Sears

Tower 120 Flash

Sears is the most famous mail order house in the world since its Chicago building Sears Tower was the highest in the world for a certain period. In the U.S.A. it was the greatest mail-order an retail vendor of consumer goods. It was founded by Richard W. Sears in 1886. It started as reseller of watches in North Redwood, Minnesota. In 1887 Sears moved to Chicago and employed Alvah C. Roebuck as watch- and toolmaker. In 1893 Roebuck became partner in the company which then was renamed Sears, Roebuck & Co.. Like other great mail-order houses Sears had a house-brand for cameras, the Tower cameras which were all OEM products, made by different renowned camera makers of several countries.

Distributed cameras

original camera	sold as
Bilora Bella	Tower 5 (127 film)
Mfr? Germany	Tower 8 (box camera)
Mamiya	Tower 10A
16mm submini spy cam	Tower 16
Mamiya	Tower 18B
Olympus Ace-	Tower 19
Mamiya 48mm/f1.7	Tower 20B
Asahiflex IIB	Tower 23
Mamiya-Sekor Lens, Exakta/Topcon mnt?	Tower 32B
Braun Paxette Reflex	Tower 33 Reflex
???	Tower 37
???	Tower 39 - very odd
???	Sears 39 - very odd
Toyoca-44	Tower 44
Halma 44	Tower 44B
Nicca 5L f:2	Tower 45
Nicca f:1.4	Tower 46
Iloca Rapid	Tower 50
Iloca Rapid B	Tower 51
Iloca Rapid IIL	Tower 52
Ising Pucky I	Tower 120 Flash
Busch 4x5 Pressman	Tower 4x5 Pressman
Ricoh 126 C Automatic	Sears Easi-Load FC 600
Mamiya ???	Tower Automatic 35
Nicca III	Tower Type 3
Nicca, Leotax?	Tower Type 3S
Ansco Marvel S-20	???
Reflecta	Trumpfreflex
???	Sears Model 65
???	Tower Camflash 127 (see also:Tower,Sears 39)
???	Sears Model 600 Easi load FC (flash Cube) Instamatic

Several Tower cameras were also made by Bilora. Sears lenses for SLRs were made by Ricoh. Conley was a partner of Sears & Roebuck. In 1924 Conley was owned by Sears, and bought Seneca. But the Seneca brand disappeared in 1926. In 1980 Sears, Roebuck and Co. was restructured and rebranded to Sears Merchandise Group.