Loehr Patent Perpetual, Switzerland 1880’s The relationship between precision mechanics and gravity has been explored by inventors and watchmakers since ancient times, starting with the weights and pendulums of large clocks, and ending with self-winding devices and high-precision tourbillons. In this article we will examine a very unusual pocket watch with an automatic winding mechanism […]
LOEHR Automatic Winding Pocket Watch Read More »
Cylinder Escapement, France-Switzerland, 1830 – 1840. This early, extremely small and ultra-thin movement is absolutely in the category of special collectable delights. 150 years ago, the ability to produce miniature watch movements by hand was accessible only to elite watch manufacturers. Reducing the size by one and a half to two times involved a 10-fold
Rare, Ultra-Thin ‘Bayonet Caliber’ Movement Read More »
Watches, Music, and a Little History A musical mechanical watch is an extremely complex device. Musical clocks and watches have been popularised in pop culture, and are familiar in films, fairy tales, and literary works. However, if you set out to find a musical mechanical timepiece in the real world, it will turn out to
Bueche-Girod Mechanical Musical Timepieces Read More »
With Built-in ‘First Aid Kits’ of Spare Parts The purchase history of this device is trivial – once it was a broken stopwatch with an oxidised body and low-quality glass cover: A hand is missing, the balance staff is broken – the appearance is unpresentable. But: the dial and case are intact, and the mechanism
Excelsior Park Split Stopwatch 1/100-Minutes Read More »
Quarter repeater mechanism with MF (MH) stamp, number 350. Paris, France, circa 1820. Until recently, this mechanism was in the collection of the famous collector Paul Chamberlain and is mentioned as number 701 in his book ‘It’s About Time’, published in 1943. After a tough battle at the auction, the watch has now migrated to
Quarter Repeater with Breguet Caliber and Ruby Cylinder Escapement Read More »
West End Watch Co. ‘Railway and Telegraph Service’ Pocket Watch This is a rare watch unlike anything I’ve seen in any catalogue. There are no additional mechanical functions here, but the display on the dial is extremely interesting. In addition to the standard hour display with black Roman numerals, there are two letters – ‘Midnight’
Railway Telegraph Pocket Watch Read More »
Louis Auguste Etienne-Guyot, Switzerland, 1880’s I accidentally managed to stumble upon a rare mechanism with some very interesting features. This is a rare duplex movement with a jumping second hand and decorative pendulum on a coloured enamel dial. First, have a look at this video to see how it all works. Then below we will
‘Chinese Duplex’ Pocket Watch with Mock Pendulum Read More »
Preliminary Mini-Review I don’t think that I have ever seen anything more beautiful than this pocket watch. Keep reading to see the full details. A typical watch face for the Chinese market, with austerely designed Roman numerals and ‘club’-shaped hands. A fairly simple case made of thick silver. The back cover can be opened using
Rare “Chinese Duplex” with 8-day Power Reserve Read More »
Swiss-Made, Military Order from the Wehrmacht, 1940’s All military watches ordered by the Wehrmacht from Switzerland were made only with reliable lever escapements with a shock-proof balance axis staff. The cases were round, with a diameter of 32 – 36 mm, and provided increased protection from dust and moisture, and often from magnetic fields. Sometimes
German Military Zenith Watch Read More »
Small Marine Chronometer, Longines-Wittnauer 1932, Switzerland Due to the absence of modern GPS systems and reliable long-range radio, sea voyages were unsafe without an accurate time meter. In order to navigate nautical charts, one needed to know the exact coordinates of the vessel, latitude and longitude. Finding the latitude is fairly simple – it can
Wittnauer/Longines Marine Deck Chronometer 24.41 Read More »
