The OLYMPIA TRAVELLER DE LUXE was made under license by UNIS of Sarajevo, Yugoslavia beginning in 1971.  These were distributed widely with the OLYMPIA brand and model as noted, but some carried UNIS' mark exclusive of OLYMPIA.  Seen here is my UNIS TBM DE LUXE, made in 1986.  Interestingly, it has a Cyrillic (Russian) typeface.  It appears as though production of this machine, officially the SKM series, ended in Germany but was maintained by UNIS who supplied all of OLYMPIA's needs for this machine.  Most TRAVELLER series machines are from UNIS.

These machines superseded the old Olympia SF-series portables, and for a short time it appears that they were produced both in West Germany and in Yugoslavia.  What is interesting is the fact that it appears that, at a late date, UNIS may have been continuing to make the machines independently of Olympia; perhaps, as Olympia transitioned to less expensive machines to build, UNIS decided to have a go at it by itself.

The styling for these machines is quite distinctive, especially because of the offsetting white trim around the body.  In the case where the machine is colored white, the offsetting trim will be black.  Somehow, this exact stylistic design ended up in production in Brazil, by Olivetti, as the Olivetti Tropical.  We don't yet know how that happened!

Don't be fooled !  The machine at left carries the Olympia brand name and trademark.  It has identical styling to the German-made and Yugoslavian-made machines.  However, not one single mechanical part is interchangeable!  You see, this Olympia Olympiette 2 was manufactured in Japan by Nakajima, and is a completely different machine.  I should note that the attention to detail in my 1986-built UNIS machine is excellent.  This machine is every bit as well built as any of its German relatives, a testament to the skill and expertise of UNIS in precision manufacturing.  Collectors who seek to acquire a good machine need not fear the fact that either a Traveller De Luxe or TBM De Luxe was made in Yugoslavia!

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