Let's See Your Watches! The Vintage Watch Thread.

[guitone]

After years of wearing Swiss Army watches and other items of that ilk I purchased an Omega Seamaster 120. It has been on my wrist since, love the feel and look. I have a couple of very wonderful vintage watches left to me by my uncle, one is a white gold Universal Genieve, the other a Lucian Picard, both very nice and very expensive in their day, not worth enough to ever sell them...and they look great when dressed up for an evening out. Still, it is hard to get the Omega off my wrist.

 

[jamespowers]

All of those are nice watches. Enjoy them. They were meant to be worn.

Regards to all,

J

 

[Raffles]

Question on watches

Until the first world war pocket watches were norm but from the 1920's onwards (I think) Wristwatches became the more fashionable accoutriment. Now pocket watches both period and repro are easy and cheap to get a hold of but modern versions of the wrist variety of watch just don't cut it for the best part and period pieces are usually beat up real bad or horrendously expensive. Does anyone know of anywhere that does either new wristwatches in the original designs of the 20's and 30's or original timepieces at decent prices?

 

[Matt Deckard]

http://www.hamiltonwatch.com/index_flash.html

Check out Hamilton for battery powered pocket and wrist watch sorta-repros.

 

[shamus]

You can find a lot of cheap watches on ebay... 30 bucks or so at your local watch guy will get it working. Buy a new band and it could look great. Also check local thrift stores. You'll actually be hard pressed to find an original band on a watch 60+ years old.

I'm a wrist watch guy myself and love the old ones. The big prices you see are for the money watches of the day.

A nice thing is if you do buck up and get a nice watch, you'll get what you paid for it if you ever need to. They don't go down in value... even if you wear it everyday.



Shamus

 

[Flitcraft]

Hamilton Watch question. . .

Anybody know anything about the Hamilton 'Ventura' watch- other than its association with "Men In Black"?

If you can steer me toward more info, or can provide, I'd be much obliged.
Thanks!

 

[Mycroft]

"1957 Hamilton's leadership in engineering and innovation creates a significant breakthrough in timekeeping. Hamilton introduces the first electric watch in 1957. The Ventura becomes an instant success. See "Hamilton Electric"
1965 Inspired by the sleek lines of the Cadillac tailfins of the 50's, the Ventura becomes the watch of choice for the icoms of american style. Elvis Presley chooses to wear the Ventura in his movie, 'Blue Hawaii."


-From http://www.thewatchguy.homestead.com/pages/HAMILTON.html

Love it in black and silver, the one with 3 dials, like in Men in Black II

 

[Sefton]

Those are amazingly beautiful. I imagine that they must be amazingly expensive now too!

 

[Mycroft]

Those are amazingly beautiful. I imagine that they must be amazingly expensive now too!

The new ones are between 85-200 Americanos, when I last checked.

 

[shamus]

A great place to buy/sell nice watches is

http://www.watchnet.com/

I've bought and sold a few through them...

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I have one. It's silver with a black face and band. I'll be wearing at the QM. Mine is not an original, but it is a nice Art-Deco style watch. I think they retail for about $500, but they can be found cheaper.

 

[Flitcraft]

Where did you get it?

 

[PADDY]

My father's hunter pocket watch

I've just been very lucky to have been given my father's pocket watch by my mother.

Sadly, it doesn't work, nor do the hands manually move, so it needs to go to a watch-maker, of which there seem to be very few these days!

I am over the moon about being the latest custodian to this watch, which I believe originates from my father's father, if not his father before him.

There is the name of 'Belfast' and a person's name on the front (I assume the retailer in Belfast..?). It has Swiss Made at the bottom and at the centre are the words: THE ALBION.

Any information on this watch would be appreicated, as it's so close to my heart, being my father's. Also, if I fail to find a decent watchmaker at this end (UK), would there be any watchmaking/tinkering gents here, that might have a look at getting it running again? as finding a good watchmaker here is like finding 'hen's teeth!'

Many thanks! and enjoy the pics.

 

[MikeyB17]

I don't want to talk about watches-my Speedmaster is away for a service and it's agony not having it on my wrist. I'm pining for it.

MB17

 

[shamus]

Mikey..

nice omega. I've always liked the speed master. I wish is was an automatic though.

I've been wearing a Fortis GMT Auto for about 4ish years now. It's a nice mid-price watch. I also have my grandfathers 53' Omega seamaster bumper wind for special occations.

I've been itching for a new watch though. I'm a fan of Omega's, and esp. IWC. I think a mark IV is calling me.....

 

[MikeyB17]

Hi Shamus,
I thought I would miss the fact that the Speedy isn't an auto, but I don't, in fact now I have it I love the ritual of winding it every day-in fact I look forward to it. After all, if it was good enough for NASA...
IWC's are very nice-quite understated IMHO. If I was after another watch (which I'm not-the Speedy is intended to be my one and only expensive watch, collecting jackets is bad enough!), I'd be looking in the direction of the new Omega Planet Ocean-the big ol' 45mm version of course, sorry boys but give me a big watch any day, and horror of horrors, in orange! That or a Panerai like Paddy's, another big watch. I do have a 1943 Bulova A-11 though, that's quite small.

MB17

 

[Mycroft]

Any suggestions on Golden Era racing watches or ones H. Hughes would have?

 

[Michaelson]

Paddy....check your PM. Regards! Michaelson

 

[TheRetropolitan]

I'm packing the Invicta Lupah somethingsomething, with a nice champagne-colored face and intricate etchings around the numbers. It's a beautiful timepiece, and well-worth the price tag. Buyers beware, though, since the thing is huge. HUGE huge. It's the size of a brick, and weighs roughly the same.

But it's so perty...

 

[Hemingway Jones]

I used to wear a stainless steel TAG Heuer everyday and a leather banded stainless steel yachting watch from Tag Heuer on special occasions.

Lately, I have been wearing my 1948 gold-filled Elgin wristwatch that Michaelson donated to The Queen Mary and I was so fortunate to win. Thank you, Michaelson! -You see, people really do win on the Fedora Lounge.-

Here are some photos of my vintage watches:

The Hamilton Venture reproduction, which is very cool dress watch. My Elgin, my 18s Elgin pocketwatch, and my 16s Waltham pocketwatch.


Here is a close up of the Elgin wristwatch that is absolutely amazing. This is my new favorite. I wear it all of the time.


This is a close up of my Hamilton Ventura. I have cufflinks that compliment this watch (thanks, Dad). I wear it for dress and formal ocassions (yes, I know that you're not supposed to wear a wristwatch for formal ocassions!).

It looks like I have the start of a collection.

BTW, Retropolitan, that watch is beautiful!