79pmooney

Latecomer to this thread. Glad I opened it.

Last winter I received the clock and barometer of my dad. Wedding presents. Clock is a real ships clock with an engraved wedding date 16 months before I was born. I grew up listening to it strike the bells of the 4 hour ship's watch. It spent the first 40 years of my like on the mantelpiece. No one but my dad was allowed to touch it. He wound it once a week (and his habits were nearly as consistent as the clock's striking).

My brother had the clock repaired and refurbished by the maker (that still makes ship's clocks but they are all quartz now). It arrived here on the west coast last January with other stuff from the house and its sister barometer. Complete with the original and much newer instructions. Operating this clock is quite a procedure. It took me two months to get the time close. Now it is within a minute and I am dialing in the speed. (Challenge is that you can only move the hands forward when the clock is wound and it is not a good idea to let the clock stop when you don't need to. After striking is the time to move the hands - 20 minutes up to the 10 minutes of prepare to strike time but no further!)

By contrast, the barometer is so simple. Seems to be quite close to the actual and the actual numbers don't really matter, it it the change that is important. I have no instructions for it. My dad certainly had them in a secure place but the barometer hung on the dining room wall so there was no place close. By contrast, the clock key and envelope with instructions live on that mantelpiece.

Both haven't been polished in many decades. Both are in their original (nice) dark wood mounts. I need to make a shelf or mantle for it and am debating where it should go. I'd like to make a mantle for over the fireplace but that is an outside wall. I want that clock on the wall my bedroom shares because I love hearing the strikes in bed. It's there now. Not a showpiece (yet) but doing its job of maintaining the watches. I've stood watches. Counted down those reminders to watch change.

And for the fun bicycle content here. The threads - dog threads, sewing machine threads and watch threads: I'm guessing sewing machines use English threads and watches perhaps a Swiss predecessor to metric? But dog threads? Don't you have to go to the old hardware store and ask that ancient guy to find the equally ancient tap and die set buried in back?

1 Lugnut

Well, I wish it were stamped SF, but not so.
It is a $2 1/2 coin with no mint stamping (plain)...sigh 🥲 ... and I’m from SF.
Thx for your info

79pmooney

I started going through the rest of this thread. Page 4 - Seiko diving watches! I have 2. First I got in 1982 for both a watch and "stopwatch" to start sailboat races. (Not a stopwatch but the bezel works really well and if you missed the first gun, it was easy to adjust later. I was rarely the starter on the bigger boats I raced (I was usually on the winches) but I called more than one start when the starter messed up.)

That watch was tough! I slammed my wrist against my VW bus engine with all my strength when the wrench slipped as I adjusted the valves in January. There's a scratch in the crystal. I bought a replacement 13 years later but it featured the safety of the one-way bezel. You cannot set it back, stay underwater longer and run out of air. Sucks for starting races.

Many memories!

Doug Fattic 

Thanks for keeping me from a curiosity death! A quick check of 1908 quarter eagle values indicates it has a worth around $500. The 1908 quarter eagles didn't have any mint marks that year - which means they were all made in Philadelphia.

Pompiere

I don't know much about this watch except it is a family heirloom. My dad's brother felt I should have it since I was the oldest grandson. It was made in the days when you chose the watch movement and case as separate pieces. The movement is from Illinois Watch Co. and the case is from Keystone. It lives under a glass dome on a shelf, so it doesn't get wound often, but it still runs if I wind it. I haven't quite gotten the regulation dialed in, but it is within a minute or so per day.


Grandpa's watch.

You wind it with a key from the back side.

cb400bill

Here's my Seiko diver. It is the Miyata 610 of watches. Pretty much bulletproof.

iab 

So one of the first vintage cycling magazines I bought had an ad for a watch, I like it. One is for sale on ebay. Would be a great present for me, if anyone wants. Just saying.

1940_MilanoSanRemo001 by iabisdb, on Flickr
1940_MilanoSanRemo003 by iabisdb, on Flickr

non-fixie 

One of my favorite car boot sale finds. Not a watch per se, but a nice hand-wound time piece nonetheless. A Kienzle clock, with an 8-day power reserve. Its predecessors were used by the Luftwaffe in WW II, but most of these wound up () mounted in glove compartment lids of Volkswagens and Opels in the fifties:

styggno1

#7

The Golden Boy 

Every time there's a watch thread, I think "Wow! I need a new watch!!!" Then I start figuring out what looks cool, then combing the watch sale sites and eBay- looking for the same watch....

Then I think I've got 5-6 watches here that I never wear.

