CURTA FOREVER

Following liberation from the concentration camp, Curt Herzstark later heeded the call of Prince Franz Joseph II, who laid the groundwork for the production of the pocket calculator in the municipality of Mauren in Liechtenstein. Today, the Contina-Weg path evokes the memory of the one-time production site – which closed its doors for the last time in 1971. The Curta is so much more than a fantastic product that was surpassed by electronics. It saved its inventor’s life in a concentration camp. If you look into how it was created, you will come across its creator, a creative, highly motivated person with extraordinary inner strength, technical skill and artistic talent. In spite of resistance and adversaries, in 1948, Herzstark and his team launched the first and smallest mechanical pocket calculator on the market. Today, the Curta is not just an intelligent toy for maths enthusiasts and a collector’s gem, it is also proof that determination and belief in your own abilities can overcome (almost) all obstacles. Thank you, Curt Herzstark.

RELATED TO THE WATCH?

Retired repair expert Hans-Rudolf Roshard from Zurich, who has repaired roughly 700 Curtas from all over the world in his lifetime, limits the similarities between a Curta and a watch to the sophisticated precision mechanics. “The Curta operates with a stepped roll; this technology is not present in watches.” Walter Beck, the recently deceased founder of the Calculator and Typewriter Museum in Schaan, Liechtenstein, goes a bit further. One of the comparisons chosen by him was with the historical calculating machine created by German pastor Philipp Matthäus Hahn in 1770. Hahn was an esteemed watchmaker; when inventing his calculator, he used a stepped roll and favoured a kind of box form.

Beck saw another historical connection to watches in the time-honoured pocket-size Swiss calculating clocks. Here, the parallels with the world of watchmaking are clear. This is also confirmed by Hansjörg Nipp from Mauren, Liechtenstein, who is currently writing a book on this topic. He points out that, initially, it was largely experienced watchmakers and precision mechanics from neighbouring countries that were hired for the production of the device at Contina AG. From that, he concludes that people who can handle the delicate mechanisms of watches with skill have the necessary expertise and often an interest in creating outstanding mechanical pocket calculators.