CORPORATIONS: Waltham Ticks Again

As the onetime star salesman for the Gruen Watch Co., Teviah Sachs, 49, knows the watch business as intimately as a watchmaker knows a 17-jewel movement. But when Sachs offered to put up $100,000 of his own money two years ago, to keep the bankrupt Waltham Watch Corp. from closing, it looked as if he had let his prudence run down. In return for his investment, Sachs got 1) 400,000 shares of common stock, 2) a chance to boss the reorganized company† as president, and 3) a suit from protesting stockholders. Last week the U.S. Supreme Court tossed out their protest, made Sachs's legal command of Waltham airtight.

Sachs had already gone far toward putting the once rich company back on its feet. By unloading old watch inventories at half price, he had raised $3,000,000, trimmed a $4,000,000 RFC debt to $1,500,000. He also landed a backlog of $3,500,000 in defense orders (aircraft tachometers, compasses, etc.). With Waltham selling on the New York Curb at 2⅜ last week, Sachs already had a paper profit of some $850,000 on his $100,000 gamble in Waltham.