Adrian (1835 - 1908) & Edward (1836-1919) Kaltenbach
The Kaltenbachs of Cardiff were perhaps the best-known and longest-lasting of all these watchmaking families. Edward and Adrian Kaltenbach came to Cardiff in the 1860s when the place was expanding rapidly thanks to coal. They set up their watch, clock and jewellery business in Caroline Street, a business which continued to flourish on the same site for nearly 150 years. The main shop premises were always at 22 & 23 Caroline Street, where Edward Kaltenbach advertised ‘WATCHES! WATCHES!! WATCHES!!! Silver patent lever watches, chronometer balances, all kinds of other gold and silver watches, and gold and silver jewellery’. For a time Adrian Kaltenbach had a separate shop at 39 Caroline Street, where in 1876 he advertised ‘All kinds of English and Foreign Watches, Clocks, and Jewellery repaired’. Edward Kaltenbach continued the business at 22 & 23 Caroline Street until about 1906 and later his son Arthur inherited and took over the business. Arthur Kaltenbach, jeweller and watchmaker, ran the business for very many years, and in 1992 it was still being continued by his daughters Christine and Theresa. Stewart Williams (Cardiff Yesterday 1992, photo 51) shows an old photo of the shop front in the 1920s, and commented that the shop still looked .much the same inside and outside. However, not long afterwards the Kaltenbach business in Caroline Street finally closed down, bringing to an end a family business that hand operated through wars and periods of economic depression for nearly a century and a half.