Security, quality and cutting-edge are terms often used to describe Switzerland. They can equally be used to describe Kaba – one of Switzerland’s oldest physical security brands.

Kaba’s establishment was intrinsically linked with one of Switzerland’s most prominent and successful safe and lockmakers, founded by Franz Bauer in Zurich in 1862. Franz was born in Mannheim, Germany in 1839, and after completing a locksmith apprenticeship he immigrated to Switzerland in 1861. At the age of only 22, Franz opened a locksmith and safe workshop in central Zurich. Zurich at this point was more of a town than a city, but was transforming into a successful industrial and financial centre. This was a time of great industrial growth, innovation, and socioeconomic change. The second half of the 19^th century was also a time when increasing numbers of lock and safe companies were being founded in Europe to capitalise on growing opportunities within the security hardware market. The Swiss market was no different, and by the end of the 19^th century most Swiss cities had a local safe maker – e.g. Franz Bauer and Emil Schwyzer & Co in Zurich; G. Engel and Von Seisen in Geneva; Kassenfabrik Steib in Basel; Bazar Vaudois and Francois Tauxe in Lausanne; Vidmar/Wiedemar and Berna in Bern; and H. R. Thiemeyer and C.A. Streuli in St. Gallen, amongst others.

It appears that Franz was a proficient entrepreneur, quickly gaining visibility through public demonstrations and exhibitions. His company won multiple awards for his safes, and exhibited at the 1878 Universal Exposition in Paris, the 1883 Swiss National Exhibition, the 1889 Paris Exposition, amongst other high-profile expositions – events which attracted huge numbers of visitors, gaining the company considerable exposure. Franz’s live public demonstrations covered fire and forced entry attacks on his safes, to prove their effectiveness against stated threats. In the lead up to 1900, Franz Bauer’s reputation, coupled with the growing Swiss banking sector, enabled the company to secure major contracts with several commercial banks, providing Bauer with sufficient income to invest in a new factory.

After Franz’s death in 1908, the company was renamed Franz Bauer Söhne AG by his sons. By the first quarter of the 20^th century, they were producing a large number of different lever locks, many with double-bitted keys, as well as combination locks for safes, from their production site in Wetzikon (where today’s Dormakaba continue operations).

Although Switzerland did not participate in the First World War, it was not immune to the economic consequences of food and energy shortages, and many people and businesses suffered. In 1915, the Bauer sons sold their company to a friend of Edwin Bauer, Leo Bodmer, who renamed the business Bauer AG. Bauer AG continued the company’s activities throughout Switzerland, producing safety deposit boxes, coin banks, safes, vaults and other security containers for many of the country’s leading banks and the national post office, Swiss Post.

Bauer AG’s claim to fame within the security locks field came in 1934, when they patented a new lock designed by Fritz Schori – one of Bauer’s lock design specialists. This unique type of pin tumbler lock used a reversible key – a lock that would later be called a ‘dimple lock’ after the multiple precision-drilled indentations (AKA ‘countersunk bores’) on the flat key shaft. This lock was thereafter branded ‘Kaba’ by Bauer, taking the first two letters of Kassenfabrik Bauer (Bauer cash box/register/safe maker).

While not initially successful, Kaba locks became popular in Switzerland following the end of WW2. Unlike its neighbours, Switzerland’s infrastructure and industries were left undamaged, and the country experienced a period of significant and sustained economic growth, with exports multiplying and large-scale expansion of Swiss cities. This created many new opportunities for security technology providers such as Bauer. Namely, their Kaba 8 and Kaba 14 (both named after the number of pins), became the go-to locks for several decades for a wide variety of applications, until higher-security alternatives were produced, such as the Kaba 20 (with up to 20 pins), introduced in the 1960s. The Kaba 6 was also one of Bauer’s earliest Kaba locks, though more suited to lower security applications, such as for lockers and cabinets.

Keso, another Swiss security lock company, was founded in 1963 by Ernst Keller, emerging (and continuing today) as a direct competitor to Bauer’s Kaba brand in the Swiss security lock market. Keller’s improved dimple lock patents forced Bauer to respond with their own higher-security alternatives. Both companies prided themselves for their high-quality, precision manufacturing, characteristic of Swiss-made products, and both firms produced robust, reliable locks with tight tolerances. Over the years, both Bauer and Keso released new, improved mechanical locks, of various types. Many different Kaba locks have been produced since 1934, some more popular than others. After the Kaba 8 and 14, Bauer released the Kaba 20 in the 1960s; the Kaba Gemini in the mid-1980s; the Kaba Quattro, Kaba Star, Kaba Titan and Kaba Elostart in the 1990s; the Kaba experT and Penta in the early 2000s; and the Kaba Matrix in the mid-2000s. Various upgraded versions of the above models have also since been released. Alongside these pin tumbler locks, Bauer also released other types of Kaba branded locks, including mechanical and digital combination locks, partly through acquisitions.

