A Swiss watch for the ruler of Yugoslavia

In 1962, the Swiss government did not wish the Yugoslav autocrat, Josip Broz Tito, a birthday. 10 years later, on his 80th birthday, the congratulations from Bern were accompanied by an expensive IWC watch

From the Western prism, Yugoslavia in 1962 was a dictatorial state, but more open than the Eastern European countries under Soviet tutelage. Although Switzerland had some economic interest in deepening relations with Yugoslavia at the time, the Government in Bern was careful not to demonstrate an obvious closeness to the Belgrade regime, after all it was a communist regime. So in 1962, when the Yugoslav autocrat Josip Broz Tito celebrated his 70th birthday, Switzerland was the only country in Europe that did not officially congratulate him on his birthday.

Ten years later things had changed: in 1972, on his 80th birthday, Tito had reached the zenith of power. He had removed his rival and Serbian nationalist, Aleksandër Ranković, also known as a brutal oppressor of the Albanians, from the post of Minister of the Interior, and had become the leader of the non-aligned movement, as the countries that did not belong to either the Soviet or the Atlantic bloc were called. From the West, Tito was seen as a useful monarch, and in the Western media, he aroused suspicion because of his extravagant lifestyle - with cigars, expensive watches, visits to different countries with his ship "Galeb", meetings with world-renowned artists. .

In 1967, Tito visited the Zagreb fair and, while stopping at the Swiss pavilion, told Ambassador Hans Keller that he had some Swiss Patek, Rolex and Omega watches. In 1969, Tito and Keller met again at the Zagreb fair, and again Tito started talking about Swiss watches, as the diplomatic records of the Foreign Ministry in Bern show. The diplomat likely got the message, and in 1972, on Tito's 80th birthday, he proposed to his superiors in Bern that the Swiss government present Tito with a birthday watch.

But officials in Bern were skeptical and reticent. Protocol workers said that so far the Swiss confederation had only distributed gifts to Popes John XXIII and Paul IV, as well as to Prince Franz Joseph II of Liechtenstein. This practice was changed by the Swiss Government at the meeting of May 17, 1972, when it decided to give a gift to Tito. Of course, it was not about a chocolate, nor about cheese, but about a watch, an IWC (International Watch Company) type "Da Vinci", produced in the famous watch factory in Schaffhausen. Tito thanked the watch factory with a photo of himself, in which he wrote: "I am grateful for this gift and consider this to be the best watch I have ever owned." Being in his youth an Austro-Hungarian citizen and non-commissioned officer of the Danubian Empire, Tito also spoke and wrote German.

Switzerland did not only honor Tito with this gift. The gift was also a good advertisement for the Swiss watch industry, which at the time exported more watches to Yugoslavia than to all the Warsaw Pact countries. At the farewell meeting with Tito in Karagjorgjevo in 1974, Ambassador Keller had gleefully recorded that the marshal had spoken in high tones for at least 10 minutes about the Swiss watch industry. In a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bern, the ambassador also pointed out that in public appearances Tito wore an IWC watch.

Other countries had given Tito things that he could not display in public like he did with the Swiss watch. The Italian Republic had given him a replica of the Roman god Kairos, who is considered the god of the happy moment. The president of Egypt, Jamal Abdel Nasser, presented the Yugoslav ruler with a 4700-year-old vase. From the Soviet Union, he received Stalin's sword as a gift, with whom he had broken relations in 1948, among others due to disagreements regarding the future of Albania. When he was declared an honorary citizen of Sarajevo, Tito received Sinan Pasha's sword as a gift. A nightstand came to him as a gift from the American president, Richard Nixon, who fled from office due to the Watergate affair and went down in history as America's fattest president. Tito was also covered with honorable gifts from Kosovo ruled by Yugoslavia, but these chapters are silent today. A historical figure, however, cannot be silenced, no matter what mark he left on history: brutal or less brutal. And this applies not only to Tito, but also to other rulers of the 20th century, mostly cruel.