Hotel Nacional de Cuba

Hotel Nacional de Cuba



This is a souvenir of the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, a hotel with an interesting history with national monument status, located on ocean in the ritzy part of Havana. In the 50s the Mafia moved into Cuba and like many hotels in Havana it gained a casino. It became an attraction for the world's famous and rich. The Mafia's plans all ended with the communist revolution in 1958-1959 and all businesses and even private property became state property. The mafia all moved out and took their investments to Las Vegas.

This watch celebrates the hotel's National Monument status of 1930-1958. It would be cool it was actually made in 1958, but I doubt that. The style certainly looks 1970s to me.

The watch is labelled Swiss Made. The manual wind movement is labelled One Jewel, obviously not a high end movement. It is the loudest movement I own. Winding it is particularly loud. I kind of like that. I wonder how long a 1 jewel watch can last.

The seller said the strap that came with it is the original. It is the cheapest plastic strap I've ever seen. Shocking. There was no way I would wear that so I replaced it immediately. I should put it back on to take some pictures of it some day.

Anyway, it's a unique watch and you probably care more about pictures than my rambling so here some pictures. I'm usually pretty good at getting watch photos but this one very hard to capture:

Tres Kewl ..............If you ever want to part with it, Mike, look me up...........ed

Nice!! spent many weekends there , you can rent a cabana by the pool and spend the day, then go dancing at the Cabaret Parisien (Parisian Nightclub) located within the Hotel, after 7pm ... lots of memories.

I guess I will actually get there one day. I live in Canada. Cuba is a reasonable choice as a vacation destination from here. I have friends who have been to the hotel.

SynMike wrote:I guess I will actually get there one day.

Me too...left Cuba in the early 70's, never been back, still have lots of friends and family in the island.

Very nice. As far as the one jewel movement it is most likely Swiss, made in the 50's-70's.