Lume wabi-sabi, is it good or bad?

When a reference is made to wabi, it is usually made with respect to the external aspects of a watch - a dinged-up body, scratched crystal, a repair and so forth. The word itself derives from the Japanese phrase wabi-sabi, see Wikipedia here.

"Wikepedia" wrote:

Wabi . . . . . can also refer to quirks and anomalies arising from the process of construction, which add uniqueness and elegance to the object. Sabi is beauty or serenity that comes with age, when the life of the object and its impermanence are evidenced in it's patina and wear, or in any visible repairs.

Which brings me to lume on old watches. Here, utility conflicts directly with sabi, because most old lume doesn't glow much, if at all. Radium itself lasts a long, long time, but it's radiation does kill the phosphor in most paints of the era. Promethium barely lasts a couple of years. Tritium lasts longer but is still getting quite faint after 20+ years. Now some people want their lume to glow, whatever the age of the watch, and often have their watches re-lumed with modern stuff like SuperLuminova - while others consider that to be heretical. Here's a couple of 80 year-old watches that illustrate the difference:

At left is a re-lume using what looks like Luminova, color code C3 green. At right is the same model with it's original lume, a sort of faded mustard color.

Both have wabi, the lume having been applied by hand. At left, there is also a little sabi because a re-lume is, after all, a repair. At right, sabi positively abounds, IMHO: the fading of the lume color, the pieces of lume missing from the hands, the different hue of the lume on the hands.
I prefer the one on the right, which is a good thing because it's from my collection ;-)

Best regards,

xpatUSA

Hamilton 987 movement revealed

Modern movements are mostly mass-produced - in fact, it has been said that some are untouched by human hand.  While the technology and the use of exotic materials has progressed indeed, there is something enduring about a movement made the "old-fashioned" way.  In the first half of the 20th century, Hamilton was in the forefront of American watch manufacture.  This 987 movement was made at the very beginning of the Great Depression.  Although it is a production-line movement, it does show considerable attention to detail.  The size is 6/0 which makes it just about 1" diameter (see a good explanation here).

The dial side of the body is decorated with pearlage, done by hand.  The serial number 4092105 dates the movement to 1929 or 1930.  There are three holes for the dial posts as opposed to only two on later movements.  The cross-headed brass heads are for adjusting the lever banking pins.  The balance pivot cap jewel can be seen just below, held by two tiny countersunk screws - later movements use just one.  On the minus side, there is an off-center staking on the pallet pivot jewel and the balance pivot cap seems to have taken a hit :-(

The top side is also decorated with pearlage.  The banking pins are eccentric which allows the banking to be adjusted merely by turning the screws - instead of the tedious shaving or staking used on modern watches where the banking is formed as an integral part of the pallet bridge.  Other watches have bendable posts which can snap and, when bent, become out-of-square with the pallet lever unless you do it correctly which is really, really difficult.

Here we see the côtes de geneve decoration on the bridges.  The machining on the two wheels is beautifully done with beveling and undercutting plus that nice helical effect.  Not sure of the correct term but it's done by scribing from the center radially outward while the wheel is turned at constant speed.  The jewels are held in chatons, including the center-wheel jewel which is quite unusual.  The engraving was filled with black enamel originally, most of it gone now.

The keyless work is simplicity itself and shows it's pocket watch origins - no pesky wire springs or pressed tin here!!  The minute wheel shows little sign of wear for a 80-year old watch.

The pallet lever bridge is shaped symmetrically and the stamped numbers match the serial number marked on the movement body.  These movements are from an era when parts were tweaked to fit together during manufacture, as opposed to being assembled from fully interchangeable parts.  Hence the need to match numbers in a similar way to other machinery such as handguns or rifles where "matched numbers" are de rigeur.

Sorry about the poor shot of the pallet lever.  The lever is pretty plain compared to the rest of the movement - no beveling, for example.  The shaft appears to be bent but it will be left as-is.  It is so easy to "repair" a perceived problem only to find that the movement stops working!  So, unless escapement mis-locking occurs, it will be left alone.

