Zitura SA

There sure is something fishy about Zitura. The address I have for the company brings me to Zug's city center and a six-story apartment building. As you can see in the picture a woman's clothing store occupies the ground floor. The door is locked leading up to the apartments. Checking the mailboxes I see no name for Zitura or any other name that might be related to this watch company, who's website says they been in business since 1952. Thinking I have the wrong address I go into the clothing store and ask to see a phone book.. Yep, there it is "Bundesplatz 8" and that's right where I'm standing. I dial the number in the phone book and ask the woman who answers the phone where the offices are for Zitura. She says, "Bundesplatz 8". When I tell her I'm standing at the address she then says "no one is there today". I then ask, "will there be someone here tomorrow?". She replies, "I don't know". I then ask, "where are you at?" and the woman answers "somewhere else". From then on it gets murky as she declines to tell me further information.

Here's what the possibilities are. The company uses a mail drop in Zug because of tax breaks and the woman answering the phone works for a phone answering service. I learned this from previous treks through Zug. In the USA we have states. In Switzerland they have cantons and each canton has their own tax rate. Zug is very popular with companies for this purpose. Another possibility: Zitura uses a mailbox drop in Zug so it can say it's watches are Swiss made–when in actuality the watches are completely made elsewhere (Asia usually). During my two years of watch travels in Switzerland I've come across several pulling this charade. Another possibility: maybe it's not on the up and up and it's a buyer beware situation.

I mailed a letter of introduction a month ago to Heinz Maller, President. (I got his name when calling several months earlier during the research stage). It would have been easy for him to respond via email and tell me there's no office at that address. Though it touts being in business since 1952, not a single person's name is mentioned anywhere on its website--including a section on its history.