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

[JEEP]

That is some story! Beautiful watch :eusa_clap


/Jakob

 

[GI Joe]

I saw this advertised in ***s & Ammo and immediately decided I had to have one.

http://www.stauer.com/itemd.asp?ItemNo=13571&CatID=5

I'm sure the "story" behind it is bovine manure but what the heck. I've had it over a year now & it keeps good time. It's tricky getting the day, date, and month all synchronized but once done, it's not too bad to keep up with. Just need a picture of the wife for the back.

 

[JEEP]

I have these three on the way to me:

A 40s "military" watch with a nice original black dial, needs new luminos in the hands - unknown maker. Runs smoothly. This one would look stunning with a brown leather nato strap.

A 14 karat solid gold 20s ladies watch with a mother-of-pearl dial - unknown maker. Runs but needs service.

A golddouble 30s ladies watch in excellent condition - unknown maker. Runs smoothly.


I'm not sure what to do with these wathces yet - they will probably all have a check-up at my watch repairman and then I will use them as presents or sell/trade them here.


/Jakob

 

[JEEP]

Just wanted to show a better picture of my Revue Thommen 30s Sport:

It is by far the nicest non-vintage watch I have ever owned.

I am considering buying the Benrus WWII Commemorative Watch from US-Wings for use as a "beater"; http://www.uswings.com/watches.asp - any opinions on that watch?


/Jakob

 

[Tomasso]

Is that a Rolex branded bracelet?

 

[GWD]

No I don't think so, it is solid gold and it's beautiful but I don't know it's history.

 

[Spitfire]

Just wanted to show a better picture of my Revue Thommen 30s Sport:

It is by far the nicest non-vintage watch I have ever owned.

I am considering buying the Benrus WWII Commemorative Watch from US-Wings for use as a "beater"; http://www.uswings.com/watches.asp - any opinions on that watch?


/Jakob

I've got a Benrus WWII somewhere.
I will bring it, when we meet up in Copenhagen. I might even sell it to you.
(My wife says I' ve got too many watches and A2 jackets!)

 

[JEEP]

That sounds excellent - maybe you are interestred in swapping it for a nice vintage ladies watch for your wife?

I just made the horrible discovery about the small 30s ladies watch with the orginal band; it runs yes, but trying to set it resulted in the watch more or less falling apart - off to the watch repairman it goes.


/Jakob

 

[henderson field]

Re: RFC Hamilton Watches

Thanks for the info guys!! Very much appreciated!

HF

 

[Speedster]

Well here's my contribution to this thread:

My small collection:

Omega from ??; Election Watch Co (Swiss company which no longer exists).
A gift to my father in 1950. And my daily watch, Rolex Submariner bought new in 1982.

Anyone knows anything about the date and style of the Omega and something about the Election Watch Company?

Some other pictures:

And a silver watch marked Janniche (old long gone danish watchshop in Copenhagen) belonging to my wife (given to her grandmother in 1930)

And Jakob, the Omega is not for sale. I like it a lot.

 

[JEEP]

Understandable - I wouldn't sell mine if I had one


/Jakob

 

[Highlander]

Well the Patek watch is by far the quintesnetial watch. Here are my four watches.

The Rolex is nice, the TAG/Heuer is great for adventure, the Citizen is ok, but my every day watch is the Col. Littleton WWI Pilot's watch.

By the way, this if my first post at this site. A newby.

 

[NonEntity]

Were I a watch collector, I'd have a watch for every possible occasion, but I'm not.

I have three watches:

1. A Pulsar. Twenty-five years old, it's black matte (remember when that was totally "in"?) with both analog hands and digital readout that displays time, date, and alarm time. The alarm sounds like a cricket chirping. It's smart and "knows" the number of days in each month, even February in leap years. It keeps very good time--losing only 10-15 seconds twice a year when I change the time to spring forward or fall back. This is the watch I wear when exercising or doing any kind of dirty work outside.

2. A TAG-Heuer. Having a heavy stainless steel case and bracelet, blue face, glow-in-the-dark marks, and rotating bezel, it's of the skindiver style but not nearly so chunky as most. Swiss made, it's amazingly accurate, always within a second or two for the bi-annual change to and from daylight savings time, but it's also stupid and "thinks" every month has 31 days, so I have to manually adjust it come the end of February, April, June, September, and November. This is my everyday watch I wear with clothes ranging from shorts and polos to sport coats and most of my suits and ties.

3. An Omega Seamaster. Solid 14K gold including the back, it has an off-white face and features the old-fashioned type of self-winding mechanism, a sweep second hand, but no day or date. It was my grandfather's that he bought in a local jewelry store right after The War and was left to me when he passed away. It originally had an alligator band, but when it finally wore out, he replaced it with leather ones many times over as they wore out. I restored it back to original by having a black alligator band made for it using the original 14K Omega buckle. Keeps pretty good time, too, gaining less than half a minute a month. Though it's beautiful, I rarely wear it because I was very close to my granddad and consider it an heirloom. When I do, it's a very special occasion when I'm dressed to the nines.

