Let's See Your Watches! The Vintage Watch Thread.

[Talbot]

My usual fellow is taking less work and I have a few items needing repair. Thanks for the info.

 

[fabiovenhorst]

Roy Rodgers Pocket Watch 1950's wind-up by Bradley

View attachment 50106

Very interesting!

 

[Shangas]

My usual fellow is taking less work and I have a few items needing repair. Thanks for the info.

Philip Gore at Ferntree Gully W&C comes highly recommended. His prices are a bit steep, but his servicing is very thorough.

 

[Seb Lucas]

Yes I like Philip too. Good to hear confirmation.

 

[Shangas]

I was recommended Philip when my usual chap told me he wasn't doing pocketwatches anymore, and I wasn't able to find anyone else who I could trust. This suggestion was backed up by a couple of other people I was talking to, so I took it to him about two weeks ago. He was very professional about it and while it'll be a LONG wait (about two months), I'm glad it'll be done.

I'm in no great hurry to have the watch back, so it doesn't matter. Plus it gives me time to raise the funds. I don't intend to purchase another pocket watch in my lifetime, anyway (Well, unless I hit the jackpot or do really well in business or something).

Now I have one gold, and one silver. That's all I really need.

...But I am still seeking out a silver double-albert chain...

 

[RJR]

One of my favorites;Tudor 7928 with pointed crown guards.

 

[Talbot]

Now I have one gold, and one silver. That's all I really need.

...But I am still seeking out a silver double-albert chain...

Thats how it starts....

Thanks for the tip, I'll keep him in mind.

 

[Shangas]

LOL nice try! It started with me years ago, and I sold almost all of them, and now I'm gonna stick on the straight and narrow with just two, thank you very much!!

 

[tropicalbob]

I recently became interested in vintage watches and bought a Swiss "Ancre de Precision Tigre" from the WWII era. Question: is it normal for a manual-wind watch to stop after four or five hours?

 

[tblay]

I recently became interested in vintage watches and bought a Swiss "Ancre de Precision Tigre" from the WWII era. Question: is it normal for a manual-wind watch to stop after four or five hours?

You'd probably have better luck on a forum dedicated to vintage watches, but typically a hand-wind watch should keep time for 24 hours.

 

[Shangas]

A handwound mechanical watch should keep time for longer than 24 hours. Try more like 30-36.

 

[tblay]

A handwound mechanical watch should keep time for longer than 24 hours. Try more like 30-36.

Definitely. I meant to write at least as a qualifier. Four or five hours is absolutely unacceptable. I wonder if the crown isn't seating properly when pushed in (I've had that problem), but, again, a watch forum would give you really good advice, I'm sure.

 

[Shangas]

Quite. A watch that runs for four hours would be useless to anybody. Properly serviced, it should run for anywhere from 28-30-36 hours, depending on the design of the watch and the mainspring. Occasionally, other things might be at fault, but if it's not running for anywhere near that long, then it needs servicing or repairing.

 

[tropicalbob]

Thanks to everyone.

 

[Shangas]

After a hiccup involving a broken spring, my watch is back:

New crystal. Dent removed. Movement stripped and serviced. So far, it's keeping time.

Silver-faced watch-stand I bought for it. Watch is 1925. Stand is 1920.

 

[Talbot]

I only have one pocket watch (nothing special) and should really think about something nice.

It never ceases to amaze me the difference in values between pocket watches and wrist watches.

Very nice pice Shangas. Is the fob from your alma mater?

 

[viclip]

Just this past year, after reading a William Gibson novel in which one of the characters collects and repairs vintage watches, I slowly began to get drawn into the world of watches. What really interest me are unusual items, and as I've been a big fan of Russian Constructivism for years, I've been scanning hundreds of pages on ebay of Russian watches. It really surprises me to find almost nothing, as the great majority of the pieces (some of them very nice) are simply based on Swiss designs. So I was wondering if any of the collectors here might be able to afford me any information about this. It seems odd to me that a school of design as popular and as widely used as that one was in the USSR would have shown up so rarely in something so utilitarian as a watch. Any ideas?

Good grief, it's been months since I last parsed this thread, even though it's one of my favorites.

Somewhat belatedly, perhaps I can shed a bit of light on the Soviet watch industry between the world wars.

Apparently the Russian Empire never had much of a watch industry, & what there was would have been adversely affected by World War I, the ensuing years of civil war, culminating in years of savaging under the Bolshevik regime. Anyways by the late 1920s the Soviets concluded that they sorely needed a domestic watch industry. Their strategy was to turn to the West. One tactic was to outright acquire established watchmaking plant & equipment lock, stock & barrel as in the case of the purchase by the USSR of the American outfit known as the Hampden Watch Co. Numerous boxcars were seen leaving the former factory in Ohio in the early 1930s & a number of ex-employees journeyed under contract to the Soviet Union in order to pass on their watchmaking know-how.

Another tactic was to enter into agreements with established manufacturers for the supply of parts, equipment & know-how, probably the best known being the relationship with the LIP watch company of Besancon, France. Indeed the Soviet line of "ZIM" pocket watches is based on the LIP 39/40 family of movements, while a line of "Pobeda" wristwatches is based upon the LIP R25 movement. Early examples of the Soviet versions contained actual LIP movements albeit unsigned. Parts interchangeability remained quite high even after the Soviets began producing their own.

Anyways the roots of the Soviet watch industry were based in large part upon American & French (Swiss) precedents, & likely other similar western influences were at play (I suspect that I've only scratched the surface).

Funny how things work out sometimes.

Afterthoughts: The line of Soviets watches that I was thinking of which were based on the LIP R25 caliber, is the "Slava" line, the movement being round ditto for the watches. Also I should perhaps have also mentioned the influence of the tonneau-shaped LIP T18 movement, which formed the caliber underlying the Soveit "Zvezda" line of rectangular-shaped watches of which there are numerous examples extant.

 

[Fading Fast]

Circa 1950s Girard Perregaux:

 

[1955mercury]

Here's a few more of my old watches.
1936 Bulova Lone Eagle

1930's Westfield Trojan

1930's Elsmere

1933 Elgin

1960 Caravelle

1930's West Pointer

1949 Bulova Duncan

1950's Wittnauer

 

[Shangas]

I only have one pocket watch (nothing special) and should really think about something nice.

It never ceases to amaze me the difference in values between pocket watches and wrist watches.

Very nice pice Shangas. Is the fob from your alma mater?

Sorry for not replying to this sooner. No, the fob isn't anything special. I bought it simply because I was piecing things together to build up a 'silver ensemble' as it were. Pocketwatches have fascinated me since I was a child.