What was the connection between Rollei and Honeywell?

Some Rollei gear is branded "Rollei Honeywell" (I've seen the logo on

TLR waist level finders and many 35 series cameras). What was the

connection between the companies? When did the romance flourish?

When did it end?

I get the impression that's all Honeywell, as a corporation does.

They try to get their name included in just about anything for a

short period of time. Kinda like the kid who tries to be in every

yearbook photo.

 

What the hell DO they do, anyway?

 

(my apologies to any Honeywell executives out there)

After WW II Rollei was distributed by Ponder & Best west of the Mississippi and Burleigh Brooks East of the Mississippi.

 

In the early 60's or late 50's Rollei signed a distribution agreement with Honeywell to distribute Rollei nationally.

 

All Rollei distributed by Honeywell carried dual Logos. Rollei's and honeywell's.

 

In the late 60's, early 70's Rollei set up their own distribution company in Fairfield NJ called Rollei of America and Honeywell was no longer involved.

 

Later Rollei Werke purchased the photographic division of Honeywell Photographic and moved their facility to Denver. At that point Honeywell flash became a Rollei owned product as did Nikor trimmers, and enlargers. Pentax then set up their own distribution in the U.S.

 

Rollei Werke then went bankrupt at the end of the 70's and that was the end of the Rollei/Honeywell connection. The new Rollei, Rollei Fototechnik did not continue the Strobonar and Nikor product lines. All Strobonar flash and duplicator parts were then purchased by Marflex who brought them back to NJ.

I also have a Honeywell Pentax H1A 35mm camera.

In Response to Brian's question, Honeywell currently has several divisions, which include the following:<p>

Aerospace -- they manufacture nifty avionics like the ring laser artificial horizon<p>

Consumer Automotive Care -- Honeywell manufactures products under the Autolite, Prestone, and Fram names<p>

Electionic Materials Manufacturing -- semiconductors, printed circuit boards, etc.<p>

Polymers, Plastics, Fibers & Chemicals<p>

Home Products -- fire alarms, thermostats, etc.<p>

Industrial Controls and Optimization -- Distributed Control Systems, transmitters, instruments, etc.<p>

Power Generation -- Turbogenerators, heat exchangers, etc.<p>

Transportation -- braking systems, turbochargers, etc.<p>

This is already probably more than you wnated to know, but Honeywell is soon to be part of GE, in a merger valued at $45 billion approved by shareholders on Jan 10, 2001.

What does Honeywell do? Well, for one, collect an awful lot of checks. Care to guess who owns near every highly-useful autofocus patent? Romance plays no part; cold hard cash does - and that relationship died about the time Rollei stopped delivering new clients - which was a long, long time ago.