dates to the same year. In 1921, the company changed its trade name to the present "Victorinox", a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsstainless steel. Its legal name was officially changed in 1979.

Original versus Genuine

During 1908 to 2005, the delivery of knives to the Swiss Armed Forces was shared with

. A compromise between the two companies stated that Victorinox would market their knives as the "Original Swiss Army Knives", while Wenger would market theirs as "Genuine Swiss Army Knives". Wenger was acquired by Victorinox in 2005. Knives actually made for the army (as opposed to the generic "Swiss Army" trademark) are known as ''Soldatenmesser'' ("soldier knives"). These were produced in five generations, known by the date of their introduction as models 1890, 1908, 1951, 1961 and "08" (with minor variants within each generation). Model 1890 was originally produced by Wester & Co, Solingen, and produced by Elsenser in competition with the Solingen manufacturer. Models 1908 and 1951 were also produced by several companies in Germany and Switzerland. Model 1961 was produced exclusively by Victorinox and Wenger, and Model 08, introduced after the acquisition of Wenger, is exclusively manufactured by Victorinox.

Swiss Army Issued Knives 1890–2008

As issued by the

Swiss Army The Swiss Armed Forces (german: Schweizer Armee, french: Armée suisse, it, Esercito svizzero, rm, Armada svizra; ) operates on land and in the air, serving as the primary armed forces of Switzerland. Under the country's militia system, r ...

. Wester & Co 2.JPG, ''Modell 1890'' Swiss Army pocket knife, 1900.jpeg, ''Modell 1908'' SAK 1951.JPG, ''Modell 1951'' Swiss Army Knive opened.jpeg, ''Modell 1961'' (1994 variant) Soldatenmesser 08-2.JPG, ''Soldatenmesser 2008''

Victorinox in North America

In 1972, the Forschner Butcher Scale Company of New Britain, Connecticut became the exclusive Victorinox distributor for the United States. In 1981, the company went public and Charles Elsener, president of Victorinox, acquired a significant percentage of its shares. In 1983, it was renamed the Forschner Group, Inc. In the 1980s, Forschner registered the Swiss Army name as a trademark in the USA. In 1992, Precise Imports Corp., U.S. and Canadian importer of Wenger knives, sued and Forschner retained the rights to use the trademark on its compasses, timepieces, and sunglasses, while Precise could use it in marketing other non-knife items. In the mid-1990s, Forschner changed its name to Swiss Army Brands, Inc. (SABI). In 2001, Victorinox teamed up with SABI to create an international watch company Victorinox Swiss Army Watch AG. In August 2002, Victorinox acquired all remaining shares of SABI to gain control of the Swiss Army trademark. Previously, SABI had sold the Swiss Army branded watch in North America and - under the license - the Victorinox branded watch outside North America. But afterwards, the combined Victorinox Swiss Army brand has been marketed worldwide.

Wenger acquisition

On 26 April 2005 Victorinox acquired

, the other official supplier of the Swiss Army knife, announcing that it intended to keep both brands intact. In 2006 the company had a workforce of 900 employees. Its daily output was about 34,000 Swiss Army knives, 38,000 multi-tools, and 30,000 household, kitchen, and knives. Approximately 90% of its production is exported,to more than 100 countries. Victorinox has claimed never to have had to lay off an employee. To avoid this they set aside profits during boom periods to supplement recessionary periods, as well as temporarily contracting employees to other companies as outsourced labour during recessions. On 30 January 2013 Victorinox announced that the company will merge Wenger's knife product lines with the Victorinox brand to strengthen its competitive position internationally.

Bushcraft usage

The Farmer model was adopted by the ''Bushcraft'' community as their iconic folding knife. (circa 2005)

Luggage and clothing

In 2014, Victorinox acquired the TRG Group from Centric Group. For several years, TRG Group was the Victorinox licensee for the manufacturing of luggage and travel oriented products. Victorinox integrated TRG Group in the company as the Victorinox Travel Gear division. In 2017 Victorinox decided to close the apparel division with the purpose of focusing in other core product lines.

Products

Swiss Army knives

The Swiss Army knife is the best-known product by Victorinox. Originally the sole supplier, Victorinox has shared the contract with Wenger since 1908. A compromise between the two companies gave Victorinox the right to advertise as the ''Original Swiss Army Knife'', while Wenger laid claim to the title of ''Genuine Swiss Army Knife''. Victorinox took over Wenger in 2005. Swiss Army knives are widely used outside the army (and civil sales represent most of the turnover). They are multi-functional tools, and many sizes and functional combinations are produced.

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

s have a Victorinox knife as standard equipment. Victorinox knives have also been taken to

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow ...

and the Arctic. The "Champion", Victorinox's model flagship prior to the introduction of the "SwissChamp" in 1986, is in the New York

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...

's Permanent Design Collection.

SwissCard

The SwissCard is roughly the size of a business card, typically with a small pair of scissors, a short non-folding knife, a small file with a screwdriver point, a plastic toothpick, tweezers, a slim ballpoint pen, and a straight pin, housed in a hard plastic case of 82 × 54.5 x 4.5 mm in size, with an inch ruler on one side and metric measurements on the other. Victorinox produces three types of SwissCards, the ''Classic'', the ''Quattro'' and the ''Lite'' model. All three models differ in the number of functions they provide, ranging from 10 (Classic) to 13 functions (Quattro and Lite).

