I had been looking for the right vintage Cortébert to add to my collection for a while, and I was thrilled to find this early bumper automatic example. The black and charcoal dial with, crisp minute track, and restored stainless steel hands give it real presence, and the whole thing pops even more against the bright, polished stainless case. It’s one of those watches that looks like it was built to be read instantly, in bad light, in the real world—not just to be admired in a box.

Continuing my series on weird and wonderful automatics, this article explores the A. Schild 1173 — a very early, mass-produced automatic first introduced in the mid-1930s. Its bumper-style architecture traces a direct lineage back to the original John Harwood automatic concept. We take a close look as this design as it comes back together on my restoration bench following a cleaning.

I originally planned to list this Wittnauer for sale, but it completely won me over once I had it in hand, so I’m keeping it (sorry, everyone). It’s the kind of watch that looks almost too simple—until you realize how hard it is to get “simple” this right. The big, clean dial and thin bezel give it a surprisingly modern presence for a vintage dress watch, and the applied markers add just enough texture to keep the whole thing from feeling sterile.

The A. Schild 1706 is an interesting movement with a somewhat unusual automatic winding mechanism. As we shall see in this article, this design has some benefits, but one major potential pitfall.