Watchismo Times

Thursday, October 11, 2007

About Time by Buro Vormkrijgers

Dutch designer Buro Vormkrijgers rotating concept clock "About Time" reveals the passing of time by rolling around your desk and telling time in one long continuous sentence. Simply telling you "It's about six o'clock" or "it's almost seven now".

A similar concept to the approximated timing of the Vinta Tilt Clock I featured a while back.

Close-up of the time sentence

Made from black anondized aluminum
measures 230mm wide x 90mm deep.

Available for $179 here-->Link
Buro Vormkrigers website-->Link

Related Posts;
Vinta Tilting Clock
All other Clock Features

Enter The Watchismo Times 1st anniversary vintage chronograph giveway!-->LINK

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Tuesday, October 9, 2007

120 Year Old Naked Ladies - 1890 Erotic Pocket Watch

Oh yeah, naked ladies playing harps... That's hot. Or so it was circa 1890 according to this awesome gunmetal cased erotic pocket watch full of sexy daguerreotype photos of loose Victorian ladies. One disc under the dial reveals a variety of rotating topless gals while the disc on the back exposes some other full frontal centenarian hotties through a porthole...or rather, a peephole.

And I forgot, it also tells the time...

Petunia playing the Nippleharp

The Caseback Peephole

Via Bogoff ($1750 - & free shipping if you mention Watchismo!) -->Link

Monday, October 8, 2007

How Top Watchmakers Intervene in Auctions

From the front page of Monday's Wall Street Journal;

GENEVA -- In the rarefied world of watch collecting, where Wall Street investment bankers and Asian millionaires buy and sell at auctions, a timepiece can command a higher price than a luxury car. At an April event here, a 1950s Omega platinum watch sold for $351,000, a price that conferred a new peak of prestige on a brand known for mass-produced timepieces.

Watch magazines and retailers hailed the sale, at an auction in the lush Mandarin Oriental Hotel on the River Rhone. Omega trumpeted it, announcing that a "Swiss bidder" had offered "the highest price ever paid for an Omega watch at auction."

What Omega did not say: The buyer was Omega itself.

Friday, October 5, 2007

Eraserclock - David Lynch's Mysterious Clock Design

How would this keep time?

The film director David Lynch sketched this mysterious Rube Goldberg-esque clock design. Please email us with any ideas about how he might have intended this to work.

Forgive me Henry...

Thursday, October 4, 2007

The Cloud Clock of Grindell "Death Ray" Matthews

From the 1933 issue of Popular Science;

LIGHT PRINTS TIME ON CLOUDS

Once engaged in the development of a death ray for possible military use, H. Grindell-Matthews, British inventor, has developed a new gun for projecting light rays. A motor carriage supports the cannon-like projector, which is designed to throw signs upon clouds miles away, and is an improved model of one he demonstrated in New York City not long ago. By inserting a special clock with a transparent face and opaque hands and figures in the projector, the correct time is also thrown on clouds.

Grindell Matthews was most infamously known for his incredible (so-called) inventions like an aeronautical wireless phone in 1911 and a airplane dropping death ray in 1924. He was a visionary as much as he was a charlatan. Actually, his first real invention was huge...The first talking film in 1921 (years before Hollywood). Sadly, the British film industry told him the "talkies" would never catch on. Karma is a bitch.

This Cloud Clock, looking more like an actual death ray machine, was part of his Sky Projector invention. Casting images of everything from angels and American flags in the sky, the potential for advertising never caught on for this project and his company went bankrupt soon after.

Learn much more about Grindell Matthews controversial inventions and history here-->Link

April 1933 Popular Science featuring the Cloud Clock

Grindell Matthews

The Sky Projector

At the Auctions - 1930 Tissot 1940 Rolex 1950 Cartier

Some nice looking vintage offerings at the upcoming October Antiquorum auction in Geneva. Above, a 1930s Tissot Staybrite Chronograph with very unusual lugs. Estimate $2500-$4200-->Link

An untouched 1946 Rolex Square Antimagnetique est. $25,000-$32,000-->Link

This very rare 1940s Audemars Piguet triple date moonphase chronograph is expected to bring in over $100,000-->Link

And a 1950 platinum and diamond Cartier "Gouvernail Ronde Squelette" could reach over $200,000-->Link

Enter The Watchismo Times 1st anniversary vintage chronograph giveway!-->LINK

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Wednesday, October 3, 2007

At the Museums -1660 Renaissance Crystal Neck Watch & 1930s Art Deco Digital Lamp

The Beyer Watch & Clock Museum in Zurich is putting together a nice looking website. In its early stages, you can see some of their collection like the 1660 Jacques Sermand rock crystal neck watch above and the 1930s digital art deco lamp below.

"The rock-crystal case is made of one piece with four arches and features, on the outside, an engraved and fire-gilt bronze setting with a hinge for the lid and movement. The lid above the dial is also cut out of rock-crystal and serves as protective cover. The engraved dial, three rings in silver for the ho urs I to XII, the date I to 3 land the weekdays. The moonphase is visible in the small window on the left with another square window above, indicating the age of the moon. Three blued iron hands."

Close-up of the digital display in base

1940s Hidden dial pop-up wristwatch

Beyer Museum-->Link
1940s pop-up wristwatch-->Link

1930s Jaeger LeCoultre Bedside Digital Clock Lamp-->Link
1660 Neck Watch at the Beyer Museum-->Link

Enter The Watchismo Times 1st anniversary vintage chronograph giveway!-->LINK

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Tuesday, October 2, 2007

From Russia With Lust - History of Communist and Cosmonaut Wristwatches

Click photo for close-up

Every now and then, I find someone who rivals my perversions for collecting timepieces. This is doubly true about a man named Ill-Phil, a self-diagnosed terminal watch pervert. His is a rare disorder of Russianitis, a condition that propels him to collect and document in great detail, everything you need to know about Russian watches.

Kidding aside, Phil's Russian Times is overwhelmingly thorough with photos of every imaginable Russian watch as well as the technical information about every factory, brand, movement, marking, and cyrillic translation.

And one of my favorite parts of the site, the lovingly assembled and obsessively researched portraits of cosmonauts and their watches.

Finding Proof of the Jovial "Vision 2000"

Recently finding evidence of this rare 1970s Jovial "Vision 2000" from a vintage advertisement, I still had little hope of ever finding photographic proof of it's existence. But thanks to my deep reaches into the crevices of obscure watch collections, a guy from Italy sent me these photos of his well-worn specimen. He described how he found it at an old watchmaker's shop near Venice almost 20 years ago, right before the store went out of business. How do you say "Please sell it to me!" in Italian?

From my original post-->Link

From the original 1970s ad

Monday, October 1, 2007

The Earliest Designs of MB&F's HM1 - Birth of the Horological Machine

Offering rare insight to the design process, Ian Skellern of Horomundi has just shared the feature "From Sketch to Machine", showcasing the drawings and evolution of the phenomenal Horological Machine N˚1 --> Link

See the development from Maximilian Büsser's first sketch (above left) on an airplane to the varied concepts (with designer Eric Giroud) for the design, function, and display.

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