Cutlery

Victorinox has long produced other kitchen cutlery under their own name and the Forschner brand name. In 2011 Victorinox stopped using the Forschner name and produces the same knives with the Victorinox name.

Professional knives

Victorinox make a range of household and professional ( NSF certified) food preparation knives. They offer chef's knives, bread, carving, filleting, deboning, paring, and specialized knives such as a cheese knife. Victorinox models are made with molded plastic handles, wooden handles or riveted handles. Most models are stamped blades, but one series has a forged bolster. They also have no ''

ricasso A ricasso is an unsharpened length of blade just above the guard or handle on a knife, dagger, sword, or bayonet. Blades designed this way appear at many periods in history in many parts of the world and date back to at least the Bronze Age—ess ...

'' – the flat section of the blade located at the junction of the blade and the heel. Most models use stainless steel blades. One type is available with ceramic blades.

Bayonets

Victorinox also produces the Sturmgewehr 90 bayonet for the Swiss

Sturmgewehr 90 The SG 550 is an assault rifle manufactured by Swiss Arms, Swiss Arms AG (formerly a division of Schweizerische Industrie Gesellschaft, now known as SIG Holding AG) in Switzerland. "SG" is an abbreviation for ''Sturmgewehr'' ("assault rifle"). ...

assault rifle. The bayonet has an overall length of 310 mm and a muzzle ring diameter of 22 mm. The 177 mm long blade is single-edged and it has no fuller. The bayonets were manufactured exclusively for the Swiss Army by both

and Victorinox before the two companies merged.

Timepieces

In 1989 Victorinox entered the timepiece business in the United States under the brand name "Swiss Army"."Victorinox: History"
''swissarmy.com'', Victorinox corporate website Victorinox has various collections of watches which range from luxury dress watches to rugged dive watches. They feature mechanical and quartz movements. Collections include Infantry, Divemaster, Airboss, I.N.O.X. The timepieces are produced in Switzerland.

Other

Victorinox produced a fashion line since the late 1990s, but retired from this project in 2017. In 2012, Victorinox licensed its name to luggage manufacturer TRG Accessories to produce branded travel gear and business accessories. Victorinox acquired TRG Accessories from Centric Group in 2014. A number of Emissive Energy Corps products have been redesigned and rebranded as Victorinox

LED A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits light when current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy in the form of photons. The color of the light (cor ...

flashlight A flashlight ( US, Canada) or torch ( UK, Australia) is a portable hand-held electric lamp. Formerly, the light source typically was a miniature incandescent light bulb, but these have been displaced by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) since th ...

s. Most are available with a knurled

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in AmE, American and CanE, Canadian English) is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately o ...

body, similar to Swiss Army knives. Similarly, SwissTools are Victorinox's

multi-tool A multi-tool (or multitool) is a hand tool that combines several individual functions in a single unit. The smallest are credit-card or key sized units designed for carrying in a wallet or on a keyring, but others are designed to be carried ...

s, i.e. a pair of pliers with other tools folded into the grips. In 2018, Victorinox marketed a

perfume Perfume (, ; french: parfum) is a mixture of fragrant essential oils or aroma compounds (fragrances), fixatives and solvents, usually in liquid form, used to give the human body, animals, food, objects, and living-spaces an agreeable scent. ...

under the name "Swiss Army", and registered "Swiss Army" and "Swiss Military" as trademarks under US law. In October 2018, the Swiss Federal Office for Defence Procurement (

Armasuisse The Federal Office for Defence Procurement (Armasuisse) is a federal agency of the Swiss Confederation. It is the procurement organization for armaments of Switzerland and is affiliated with the Federal Department of Defence, Civil Protection ...

) sued Victorinox, demanding the retirement of these trademarks. The context of the lawsuit is a 2012 parliamentary motion by state councillor

Thomas Minder Thomas Minder (born 26 December 1960 in Schaffhausen, Switzerland) is a Swiss entrepreneur and politician. Minder was elected to the Swiss Council of States for the canton of Schaffhausen in 2011. He is an independent but sits with the Swiss ...

requesting the active protection of trademarks such as "Swiss Army", "Swiss Military" or "Swiss Air Force" on the part of the federal authorities. Victorinox argued that it does own the (English-language) trademarks "Swiss Army" and "Swiss Military".Maurizio Minetti
Der Bund gegen Victorinox vor Gericht: Streit um «Swiss Military»
Luzerner Zeitung, 18 October 2018.

Gallery

File:Victorinox SwissChamp Closed.JPG, "Victorinox SwissChamp", with multiple tools File:Bayonet SG550.JPG, bayonet for the Sturmgewehr 90, as issued by the

File:Victorinox Multitool.jpg, Victorinox SwissTool

. File:Victorinox pokrowiec.JPG, Victorinox knife pouch. File:Victorinox kitchen cutlery.jpg, Victorinox kitchen cutlery.

References

External links

Official website

SAKWiki
{{Authority control Swiss companies established in 1884 Manufacturing companies established in 1884 Kitchen knife brands Knife manufacturing companies Manufacturing companies of Switzerland Multi-tool manufacturers Schwyz Swiss watch brands Watch manufacturing companies of Switzerland Tool manufacturing companies of Switzerland