Rarely do you find a digital jumping hour chronograph, but this rare 1974 Waltham 1376 TDBK (also found by brands Tenor Dorly, Kelek, Sandoz, Elgin, and Precimax) is a rare bird by any name. Likely a face only a mother could love but I'd find myself willing to breast feed this one.
A direct reading chrono with no hands other than the stopwatch and seconds. A digital jump hour display for hours, minutes and date.One of a few 1970s bell-bottom chronographs that will be featured in my upcoming QP Magazine column, 'Watchismo's Timewarp'.
Related posts;
Jump Hour Watches-->Link
Chronographs-->Link
Once I think I've seen everything, somebody alerts me a mind-blowing gadget like this Steineck Subminiature Wrist-camera. Thanks to Max Busser, founder of MB&F Horological Machines who shared his find (above) from a vintage watch store in Lugano, Switzerland. Needless to say, I've been obsessed these antique spy/detective/novelty gadgets for the last few days and have uncovered a secret force of "Submini" wrist-cameras. A wide array of styles existed over many different eras, originating in 1907 with a pocket watch camera. Others were fit into rings, some were undisguised miniature cameras fit onto a wristband but my favorite remains the Steineck, with its robotic cyclops face and potential for Captain Kirk-ian prop-weaponry!
It all began with these patent designs from 1907 for the first concealed camera in a pocket watch. Later marketed as the "Ticka" (below) with dummy watch face permanently set at 7 minutes past 10 o'clock indicating the viewing angle making it possible to use without the detachable viewfinder. Exposing unsuspecting subjects on a cassette of 17.5mm film (wound by turning the key) and the lens is hidden by the watch crown.
The worlds first wrist-camera was created by Japanese inventor, Jujiro Ichiki in 1939. Via Modern Mechanix
The above mentioned Steineck produced from the late forties into the fifties. Invented by Dr. Rudolph Steineck of Switzerland and highly regarded as one of the better quality subminiature cameras made. Uses a 24mm circular film disk and automatic film advance. The viewfinder is a reflex concave mirror with a sharp centre line pointer, which permits sighting from above when the camera, worn on the wrist, is held in picture-taking position. Through the centre of the camera is a hole, an alternative direct-vision viewfinder.
A complex mechanism best described from Submin.com's Steineck pages-->Link
The Steineck in more detail from the original drawings and patent summary here-->Link
1950s Pixie Wrist Camera No tricks here, just a camera on your wrist. via Link
1960 Tessina Cameras featured the only subminiature watch that uses standard 35mm film but is the size of 16mm cameras. A rare version exisits for the wrist (above) and one with a Swiss watch attachment (below). Made up of 400 parts and built by Concava of Switzerland, the Tessina was also designed and patented by Dr. Rudolph Steineck. Via Submin.com
Tessina with watch attachment
1981 Magnacam Wristamatic invented by Bernard Seckendorf of New York. Not a spy camera but rather intended to be "on hand" for active sports. travel, sightseeing. Patent-->Link Via Link and SubClub
Also from 1981, the Italian Ferro Ring camera. Very high quality and even had accessories. The lens was a fixed-focus 10mm with a variable shutter of B, 1/30 - 1/500. It takes special 25mm diameter discs of film and produces six 4.5x6mm images. Via SubClub
Here's one I wish existed. An impressive and ambitious 1940 Patent shows this K.M. French design for a wrist-attached camera complete with expanding bellows! Patent-->Link
Be sure to read my previous post on the 1950s Minifon Spy Watch/Audio Recorder (pictured above)-->Link And the history of James Bond gadget watches-->Link
These quad-register timepieces are not monster chronos, they are scorekeepers for a variety of sports. All with mechanically hand-wound movements. Above is the Players Sport Watch, available at Joseph-Watches.
A selection of rare late sixties Mondia 'Top Second' blinking watches with jumping seconds. Not sure why but they created a viewhole exposing the seconds visually (as pictured) with a little two-tone disk that would flash mechanically, but I dig it! Just odd enough for me...
Look into the innards of the HM2 (Horological Machine #2) by Max Busser & Friends. Due out later in the year (not at Basel World), this specifically designed movement by a relatively unknown watchmaker handpicked by Max and he is keeping him secret (as well as the watch functions) until the release date nears. He also added, "The case will not mimic the movement but you will understand the architectural link between both of them."
Max further explained, "Eric Giroud, the designer with whom I develop my creations, and I designed the first version of HM2 by April 2005 (I was still at that time at the head of Harry Winston) but we scrapped everything and started again end of 2005. This movement and watch is the result. The movement you see is functional and has been working for the last four weeks. We expect to deliver the first watches end of the year. You can see by the shape of the movement that it does not resemble HM1 at all. That is part of the philosophy of our Concept Label – each year (if possible) we will come out with a completely different piece of horology in shape and functions. But one point is crucial: the movement will always be designed specifically for the watch. I can also tell you that the Master watchmaker who developed it is virtually unknown to the public (maybe to some hardcore aficionados) and so I am very proud to promote his virtually unknown talent."
I welcome any thoughts or projections of what this movement is capable of. Email me
As much as I'd like to buy every unusual vintage watch I come across, I must begrudgingly resist. Therefore, I'd like to initiate the first official 'Vintage Watching' feature here at TWT. Take advantage of my geeky obsessions for the rare and obscure.
This strange 1960s Onsa Aquarius Super Compressor Diver with ETA automatic movement, dual crown and dive tables (or something) on the dial. Available for $775 at-->Link
An original sketch of what might have been the Opus V. Codenamed 'Time Bandit' by Urwerk's Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner, it was an overwhelmingly difficult mechanical concept in which the wearer would engage the slot-machine style lever to activate the spinning digits and form the correct time on the side of the watch.
Even better, Felix Baumgartner describes the conundrum to Wei Koh of Horomundi/Revolution;
"You had to arm it like a slot machine. The time indications were placed on cylinders, but the watch did not show the time until you armed it. Once you released the arming lever these cylinders would turn until they stopped precisely at the right time. It was a completely crazy idea. It was really more complicated than a minute repeater; in fact, the base of this watch was essentially a minute repeater. You had a time telling base caliber and then a system of snail cams and racks like that in a minute repeater. When you armed the watch you would essentially be arming something similar to as strike barrel. But instead of translating the time into hammer strikes on gongs they would operate this one arm bandit like indication. And this indication involved a whole additional mechanism. When conceptualizing the watch we were joking that we were gambling with time, because we didn’t know if it was possible to create in a little over one year. This proved right."
Via Horomundi-->Link The Complete Urwerk Story-->Link
Rarely do you find a digital jumping hour chronograph, but this rare 1974 Waltham 1376 TDBK (also found by brands Tenor Dorly, Kelek, Sandoz, Elgin, and Precimax) is a rare bird by any name. Likely a face only a mother could love but I'd find myself willing to breast feed this one.
