Uhrwerke – Eine Leidenschaft
Some time ago, in the article System Glashütte – What’s that?, I explained where the term System Glashütte comes from and why it has more to do with Switzerland than with Glashütte. Naturally, the Swiss manufacturers of movements that were supposed to suggest that they were from Glashütte usually had no interest in leaving their company name on these movements. Accordingly, in some cases it is difficult to find the manufacturer or an exact caliber designation.
A while ago, I wrote about how the Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce (SOGC) can be used as a movement identifier for the period from 1900 to 1946. There I described that registered designs and models were also published in the SOGC from 1889, including movements.
Today I’m going skating on black ice! Why? Every watchmaker and watch hobbyist has their own philosophy when it comes to oiling movements. Ask three watchmakers and you’ll get five different answers. And many movement manufacturers, in turn, have their own ideas and sometimes regulations.
In 1950, IWC launched the automatic calibers 81 (small seconds) and 85 (center second) with a new automatic winding system developed by Albert Pellaton. I was able to get hold of a 5:1 scale model of this winding system made by IWC and present it to you here, as it illustrates the functioning of the Pellaton winding system particularly clearly.
A retrograde, i.e. reversing, display on a watch is a complication in which a hand, for example for the time or date, moves over a segment of a circle. Instead of turning completely in a circle, the hand jumps back to the starting position in a sudden manner as soon as it reaches the end of the segment scale.
Do you need it and is it useful? Not necessarily! Why do you do it then? Because it is possible!
Continue reading “Retrograde Time Displays”Movements of American pocket watches differ in many details from their Swiss counterparts. Here we look at some basics about them, without getting lost in the many deviations from the standards. American pocket watches are a topic with a lot of interesting things to discover.
