Hi,
They may have Gold and jewellry listed as their products but the following thoughts...
1) The 50cal on our APC was made by "General Motors spark plugs division".... just showing that wartime production of a company can be rather flexible... there seems to have been many companies involved with making awards that had nothing to do with them prewar.
2) As the company Kling was supplying to the military (it seems) and not commercially, there would probably have been little need to add medals to their label
3) As precious metals were at a premium, and people were giving in "Gold for Eisen" it seems logical that such jeweller firms looked elsewhere in other fields to earn their money
4) The KO, even if K&Q is a very unclear thing.... Maybe K&Q subcontracted out, having other companies do assembling for them under the KO name...
I doubt Kling WAS actually KO... too many crosses for an unknown firm.... but what if KO was actually a cooprative, with a number of firms involved in the making and assembly. Trevor points out they all have the same rims, but there are core variations....
Maybe one company made rims, 4 made cores and 6 soldered them and finished them, and KQ was the Dachorganisation that coordinated...
Once again, just musing... but it would be wrong to dismiss this because it rocks the current theory...