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Post pics of your watches Part II
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Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,145 Mod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 59074
Posted here a few times before recently, but at your age you're excused for some memory loss, Wibbs :pac:
As it happens I'm wearing the watch I first put a Nato on back in the early 90's. I was given one by a British bloke I met fishing. I admired it on his Seiko and mentioned I had a watch that was a bugger to get straps for. He called it an "army strap" and he later posted me one, which was decent of him. Proper Phoenix one too. I suppose back then that was all that was available. Because of my aged related memory loss
I'd forgotten this method so have just tried it and here it is in glorious PotatoCam.
Definitely wears much lower alright. I reckon I'll stick with it on this watch anyway. It wears huge as is.Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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1971 Speedtimer with a silver sunburst dial - turns 50 next month!
Used to get lots of wear, tried it on a rally strap, natos, rubber, but always go back to this endmill style bracelet. Doesn't get much wrist time anymore, so thinking of sticking it up for sale. Was a must have though as part of my Seiko collection! Had to round it out and have the first automatic chrono, to go with the first quartz chrono (7a38), a hi beat handwinder, a tuna, etc...
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Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,145 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 59074
I know close to nothing about those very old vintage watches but they seem to often have that same style font on the numbering and all seem to have ludicrously big crowns. Don't you have a Longines that looks very similar to that Zenith? Were those cheeky buggers at it even back then? :-P well kinda. In the early days of men's wristwatches before radium as a luminous material came along like pocketwatches they tended to either have Roman numerals or plain black Arabic numbers usually a variation on so called Breguet numbers in style, designed by the French company of the same name. Here's a 1911/12 Longines with them(and Breguet hands too).
Then when radium lume came along and was demanded by the market in WW1 the numerals(and hands) became larger and mostly in outline to infill with the new lume.
Crowns initially followed the pocketwatch style, which were large and bulbous and easy to wind. Though even early on there were design differences starting to come out for the new fangled wristwatch. EG here's an American made Hampden from 1914.
It's less 19th century a crown. Note too the way the strap is mounted is moving away from two simple metal loops. The Americans drove a lot of the design language in the early days and really did when Art Deco took off. Even in early trench watches the Yanks had octagonal cases, rectangular cases, crowns at 3 or 2 or 12, all sorts of experimentation. Another example of this was the US Depollier watch case company who came up with a solution to waterproofing with a screwdown back and front case and a screwdown crown in 1917, ten years before the Rolex Oyster and unlike the latter was entirely inhouse and not bought in patents.
Note the watch in a fishbowl to show it off. Something Rolex also did a decade later as part of their advertising. Sadly I missed out on one of these, an Elgin years ago.
Haven't seen one come up for sale in ages. Note too their case "keeps out gas", a sobering reminder of WW1 and not something you'd read today in watch advertising.
Now the other thing to realise about back then is Swiss brand names meant very little to customers. Watches were sold on the retailers name more than anything. In British markets the Swiss brand name was almost never seen on the dials or movements(and movements were finished in gilt to ape English movements). They were left blank so the retailers name like Harrods or whomever could be added, or generic names like "Campaign" or "Land & Water". Note on that 1912 Longines the brand name is around the subdial to leave plenty of space for the retailers name to be printed at the top. In the US market brand names and brand advertising were much more in play. "Swiss Watch" marketing was pretty much a minor player worldwide back then. One of Rolex's innovations and a brave move at the time in the British empire market was insisting that their name was on the dial, so from the 20's on it was much more like today.
Brands were copying each other all over the place. That Zenith of mine from the early 30's is to a design for a pilot's watch layout that pretty much every Swiss brand had at one time. Nobody knows who came up with the design in the first place. When art deco Tank watches came in, again everyone and his dog had very similar designs. Same for when the dive watch layout(Blancpain) came out later on. The general public didn't care. Nobody was talking about "homages" back then. The "first" design has either been forgotten, or the history muddied by marketing, or the first design never really took off until later. EG the first Timezone/GMT was a Longines, the first pilot's watch a Cartier, the first dive watch an Omega in a tank style of all things, the first date window a Mimo/Gerard Perregaux, the first automatic a Harwood and so on. Today only complete nerds would know or care about that sorta thing. Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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Its a good week for watches for me.
My Amphibian arrived back from Russia for a warranty replacement
I'll be changing pretty much everything on it in a few days once I'm happy that its running right.
I ordered parts for a new build from Aliexpress, going for a rose gold case to try it out.
And I got a hint of what watch I'm getting from Wrist Check monthly this month and it sounds like a good one 0 -
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Just into today from Croatia. I know fitz will shake his head but I had a nagging feeling I wanted a speedmaster back. Paid about same as I sold mine for. It’s 2000 year build from serial number. Noticeably easier to wind than the last version i had which was 1998 I think. On erikas original black ops. Super comfy. I couldn’t quite get a right fit even with the omega nato I had and sold. The elastic nature of the erikas strap means the fit is lovely
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@micks_address: very nice, well wear.
That strap looks pretty good on it.
How do you find those solid end links on the bracelet. I hear a lot of people whinge about them, but as I have a wrist that looks remarkably like yours*, I suspect I'd be OK.
*This is not a grooming ploy.
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Lorddrakul wrote: »@micks_address: very nice, well wear.
That strap looks pretty good on it.
How do you find those solid end links on the bracelet. I hear a lot of people whinge about them, but as I have a wrist that looks remarkably like yours*, I suspect I'd be OK.
*This is not a grooming ploy.
Wrist is 7.25ish.. i really like the bracelet but i love it on the erikas nato... can you call it a nato?0 -
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,145 Mod ✭✭✭✭ Join Date:Posts: 59074
Haven't worn this one in a while. 1941 Alpina KM
Issued by the German Navy in 41, Kriegsmarine, hence "KM". Teenyweeny these days at 33mm, but normal man's size back then.
Some sort of "nato" style strap goin on there.
Great little movement in these.
15 jewel, Breguet balance spring and incabloc shock protection. Invented in '34 but already making its way into a fair number of movements. German specs in the late 30's for their issued infantry watches specifically stipulated anti shock. There were other anti shock systems on the go too, but incabloc carried the day* Runs 6 seconds a day slow. I can live with that. Sadly(and like the majority of German issued watches) these came with nickel plated brass cases so don't wear the years so well. Also and considering their purpose they were about as waterproof as a teabag so most have buggered movements and ropey dials. Mine has a good dial for a nice change. Issued infantry and air force personnel watches were actually better waterproofed.
*don't get me started on interwebs bloggists and dealers saying shock protection didn't come along until the 50's...Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
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20, yeah right, fool yourself
I'd say you've shown more watches than that just in this thread just in the past week or two
(don't worry, the wives don't read here)
OK, I did a quick count and it's 21 watches with one on the way stuck in some couriers warehouse presumably waiting customs clearance. I may have missed one in my counting but not any more.
In fairness my wife doesn't mind. It's not that I'm hiding the information from her, just if she doesn't know she can't tell all the in-laws.0 -
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