100.00 EUR
The UNIS TBM was designed for Olympia Werke in Wilhelmshaven, West Germany, in 1969, by Alfons Boothby and Georges Joseph. This version of the Olympia Traveller de Luxe was made in Yugoslavia, by Udružena Metalna Industrija Sarajevo (UNIS, or United Metal Industries in Croatian) of Sarajevo at its tvornica biro mašina (TBM, office machine factory) in Bugojno.
UNIS, which started to produce these machines in 1971, also made the Olympia Traveller de Luxe in a range of colours for Olympia, while for a time the model was simultaneously being manufactured in West Germany.
This particular model of the UNIS TBM has the ribbon colour selection markers on the right outer white rim, complete with the ribbon colour selector. Other variations of this model did not have a ribbon colour selector.
Bugojno, once a major industrial centre, is 81 miles north-west of Sarajevo, in central Bosnia and Herzegovina on the river Vrbas. Production of the UNIS TBM and Yugoslavian OTDL continued at least until the late 1980s.
Boothby and Joseph were issued with a US patent for their design in March 1971. It had been patented in Germany in April 1969. It was influenced by Carl Sundberg's design of the Remington Monarch and one of Karl Tillman Baughman's designs. Olivetti later acquired this design and adapted it to make its Tropical and Roma portable typewriters in Brazil.
The same original casing design was used for the Olympiette 2 and 3, which were made by Nakajima in Japan with different mechanism.
Includes the original case, and has the "Yugoslavia 2" keyboard. No spell checker unfortunately.
Make, Model:
UNIS, TBM De Luxe
Condition:
Good vintage condition, fully working , only thing to mention is that letter J is bit loosen as seen on the last picture.
- Combined shipping is very unpredictable, please ask for quote
- I try to use as much recycled packaging as possible, for reasons well known. Let me know if it's a gift. I'll give it a comfy home for the journey ;)