Post pics of your watches ***Please NO QUOTING PHOTOS***

Another Saturday night oldie. The earliest wristwatch I have. 1912. Now officially an antique wristwatch. Same year as the Titanic went down. Crazy thought. Funny enough, though it looks kinda odd it doesn't look like a Victorian pocket watch with lugs welded on as most do from that time and later. Even the winder crown looks "modern"

Again apologies for the crappy fone pic.


Hampden Company wristwatch/wristlet with a silverine case(nickel). US made(though ended up in France of all places), with a very fancy movement, proclaiming Canton, Ohio as it's birthplace. Most of the later ones had a so so 7 jewel job, but this has the 15 jewel, with screwed chatoned jewels, Breguet spring, micrometer regulation, gorgeous finishing and gold writing all over the place. Real US of A bling

That's the movement in a ladies fob watch.

Odd thing about this is the winding/setting part. It's a lever set. This means you have to pop the front open, slide a tiny lever just below the 5 and then the crown turns the hands. Apparently the patent for the crown doing all the work of winding and setting was held by others and they didn't pay for the patent at this early stage.

IMH at this time our American friends were blowing the European makers out of the bloody water on the mid to high end range stuff. Their mid range stuff wouldn't look outa place on some serious Swiss names. That watch is one of the most accurate I own. In the last 24 hours it's lost 10 seconds(and consistently does so) and it's long overdue a service(and a new crystal).




And what ever happened to the Hampden watch company from Ohio Main Street USA? Odd one. After the Great war, they didn't keep up with the times, or fashion and slowly started going downhill, ending up bankrupt by the late 20's*.

Enter, stage left and way out of left field, the Communist Soviet Union. They bought this US company lock, stock and barrel and shipped it to Russia, along with hiring a few master watchmakers to train in the locals. It became the Moscow Watch Factory and so in the end the Hampden Watch Co(with a little help from German stuff after WW2) gave rise to the Poljots, Raketas, Vostoks and the like.

So in a way without the crowd that made my watch all those years ago our own mate Peasant would be down quite a few of his very cool timepieces.




And so ends my usual Saturday night boring history meanderings. Ah sure you're all out getting beered up so... This will help sober you up in the morrow.:D






*really weird one, their watches feature in the film "The Maltese Falcon". not the Bogart one, but the original from 1931. Bet many of ye didn't know that was a remake. So no slagging remakes.

Looks fantastic! DT and the right amount of patina IMH. It is the bigger sized one too(was slightly worried it may have been the 32mm version). Looks like the minute hand got a bump in transit Still a good watchmaker should be able to stabilise that(actually hang on, Ill have a root around...). The movement won't be an issue as they've a good un. Solid, simple and dependable and yours is the "proper" full sized one and the better quality one with it. Well may you wear DT.

Yet another Saturday night special...

This time another early wristwatch, or wristlet or bracelet watch as they were often called at the time. Made a year after the 1915 New York National Retail Jewelers' Association of America, where an august delegate by the name of Louis Ebeling mused this; "The wrist watch will never be a common timepiece, while it is stylish, it is going to give us a lot of trouble. I think we'd better let matters stand as they are."

Slightly better fone pic from earlier today;

One 1916 Longines "trench watch". Solid silver hallmarked case and unusually for the time movable lugs and better again a decent size, 37mm.

I have to say I do like silver as a material as it changes with wear*. When I first got this many years ago it was as black as your boot from tarnish and even now it picks up funky patterns of patina from the strap.

Built like a pocket watch with two hinged cuvette backs to it, even has the original pumpkin crown with a tiny L in the top. Longines 13.34 15 jewel movement. Serial number on movement and case, something very few makers did at the time. Makes gauging the history of a Longines easier than nearly all the rest(and if you email them with said serial they'll give you the details of it's history from their handwritten ledgers going back to the mid 1800's). Also marked with the UK import hallmark for 1916 and "AB", one Arthur Baume from Baume & Co who was Longines' sole agent in Britain(and it's empire) at the time.

This is also a "birthday watch" of our country in a way. While the Great War raged, Irish streets were fighting a long sought revolution to give us all our autonomy today. When I glance at the time for our more mundane reasons these days, every so often I do glance a little bit longer.

As a day to day watch? I've read all sorts of good advice about vintage watches, that they should be special day watches, cosseted, pampered, delicately worn. That is V good advice BTW, especially for these old codgers. However.... I've had this one for a long time. I've worn it a lot, daily for many a year and it gets wrist time on a very regular basis to this day. I've had all sorts of thrills and spills with it. The only real care I've given it is that I kept it away from water, well immersing it in water anyway, I've defo worn it in the pissins of an Irish winter and walked home pissed as a fart in the snow obsessively checking the time as a went(as you do when pissed :D). Even so, it's been one of the most accurate and dependable watches I have ever owned/looked after. Not too bad for a leaky 98 year old.



*they often say it's too soft a material for modern watches. ORLY? Just shy of a century and still goin strong boyo. :D

+1 M. You can see the typestyle far better. Safer too. It's a relatively easy task to clean the enamel dials of radium, the metal dials can be an issue sometimes. Either way, don't try that at home folks. Although it will have long lost it's glow(the phosphors burn out), the radium is still very radioactive. Inhale a tiny speck of that into your lungs and a 60 a day smoking habit would start to look healthy by comparison.

Trigger Happy wrote: »

Can anyone explain to me why I have 3 bids out on 3 Trench watches at the moment? Need to pull back from viewing this thread!!

Ahhh *rubs hands together* I have successfully infected you with the Wristlet virus. No known cure. :pac: On that score a few days ago I saw a bloody lovely JW Benson label one with a longines movement and a black dial go for little over the 200 quid mark. Actually there is a cure TH. Being broke. :mad::D

I prefer the 57 myself. IMH it'll look way better on a leather strap too. The original of the species likely came on one as standard. I even like the 50's/60's stylee hands and the chrono pushers. Real "classy" to my eye anyway.

The mark II speedy? Very funky looking watch. Nice too, very 1970's in case design. For me that kind of case tends to look far better on a bracelet. They can look odd on a leather, like you lost the bracelet kinda odd. I think it's the sheer mass of the shape that makes a leather strap look funny, too heavy for a poncy leather strap kinda thing? That said that one at least tapers towards the lugs so it might be OK. I'd want to see and wear one in the flesh first though.

So Disco Stu or Don Draper? You know for some reason I never really took to Omegas, but you guys keep showing some really nice ones and changing my mind. I wonder would they do a custom 57 minus the date... *runs*. :pac: