I wanted a very prototypical American pocket watch for my collection, and found this Waltham. It’s nothing fancy - 15 jewels, not railroad grade, but it works well and serves me as a reminder of a time when the best watches in the world were made in the USA. The porcelain dial unfortuntely has several hairline cracks (not unusual for porcelain), but otherwise it’s a very clean example.

Classic Tissot watches tended to be very “fashion forward” and they always seem to look particularly modern relative to their actual age. That’s certainly true of this example, with its high-contrast white on black dial. It’s possible, in fact, that this is a re-dial, although it’s difficult to be sure. Regardless, it’s a great looking watch. The Tissot 27-3 movement has an unusual early shock protection design, with the balance cap jewel mounted in a housing that is attached to the balance cock from below by a pair of screws that have polished tips for better aesthetics. The movement ring for this watch was missing, so I 3D printed a replacement.

The wrist watch revolution started when so-called trench watches became popular with soldiers during WW1. Initially, these were basically small pocket watch movements strapped to the wrist, and this Tavannes example, with a porcelian dial and hinged caseback, certainly fits that bill. I wish I knew a bit more about this watch - the movement is unfortunately unmarked - but I treasure it as the real “granddaddy” of my wristwatch collection.

This is probably my favorite vintage chronograph in my collection for everyday wear. The pictures don’t completely do it justice, but the chrome plated case, cream colored dial, red chronograph second hand, and the grey stitched band just look really good together. The Venus 188 movement in this one is also a strong, accurate runner.

Occasionally I get a watch to restore that I know is going to be a bit of an odyssey. This Oxford chronograph certainly qualifies. It came to me with a beat up & corroded case & bezel. Both the pushers and hands, other than the minute counter, had been thoroughly trashed. Fortunately the, other than replacing the mainspring, the movement didn’t require anything beyond a standard service. I was able to track down hands with a blue tint that match the aesthetic of the originals fairly well, and I (eventually, after a lot of hunting) found a pair of modern replacement pushers that, while a bit oversized, fit and function well. The case and bezel - originally chrome - were restored and re-plated in rhodium, and the crystal was replaced. After all of that, I ended up with a good looking and strong running Venus-based chronograph, so I think it was all worth it.

Based on Omega’s 1920s workhorse 26.5 movement, this example is in nickel silver (a.k.a. German silver) and styled to resemble military trench watches from a decade earlier. I love the cathedral-style hands, although re-luming them was a bit tricky. The nickel silver is a bit soft, so the case back wore through on the edges and it was patched by a jeweler at some point.

This handsome silver Longines from the late 1960s still wears exceptionally well, with its large (for the era) case size and clean, modernist look. The cal. 302 movement inside is part of the brand’s celebrated 30L lineage—thin, beautifully finished, and mechanically robust—making it one of the better manual-wind calibers of its era. When I received this watch it was in pretty good shape (compared to many of the watches I work on, anyway), but was not running due to a broken balance pivot - a fairly unusual occurence in shock protected watches. The only sources for a new balance stem were in Europe, and, without the de minimus exemption, getting it through US customs, tiny as it was, was quite an adventure in itself.

This is a great example of Longines’ mid-century design mastery - really a great looking watch which manages to look much more modern than it is. The Longines 27M movement inside is beautifully crafted, and also demonstrates Longines’ long devotion to non-shock-protected balances, at least for their dress watches, which extended into the early 1960s.

This elegant Longines tank really captures the refined Art-Deco style of the early 1940s with its dramatic triple-bar “wedding band” lugs. Inside beats Longines’ in-house caliber 9L, a finely finished 17-jewel rectangular movement produced for the brand’s U.S. market dress watches of the era.

I have restored a lot of Gruens for sale on my shop, but I’ve only kept a few special examples for my personal collection. This is one of them. In this case I really love the watch’s appearance, with its pie pan style dial, sub-second hand, and wide polished gold bezel which together give the watch a nearly perfect vintage aesthetic. It looks especially good after being over-plated in 18K gold.

This the elegant lines of this mid century Veri-Thin captures everything I love about the Gruen’s post-war design language. Inside, Gruen’s caliber 423 manual movement keeps the profile thin. Gruen movements from this era are simple but beautifully engineered and consistent. With nothing more than a basic service, this one still delivers reliable, accurate timekeeping after 3/4 of a century.

Tank-style watches like this one were popular throughout the 1940s and early 50s. This particularly clean example is also dimensionally larger than typical tanks from the 40s, so it looks a bit more modern on the wrist than many similar examples and it still makes for an elegant dress watch. Typical for Gruens of this era, the 425 movement is Swiss, while the case was manufactured in the USA.

I honed in on this Gruen pocket watch from the 1920s for its lovely gold relief dial. It’s interesting to contrast the relatively simple finishing of the Swiss made movement in this watch with the relatively elaborate finishing on contemporary American-made pocket watch movements. The keyless works design on this watch is also very much in line with the Swiss designs that would come to dominate the wristwatch industry, in contrast to keyless works designs on American pocket watches, which were designed quite differently.

There’s nothing actually “military” about this early 1930s Cyma, but with its tan dial and green nato strap, it certainly looks the part. The fixed lugs on this watch are a bit battered (not that you can see them with the strap intalled), but the nickel-plated case is otherwise in very good shape,. The Cyma/Tavannnes 15 jewel movement is some variation of the 182 family (there were several, and the differences aren’t clear) and, with a fresh mainspring, is still a strong runner.

This 50s Breitling is one of my favorites. Its relatively large (for the time) size wears well, and the dial is extremely elegant with its recessed indices and gentle patina. It still has the original chrome finish, which is showing some wear but still looks great in person. the movement is a bit of a mystery - certainly an ébauche item modified by Breitling, but it appears to be a variation of the Peseux 170/190 movement family.