Do YOU wear an antique watch?

dave lackey

dave lackey

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Well, for the last four months, I have been wearing the first watch my wife gave me back in 1970...a Bulova automatic watch. No batteries! Just like my M3 and Soligor light meter. Had to have it CLA'd and it keeps perfect time as long as I remember to wind it a couple of turns three times a day...a ritual that is getting easier to do by habit.:D Just can't seem to find a new crystal/bezel for it yet...

With the Ostrich leather band and the white face/chrome watch, I have a stylish watch! :cool:

I would like to post a picture but not sure how to do it here without going through the gallery, etc.
Anyone else into antique watches?:angel:
 
when i was a young adult i stopped wearing wrist watches (they got in the way for me). one day I found a beautiful stirling silver pocket watch in a pawn shop, its the type that uses a key to wind and has several doors that open, it wasnt cheap but i couldnt resist and bought it. it turned out a few years later when i had it appraised, that what i thought was expensive was a bargin, not that it made any difference as by now it had become a favourite possesion. i dont wear it now, havnt done for more than 5 years since my mobile phone has a clock on it, it seems pointless to also carry another watch.

i do miss wearing the pocket watch though, winding it each day (kept perfect time), the action of what had become second nature to pull it from my pocket and flip open to veiw the time, occassionaly tinkering with all the doors and workings..and of course its ticking...

what a good trade, flipping my mobile phone..bloody thing probably gives brain cancer too
 
dave lackey said:
Well, for the last four months, I have been wearing the first watch my wife gave me back in 1970...a Bulova automatic watch. No batteries! Just like my M3 and Soligor light meter. Had to have it CLA'd and it keeps perfect time as long as I remember to wind it a couple of turns three times a day...a ritual that is getting easier to do by habit.:D Just can't seem to find a new crystal/bezel for it yet...

With the Ostrich leather band and the white face/chrome watch, I have a stylish watch! :cool:

I would like to post a picture but not sure how to do it here without going through the gallery, etc.
Anyone else into antique watches?:angel:
Click to expand...

Yes, I have collected and often wear classic vintage American-made mechanical wristwatches. I also have a small collection of vintage and modern Swiss and German mechanical wristwatches. My favorites tend to be Elgins and Hamiltons, 'transition' period when men's pocketwatches were being made by watchmakers into wristwatches - I have a large wrist, so the very small rectangular watches of the 1940's look very tiny on me.

Favorite website for that sort of thing - www.timezone.com
 
I had once my grandfather's rectangular-face Hamilton. Years ago someone broke into my apartment and stole it along with some other small expensive stuff, including a modest collection of really valuable hand-crafted hunting knives. (Anyone else here into those?)

Vintage watches? I have an original Pulsar from 1974 - the first digital watch. I don't wear it - heavy gold wrist jewelry on men? kinda 70's and should have stayed there IMHO. But it is a cool piece of tech history.
 
Not antique, but I do wear an automatic watch-- a TAG Kirium. It's about due for its first CLA, after nearly 10 years.
 
Not what I'd call antique (if it is, what does that make me?), but my standard wristwatch (when I wear one at all) is the Omega Seamaster 30 my father bought me in 1966 or 67.

Cheers,

R.
 
I used to own and wear a Tudor Oyster, until it finally packed up a few years ago and the cost of getting it repaired proved prohibitive.
 
A lot of people don't realize it, but prior to WWII, the USA made the best mechanical wristwatches in the world. During the war, the US makers converted to make munitions and the like, and afterward, the US did not provide funds for the makers to retool. In the meantime, Omega had been making watches and selling merrily to both sides...

Now people say something 'runs like a Swiss watch', but before WWII, all Switzerland was known for was the cuckoo clock and chocolate.

It was the USA's industrial base that caused our watchmaking industry to be great - terrible train crashes caused by engineer's watches being off and tight schedules made the US step up and mandate accuracy standards.

Unlike the camera-making industry, which never acheived greatness in the US, the high end of the wristwatch-making world was once ours.

If you ever get the chance, take the back off of an Elgin or Ball pocket watch. Every part is engraved, finely-finished, a work of art. And not even meant to be seen by the eyes of the owner. That's just the way things were made then.
 
bmattock said:
Yes, I have collected and often wear classic vintage American-made mechanical wristwatches. I also have a small collection of vintage and modern Swiss and German mechanical wristwatches. My favorites tend to be Elgins and Hamiltons, 'transition' period when men's pocketwatches were being made by watchmakers into wristwatches - I have a large wrist, so the very small rectangular watches of the 1940's look very tiny on me.

Favorite website for that sort of thing - www.timezone.com
Click to expand...


Hmmm...Bill, that is a nice website but seems to be very expensive. Any other websites with a bit more affordable vintage watches? Come to think of it, a nice pocket watch would be great.
 
dave lackey said:
Hmmm...Bill, that is a nice website but seems to be very expensive. Any other websites with a bit more affordable vintage watches? Come to think of it, a nice pocket watch would be great.
Click to expand...

There is a vintage section there, not everyone has that kind of money (including me). I don't buy watches anymore, so I'm out of that area of collecting now, that's the only discussion forum I know of for wristwatches, old and new. I used to travel the country for a living, and I was able to meet up with a lot of those guys, they're pretty nice guys.
 
I also have a 1968 model Omega Seamaster.

I also have a 1968 model Omega Seamaster.

I purchased this nice watch in 1968. Still manage to wear it once in a while. Had it cla'd a couple years ago and it ticks silently right along. No batteries, it is self winding. Has a gold face and red second hand sweep. Just as beautiful as the day I bought it. My daily wearer is a Casio digital I've had 3 years.
 
I prefer mechanical watches, and the high price point of the new ones, means most of them are vintage. (Except my Seiko 5 - which gets alot of wear).

1975 Omega Seamaster
1965 Bulova Accutron 218 (ok, not mechanical, but very very cool)
1955 Seeland Incabloc

Then a few pocketwatches that I carry regularly.
1914 Illinois Rockland
1904 Waltham (Bartlett)
1895 Elgin

I like things that tick. Loudly. :D
 
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