Ramon Rio y Cuervo and his sister's sons kept a watchmaking workshop and an elegant store in Havana in the old days where they sold fine Swiss and American pocket watches.  Along with the advent of tourism from the nearby coast of Florida at the beginning of the 20th century, their business developed with wristwatches, whose dials Don Ramon soon had printed with his own name, as did other jewelers in New York and Paris at the time.  And Cuervo y Sobrinos - Cuervo and Nephews - was born.  From the guestbooks and photographs that were found only a few years ago in the basement of the former store, it would seem that Ernest Hemingway, Enrico Caruso, Clark Gable, Winston Churchill, and even Albert Einstein were customers.

Upon the initiative of an Italian watch enthusiast and a Spanish businessman, Cuervo y Sobrinos was resuscitated in 2002 after 40 years of absence.  With a manufacturing base now located in the Italian-speaking, region of Switzerland and in cooperation with various Swiss workshops, Don Ramons heirs developed a new wristwatch collection that reminds wearers of the 1940's with exceptional case shapes and dial details.