Christopher Ward

Thirdfox

Yes I should have mentioned - I got the no-date versions :pac: (and I love having the date feature on my watches - even dress watches!) And I think no-date just means there's no dial window for the date wheel (not sure if they remove the wheel or not though...)

Wibbs can confirm - but wasn't the "turn to 1, back to 8, back to 1" already considered a "quick set" feature back in the day? Did older watches have to go through the whole 24 hours to get to a new date back in the past?

And Vostok's "quick set" feature still has siblings I believe - doesn't the Omega Aquaterra/Seamaster(?) use the "skip forward and back" on some of their GMT watches (where the date changing position is instead used to skip the GMT hand forwards and backwards in 1 hour increments) - open for correction though!

edit: found it - the Aquaterra 8500 doesn't have a quick set date function (as it uses the 2nd position for GMT hand jumping) - madness in my eyes https://forums.watchuseek.com/f20/aquaterra-8500-question-502221.html

Wibbs

From what I recall a quickset feature didn't really come in until the 60's and even then it was very much a rarity. Well watches with dates were rarer before the 60's anyway. On the wristwatch the first date indicators were an extra hand pointing at an outer track and these were easier to advance. I've seen the occasional Trench watch style with these. Here's an example from the 40's, also with day and month. Movado under the bonnet IIRC



These were popular enough, though more for the well heeled chap and not for rugged wear as they were about as waterproof as a teabag.

The date window as we know it today was first implemented in a wristwatch by Mimo/Tavannes in the 1930's,



but was a complication that didn't really catch on at first.

As far as I recall Rolex were the next company to put one out in the 1940's in the Datejust(that was a quick meeting ). Handsome watch it was too. More got in on the date window act. Oddly for Rolex as they were always quick to implement useful features in watches were one of the last to include a quickset feature in their movements, not doing so until the late 70's. Well not quite true, the quartz Beta 21 movements they fitted to one of their models in 71 had a quickset.

On that score and just IMHO dates and quickset dates really took off after the first quartz models came along. It became a must have feature and all the early movements had them(some with the day too) and were all quickset and a few had the feature of being able to adjust the hour hand independently for time zones without affecting the "incredible accuracy™" of the new tech.

Cienciano

Date is the only feature I must have on a watch. Everything beyond time and date is novelty for me

Thirdfox

Wibbs wrote: »

As far as I recall Rolex were the next company to put one out in the 1940's in the Datejust(that was a quick meeting ).

Tudor was worse I guess - "let's call ours the Dateday" after the Rolex Day Date

Cienciano wrote: »

Date is the only feature I must have on a watch. Everything beyond time and date is novelty for me

I mostly agree - it's why I even got a Speedmaster with date on it. Anything I'll be wearing for longer periods of time must have a date "complication" - it's one of the only pieces of info I can often forget and need to check my watch for.