My understanding is that the British Gillettes are considered to be superior to the US counterparts, at least from the 40's to the 60's. You hear about the aristocrat, ss, rockets, and so forth, but what about adjustable Gillette safety razors? Were these not manufactured in Britain? I just never hear about them much.
As I recall, the adjustables were all made in USA and shipped to different countries for different packaging related to those countries. My NOS birth year long black handle adjustable is made in USA but repackaged for the Netherlands. I know there was a adjustable Aristocrat (black handle, gold plating) made in USA But sold and packaged for Japan. Have a look here at Achim's Gillette adjustables page: http://www.mr-razor.com/Rasierer/Adjustable/Adjustable.htm
U.S made only.brit version fatboy sets were packaged as "Executive" i believe.some one will correct me if i'm wrong..
I believe the Gold Plated Fatboy were packaged as "The Executive" in all markets. The Gillette Wikipedia Entry is actually fairly informative, but does not get into the particulars of where and when they were manufactured.
The British took a different route and used a double screw instead of a crimp to operate the tto knob. This opening mechanism is simply not compatible with the adjusting mechanism used by Gillette.
Short answer all model dial adjustable DE razors were only manufactured in the US regardless of where they were sold. Longer answer some of the older 3 pc razors were considered adjustable including British and Canadian made razors because you could loosen the handle a hair and it would increase the blade gap without any issues.
