THE BIG INTERVIEW: Bachendorf’s dynasty in Dallas

From war-torn Germany to the high society of Dallas, Rob Corder discovers how Lawrence Bock and his family grew Bachendorf’s into a Texan watch and jewelry giant in three generations.

WATCHPRO: Before we get into the news about your newly refurbished and showroom at The Galleria in Dallas, could you set the scene for us and give us a quick history of Bachendorf’s?

LAWRENCE BOCK, OWNER AND CEO OF BACHENDORF’S: We have been here since World War II when my grandfather Abram Bock, father Harry and his daughter Ali emigrated from Germany in 1947.

My grandfather was in the watch and jewelry business before the War, so our relationship with Swiss watchmakers and diamond jewelers from all around Europe goes back to the early 20th century.

Because of his historic relationships in Europe, after the War my grandfather was offered a seal by the Consulate of Switzerland that would have given him the right to import Swiss watch movements into the United States. He was one of only three people at the time to be offered one of these seals.

However, he was angry with the Swiss government because, during World War II when he was in a concentration camp, he had sent money to the Swiss to protect his nest egg but they used that money to pay Swiss watch manufacturers that should have been paid by the Hitler regime that he had been working for before the War.

The Swiss offered him the seal, which would have given him $1.50 for every Swiss movement that he exported to the United States.

But my grandfather never used it, saying that he did not want to deal with people who had cheated him out of his nest egg.

The story goes that he used to go to sleep every night for two years in the concentration camp dreaming of the $64,000 he had in Switzerland, which ended up evaporating.

In the mid-1950s they ended the seal system as trade opened up between Switzerland and the United States. We discovered this when we were researching our history and learned about the seal and its value before it was revoked. That is how we found out that my grandfather never took advantage of it.

However, he had these relationships with Europeans back in the 1920s so was able to expand from a jewelry repair business launched as A. Bock Manufacturing, to a jeweler named Bock Jewelry Co.

My father Harry studied in St. Louis, MI, and then moved back to Dallas and joined the family business in 1955 and developed a gift for buying and marketing diamonds, which helped to grow the company.

We opened our first Bachendorf’s store in 1977 and went into the Galleria in the 1980s, which was the Mecca of Dallas. Our showroom had Rolex, Cartier and all the major brands back then.

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