[1] Halda was founded in 1887 by the factory owner Henning Hammarlund (1857-1922) in order to primarily produce pocket watches.

After World War II, Hammarlund developed new techniques for the manufacturing of typewriters and taxi meters due to the decrease in demand for pocket watches.

[4] The Halda Speedpilot was called "a considerable advance upon anything of the kind previously marketed, as regards usefulness, compactness, mechanical simplicity (and hence reliability), simplicity of operation and price" by Autosport in 1956.

Production of pocket watches moved under the watchmaker Carl Borgström's housing, an employee of the Halda Fickursfabrik since 1904.

He founded the company AB Urfabriken (ABU), and produced pocket watches until 1926 and then added in fishing equipment.