Watchismo Times

Friday, September 14, 2007

Fitting In and Out - Rare Expanding & Contracting Hand Watches

In my collecting history, I always had a special place for oblong, oval, rectangular, thin, or just very wide watches. The problem they all share is the restriction of their hands being only as long as the shortest width of the dial. Once the hands reach their widest points, they often appear too dwarfed. It got me thinking, how cool would it be if hands of a watch could extend out as the width of the watch gets wider and contract back to the smallest? Well, lo and behold, I discovered nearly everything has been done before at some point in time. Expanding and contracting hand history was sporadic and only a few were ever made.

This fantastic specimen circa 1795, made by watchmaker William Anthony of London. Famous for his verge watches with many being made for the Chinese market. His watch above features hands that work like a pantograph or scissors that follow cams to expand and contract. Valued conservatively between $100,000-$250,000.

via 2007 Complete Price Guide to Watches

Close-up of William Anthony 'Scissorhands'

Now, go back nearly 120 years before that and you have this watch by Henricus Jones above, circa 1678. Featuring a minute hand that expands and contracts - always pointing to the outer edge of the oval chapter ring. Also one of the earliest watches with a balance spring.

Via Patek Philippe Museum

Ok, flash forward almost 350 years later (today) and you'll see an ingenious recurrence of this concept. The Urwerk 201 Hammerhead. One of the most cutting edge watch brands today have not only revived and modernized the wandering hour watch, but also reinventing the expanding and retracting hand by placing a telescopic pointer inside the hour cubes. As each cube rotates to the corresponding minute display, the protuberance slowly extends and retreats.
(Again, I'm always trying to find a way for the word "protuberance" to appear in my posts)

Urwerk Telescopic Pointer

Sothebys Hong Kong "Important Watches" Auction

A few highlights from the upcoming Sothebys "Important Watches" auction on October 9th in Hong Kong. See the entire online catalog here-->Link

DeBethune
Auction-->Link

GÉRALD GENTA
Auction-->Link

Audemars Piguet "Star Wheel"

Panerai
Auction-->Link

Cartier "Crash"
Auction-->Link

Patek Philippe
Auction-->Link

Richard Mille RM008
Auction-->Link

Harry Winston "Opus V"
Auction-->Link

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

The Rolling Eye Clocks of Oswald (circa 1927-1950)

Rolling eye clocks - first patented in 1926 by the J. Oswald Company of Germany with early models carved of wood and cast from metal after World War II. (Time shown above is 2:46)

The dials are represented as the eyes separating the hours on the left and minutes to the right. This collection of cross-eyed genies, skulls, monkeys, gnomes, owls, and dogs (LOTS of dogs) are an interesting cast of antique novelty clocks.

Thanks to Mike from Florida for sending me the Patent information here-->Link

Price ranges are approximately $200-$800 depending on condition and rarity. The authentic models were generally built with 8 day movements. Many cheaper knock-offs have appeared during the sixties and seventies. Likely inspiring the art of kitschy 'Big Eyes' painter Margaret & Walter Keane.

Monkey Clock

Rare Skull Clock

Genie Clock

And one of many crosseyed dogs

From an exhibit in 2005;

"The exact origin and age of these clocks is not easy to determine. We know that they came from Germany, but very few details are available in writing, due to the destruction of records during WWII. For this reason we have to rely on bits and pieces of information gleaned from many sources to come up with some sort of history of these novelty items.Most were made by the Oswald company in the Freiburg area which is in the Black Forest area of Germany. We say most, because we have three rolling eye clocks that we cannot, with certainty, attribute to Oswald. However, a personal friend has a wooden rolling eye clock marked "U.S. Patent 1926 Made in Germany." So, if patents were effective in those days, it is reasonable to assumme that Oswald may have made our "unmarked" ones as well."

Tattoo Wristwatch = Bad Idea

Oh no, no. NO.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

1970s Rolex "Brownie with Lemon Frosting" GMT Master

Steve Fossett's Breitling Emergency Not Activated

As of today, adventurer Steve Fossett is still missing after his plane disappeared last week. One of the more troubling details is that his Breitling Emergency wristwatch has yet to be turned on.

A downed pilot can activate a micro-transmitter in the watch by unscrewing the cap, pulling out the antenna, and waiting for rescue. (A Breitling Emergency success story from 2003-->Link)

Breitling Emergency site-->Link
CNN reports--Link
Steve Fossett Wikipedia-->Link
Steve Fossett site-->Link

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Ikepod Black Hole Finally Seeing the Light of Day

Up until this point, the newly (re)launched Ikepod had a secret watch called the Black Hole, only being shown as a silhouette (below), and a limited edition of 66. Now, thanks to Kong at the Purists Watchprosite, who photographed the now likely sold out model at the Tempus event in Singapore, we can finally see what was just over the event horizon.

The Black Hole is actually an all black version of their Horizon series with optical illusion dial of gradating holes convexing from the ellipse case.

1950s Hamilton Pacer for Rockford Screw Company

Rene Rondeau has this very unique 1957 Hamilton Electric "Pacer" available. Many presentation models with corporate logos were custom made by Hamilton but rarely with themed hour markers like the variety of screws and bolts of the Rockford Screw Company. They actually still exist today. They might have a screw loose if they don't buy it for posterity...

Vintage Hamilton site-->Link

Related posts;
All Hamilton
All Electric

Find modern Hamilton watches

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Monday, September 10, 2007

Fitting In and Out - Rare Expanding & Contracting Hand Watches

Close-up of William Anthony 'Scissorhands'

Urwerk Telescopic Pointer

Friday, September 7, 2007

Edox for Koenigsegg - Speeding Swedes with Style

Swedish sports car brand Koenigsegg has just introduced their $30,000 Euro limited edition wristwatch produced by the Swiss brand Edox.

Now I know some people are quite tired of the sports car/watch tie-in but it's undeniable, wristwatches, primarily chrongraphs are usually an extension of a guy's manhood. What's under your hood is often comparable to what's on your wrist (Not sure what this means for me and my Metrocard).

In this case, the watch case is styled after the Koenigsegg CCX's body. The hinged case flaps imitating the hinged doors and cover the pushers/crown, the chronograph registers pretending to be the dashboard, so on and so forth. Definitely like it enough to post it here today. Movement by Dubois Depraz.

Check out the Koenigsegg CCX video

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