Around 1994 or so I got a Timex Expedition- It was awesome. I had it for like a year, but I lost it. I figured it would turn up, so I went a few months without a watch- but there was the same watch for sale, so I bought it- I don't think it was even a week later when my other watch turned up. So I have 2 of the same watch. The batteries died on both of them a few years ago... they're sitting in my dresser. I should get one of those put together and see if I actually wear one again before dropping a few hundred on a new/old watch.

I also have my old Timex that I wore for most of my military "career." IIRC, it stopped working prompting me to get the aforementioned Expedition watches....

Is it worth repairing an old cheap Timex or that old cheap Star Wars watch?

Charliekeet

Well said. I used to have a Seiko Orange Monster model diver. It bugged me cause you can't handwind it (auto rotor winding only) but it was lots of fun to wear and bulletproof.

obrentharris 

Not vintage, but hopefully classic.
Since I was self employed no one else was going to buy me a retirement watch so I bought this one 7 years ago when I retired. I've worn it every day since. It has collected a bit of patina, like most of my bikes.
An automatic watch. A metaphorical gift; if I stop moving it stops moving. A reminder to stay active as I age. So far it's worked!









Brent

Cougrrcj 

I work with a 'watch guy'. He has multiple collector-grade watches, and others that he resells for $1k+. My response is always 'and how well does it keep time?' since that is the PRIMARY function of a watch/chronometer. I'll keep my basic plastic digital Casio F-105 from WalMart for ~$14. The Casio keeps better time than his $1500 Rolex Oyster Submariner (I don't even know if that is a thing, but you get the jist).... Even if I was bazillionaire, why would I wear something that keeps less-accurate time????

I will admit that I have my great grandfather's heavy engraved and inlayed silver-cased pocket watch - but that is in a display case... From what I've learned, BITD the case was sold separately from the movement, and mostly sold through jewelry stores. GGpa's watch movement is nothing special but I keep it for the case (and family history)...

styggno1

Yes - why do we not get rid of our inferior steel framed bikes and get one of those plastic framed modern ones? Since the PRIMARY function of a bike is to transform energy to forward motion - why would one want something that does it less accurate????

xiaoman1 

Brent,
Nice Self-gift for your retirement. Self-winder with an exhibition caseback....Like the attitude...you keep moving and it keeps moving, sweet!
Best, Ben

styggno1

#8

Bogester 

Nice. I’m wearing it’s cousin.

steelbikeguy

I do use analog watches, but nothing vintage.
I've got an electro-mechanical clock, a Junghans ATO, that my dad bought in Germany while stationed there in the 50's. Very cool, but maybe not of interest?

Instead, let me offer a vintage bike item that I used as a clock back when they first came out. This one is currently mounted on my '74 Raleigh International.




Honestly.. that was such a revelation at the time!!
Sooo much better than those little cyclometers that used the little striker mounted in the spokes, and even a bit better than the Huret Multito.

Steve in Peoria
(wearing a black plastic Casio analog-digital watch right now..)

Charliekeet

One of my favorite dials, all-time. I bet the luminous is great too!

Reynolds 

This watch belonged to my grandfather. He was a scales mechanic in his youth, about 1920, and this is a promotional watch from the Toledo Scale Company I think. In the '50s it stopped working, and a watchmaker said it couldn't be fixed, so my grandad gave it to us as a toy. Sadly it can't be restored, as I think it's a nice watch.

MyVeloce

I gave my mother's wedding present to my dad away...1958 Hamilton SS automatic..to my son when he graduated from college. Meanwhile, I keep my great grandads Chelsea Commander tuned up, and its time to get the Hamilton 4992B my grandfather used training the first Marine B25 squadron in WW2 cleaned.
Otherwise, my phone tells the time!

styggno1

#9

Cougrrcj 

You're assuming that steel is inferior and plastic is superior. My 45 year old steel bike still functions as it was intended - it is still transforming energy into forward motion. ...and by 'less accurate' I'm assuming that you meant 'less efficiently' The actual mechanics of a bicycle have not changed. A bike still utilizes a large cog, transferring the input energy to a smaller cog by use of a chain... The only thing that has changed (in watch parlance) is the case.

steelbikeguy

There is a restored B-25 that is painted as a PBJ-1J, the version that the Marines used (not sure if it actually is/was a PBJ-1J). It is named Devil Dog, a nickname for Marines dating from WW I, and I happen to be wearing the Devil Dog t-shirt that the crew sells at airshows. Side note: I used to work on aircraft in the Marines.
Boy, if anyone thought fixing bikes was a bit pricey and hard work, it is frightening to learn what it takes to keep these old aircraft flying!
Here's a shot of Devil Dog from the Airventure gathering at Oshkosh, Wisconsin...


the plastic tubs under the aircraft are full of the t-shirts and hats that they sell.

Steve in Peoria

76SLT 

Here's my Seiko Coutura that I've had for many years.