Keso wasn’t Kaba’s only competitor. R. Berchtold AG was founded in the canton of Bern in 1935 by Rudolf Berchtold – only a year after Fritz Schori’s invention was patented. Although similar in appearance and also using reversible keys, Berchtold locks had a different design to those of their Swiss competitors, using springless bar-wafers instead of spring-loaded pin tumblers. Berchtold introduced the innovative SEA-Normal in 1949, a lock model that continues to be produced by SEA Schliess-Systeme AG today. [1]

One of the main security benefits of Kaba style locks is the vast number of possible permutations, as multiple dimples can be machined onto any side of the key shaft, activating pins at different angles within the lock cylinder. This complicates both picking attacks, key-bumping, and illicit key replication. Additionally, warding can be added to the keyway, hindering the insertion and use of picking tools, and security pins are sometimes used to further increase the difficulty of picking attacks. In terms of resistance to the more common brute force and drilling attacks, Kaba dimple locks are typically constructed of nickel-plated solid brass bodies or steel for higher-security models, and have hardened steel anti-drill pins.

Over the years, Bauer made a number of acquisitions and mergers, growing in size. Switzerland’s security industry also grew, though remained much smaller than those of the neighbouring countries of France, Italy and Germany. Though Switzerland was not exempt from such threats, its neighbours all experienced far more physical security issues from the 1960s to 1990s – including significant increases in domestic extremism and international terrorism, civil unrest and other forms of violent crime and property crime. The Swiss insurance industry also grew in prominence and influence, and remains one of the key drivers for both residential and commercial use of high-security locks such as the Kaba, Keso and Sea cylinders produced domestically. Part of the reason is that insurance firms typically only provide partial coverage if losses occur enabled by non-destructive entry (e.g. using a copied key or by lock manipulation) – attacks which Kaba locks protect well against. Preference for Swiss-made products, and mechanics have also played a role in the success of Kaba locks. Swiss cylinders are slightly larger than Euro profile cylinders, and until recent years were the dominant type used. Therefore, when older cylinders have been changed, the simplest replacement for them have previously been Swiss locks.

However, Kaba mechanical lock cylinders and padlocks faced growing competition in the first quarter of the 21st century, namely from German security lock brands such as Abus, Zeiss Ikon, DOM Sicherheitstechnik, and Burg-Wächter, and Israeli lockmaker Mul-T-Lock, formed in 1973. As more companies moved their manufacturing to Asia (namely China), the competition from abroad only grew, perhaps most noticeably in the padlock market. Nevertheless, Swiss-made Kaba padlocks remained a popular choice for protecting local and national infrastructure, including utility services, major manufacturing sites, and the transportation sector.

Bauer ceased to use its name in 1995, when Bauer Kaba Holding AG became simply Kaba Holding AG – establishing Kaba as a company rather than a brand. 20 years later, Dormakaba was formed when Kaba Holding AG merged with German locking hardware company Dorma in 2015. Kaba and Keso dimple locks continue to dominate Switzerland’s residential, commercial and public sector security locking system market. You are just as likely to find a Kaba lock on an apartment door as you are to the entrance to a bank. They are also exported around the world, including to Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Oceania. However, Dormakaba’s much larger side of the business now concerns electronic access control systems, with key cards and fobs continuing to replace mechanical keys in many modern buildings.

As the lock market evolves, Kaba-style dimple locks are becoming increasingly popular around the world, being produced by both reputable brands (including Abus, Yale, Banham and Mul-T-Lock), and less reputable brands, with many inferior copies made in China. The past 30 years have seen an acceleration in the acquisition by big security groups of smaller companies, with the formation of ASSA ABLOY, Dormakaba and Allegion (the ‘big three’) as global conglomerates. Nevertheless, Dormakaba has retained a strong reputation for high-quality, with their headquarters and Kaba lock manufacturing sites still located in Switzerland.

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[1] https://www.sea.ch/de-site-unternehmen-geschichte