 

[classyguy]

I own a Bulova gold dress watch.

http://www.amazon.com/Bulova-Mens-Goldtone-Watch-97F46/dp/B000196XK6

Simple but still fashionable with a metal band.

 

[mister7]

my only watch

I don't consider watches "action" wear, so it's durability is not an issue to me. I think of it as interesting jewelry that spends most of its time hidden under my sleeve.

I also like the white strap, though I'm sure it is too fashion forward for many. My second favorite would be black crocodile.

 

[Edward]

I always liked the skeleton look - bit of a steampunk vibe.

 

[Rhabryn]

Wow... Thats a nice Skeleton watch.
I would prefer black hands w/ Black gator band for dress, but man, thats a well-designed appearance w/ lots of negative space...

Could you elaborate on the name/brand/expense of that watch?

 

[mister7]

It is a Chenevard, a name unknown to me before I bought it. I bought it new straight from a guy in Germany. It says Germany, supposedly with a Swiss mechanism, 17 jewel, and established 1928 on the watch. I paid something pretty close to $200.00 a few years ago (3 or so ?). I imagine with the dollar tanking it would be more now.

Here is the back. I bought it because it looked cool.

edit: just looked on ebay and found many with a buy it now price around $200. some bidding for less.

 

[Adele]

Adele: What a beauty! Might I be able to convince you to post some colour photographs of it?


/Jakob

Thank you! Forgive me for taking so long to respond back - school has kept me incredibly busy.

 

[chuckknight]

I collect watches, and just have to respond to this thread.

Historically, wristwatches developed as an extension of the war. Before that, pocket watches were the norm...some early wristlets were actually small woman's pocket watches with wire lugs soldered on. The earliest models (I have 2) are quite collectible.

In a pocket watch, fineness was determined by 2 aspects -- one was the casework, the other was the movement. A solid gold case with beautiful chasing was considered a good thing...as was a lovely dial. I have one dial that is solid 18K gold with hand engraving all over it...absolutely lovely in person, and almost impossible to photograph. Believe me, I've tried.

But, that's just the outer skin. The case and the movement were actually sold separately in those days.

There were various grades of movements in those days...a fully jeweled movement (17 jewels is fully jeweled...railroad grade typically had 23 or 25 jewels) was quite a thing to have. This is when the "more jewels is better" credo came into existence...they became a marketing tool. The insides of the watches were finished to a rather remarkably high degree of finish, and then decorated with cotes de geneve or even engine turning in some cases. I just picked up a Waltham from 1897, that is a piece of art...and it's all contained on the inside, where noone can see it. Simply magnificent.

Anyway, back to wristwatches. The trends continued...fully jeweled was good, thinness meant a higher level of technical achievement, which meant fineness. And, the finest watches were always cased in gold...usually yellow, but sometimes rose or red gold. My personal favorite.

The lesser alloys, like green or purple gold, tended to look less dressy and were used on less expensive watches. I have several in these colors, mostly from the 1960s. Stainless steel started to be used, as well as plated brass and nickel. Stainless, because of its toughness and durability became synonymous with "beater" watches...not because it was an inferior or less desirable material, but because the watches made of it were designed for rougher duty.

Ditto the bands...the early metal bands were quite attractive, but were still designed more for "everyday" use, than use on the "gone to Sunday meeting" items. Leather...and extremely fine leather, I might add, remained most common for dress watches.

Today, the same patterns still hold true. A slim, relatively small watch, usually with a simple round face, no complications, and encased in yellow gold will always scream dress watch to most people. Most won't have a date -- if it does, finer watches tend to match the color of the date wheel to the color of the dial. Traditional dial colors for dress watches are white, silver, champagne, and to a lesser degree gold. In those days, discretion and subtlety were valued...not bling.

My own tastes lie in the white metals, though. Stainless, white gold, platinum, etc...they look better on me. So, I tend to find dressy looking "silver colored" watches.

I also love finely tuned automatic watches, and the 5x a second that they tick. The sweeping seconds hand makes a lovely sound to my ear.

But, sometimes you want the accuracy and convenience of a quartz. And, there's no reason you can't have a nice one. Citizen and Seiko are OK, but why not go for something a little bit special? Something you don't see on everyone else's wrist?

In these cases, I go for technology. HIGH technology. Ceramics. Rado is my favorite "tech" brand. Their ceramic bracelet watches are simply beautiful in person, and are quintessential dress watches, without adhering to any of the above rules. They truly make their own rules...and for them, it works!

Here are pictures of my favorite modern dress watches:

The ultimate in minimalism. Bauhaus for the 21st century.

I just love most of Rado's designs...modern, while completely classic. If you've gotta' wear a quartz watch...this is the way to do it! And, not outrageously expensive, either. Diamond-hard ceramics, sintered titanium "gold" metal, and sapphire crystals. Miracles of modern technology, in a classic case.

-- Chuck Knight