Tower was a brand name used by Sears for cameras they imported. This camera looks a great deal like a 1958 Braun Gloriette (same as the Rothlar Gazelle) and also sold as the Wittnauer Scout in the USA. All versions had a Steinheil Munchen Cassar f/2.8 45 mm lens in a Protor B, 25-200 shutter.
It seems this camera was shown in a 1958-59 Sears catalogue as a Tower No. 1, but when I tried looking that up the Tower No. 1 was a simple box camera.
As you can see, this camera has been sitting somewhere dusty for many years.
This camera had a rapid advance lever that is now missing. That gear indicates the racheting advance lever could slip back to its rest position next to the body. That mushroom top shutter release is another confusing bit, as the later Gloriette “B” of 1958 didn’t have that. It is one of the mysteries of collecting that some cameras were made with older left over parts so dating is an inexact process.
Notice the distance between the different f/stops changes a lot. On the plus side the lever incorporates a notched finger catch so adjustment can be exact even with gloves on. There are depth-of-field markings. The lens will focus to a little under 3.5 feet. The Cassar is a three-element design with focus adjusted by the front element.
Internally the film advance is relatively crude with the film take-up spool pulling the film across a shutter tensioning wheel located above the film aperture.. You start the film with the diameter of the take-up spool setting the 8-sprocket width of the 35 mm (36 mm wide)frame. As more and more film gets wound on the take-up spool, the spacing of the frames starts to increase.
The frame counter reset wheel is on the back top edge just to the right of the viewfinder eye point.
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