The balance cock is held firmly in place with three posts as opposed to the more modern two.  The hairspring is of blued spring steel and, as such, is affected by temperature.  This is offset to an extent by the temperature-compensated bi-metallic balance rim.  The rim also has four timing adjustment screws; there is a small scratch on one of the arms where someone slipped while making an adjustment.  Matching numbers, of course ;-)

Best regards,

xpatUSA

Art Deco on an eBay Hamilton

Saw this nice-looking Hamilton on eBay and was lucky enough to win it. When it arrived the Art Deco influence was quite obvious. The phrase "Art Deco" was derived from a 1925 Paris exhibition - the "Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes" - see here for more about that. Art Deco succeeded the Art Nouveau movement which was full of natural motifs e.g. vines, flowers and leaves and such. This watch dates from 1929 or 1930, according to the 987 movement serial number.

Above we see a square watch body, softened by rounded corners. This follows the Deco style of using basic geometric figures. This body style is repeated both in the minutes and the seconds chapter rings. However, the hands and the blocky hour markers owe more to the first world war than to the Art Deco movement, I think. Also, the Hamilton logo font itself is more reminiscent of the late industrial 1800's.

However, Art Deco returns when we move to the seconds sub-dial. The long markers and the angled fonts combine to form an implied 'sunburst' effect. The effect fails to an extent, because the font does not expand outwards which is why I say "implied". In this close-up view of the dial screen-printing it is clear that the technology of the time has room for improvement.

In this angled view, we see the parallel linear motifs on the side of the body, the motifs being very common in Art Deco - mimicking radiator grilles, speaker grilles, stiffening ribs on aeroplane skins and other 'modern' looking stuff.

Here we see another view of the side showing the 3 lines which are actual formed by a groove in the body and the two lines where the body joins with the bezel and the caseback.

Another popular Art Deco motif is the "ziggurat" which means a form whose cross-section is that of a staircase. Here a ziggurat is plainly visible on a lug. Ziggurats are found on other watches of the period, more usually in the form of step-sided bodies - a device to accomodate round movements into rectangular bodies, viz. Bulovas.

This watch was not running when received. However, while taking these pictures, it got dropped on the bench and has been running well ever since!

Best regards,

xpatUSA

Aerospace Update

Some time back I was less than complimentary when comparing a newly acquired (eBay) Breitling Aerospace to the trusty Citizen Wingman, See here.

Well, after I worked out that I can set it to local Solar time and still have Central Daylight time on the LCD, I began to warm to it a little. But somehow after making that adjustment, the hands would show up slow to the sun after a day or so. The LCD was still spot-on to the atomic clock over the bench, so off with Aerospace and back on with the trusty Wingman. This went on intermittently for a week or two, until finally I saw a minute pass by on the LCD but no corresponding tick on the minute hand. I have to say that I got seriously pissed-off at my almost $800 eBay bargain (sob).

However, close examination with a loupe revealed a rub mark on the hour hand. So I took the movement out thus:

You take off the strap and put the watch upside down in a vise. The lugs are held firmly near the top of the aluminum-lined jaws. Then take your Dad's old Footprint big mortise chisel and slide it gently into the slot and prise off the back (not for the clumsy nor the faint-hearted). Yes, this tough, adventure's watch has a prise-off back!. However, the rest is pretty easy. Push down on a button thingy and the crown pulls out. More gentle prising on the plastic body gets the movement out, finally granting access to the hands :- as suspected, the hour hand was up too high and a bit loose.

FYI, here's the data in various places on the back of the movement:

1IMP = 0.33 S/MONTH
SEVEN JEWELS
ETA E10.351 SWISS V8
BAT 399 θ9.5 H2.6 1.55V

I do love the 0.33 sec/month but the Aerospace really is functionally disadvantaged compared to the far-eastern competition. Having said that, it sits well on the wrist, looks good and has the name.

Best regards,

xpatUSA

Abe Lincoln's watch opened!

A gold watch owned by Abraham Lincoln bears a message marking the start of the U.S. Civil War, but the president never knew of the "secret" inscription uncovered on Tuesday at the National Museum of American History.

Click here for full story and a link to some pics.

Makes quite a change from just the watchmaker's initials or State license number!

Best regards,

xpatUSA

Breitling Aerospace - first impressions

Well it took a week to get here via U.S. parcel post for which I paid $20.00 a là classic eBay transaction with the over-priced shipping.

I put it straight to work . . . .


It's the SuperQuartz model no E75362, blue dial. I have to admit to not falling immediately in love with it, in spite of it's name and general reverence among our community.

Pros:
Accurate, simple layout, titanium, medium size (40mm), clear golden LCD displays, bi-directional bezel, sapphire dial with AR coating both sides, excellent lume and, of course, the name.

Cons:
Horrible numeral font, fiddly function selection (being a lefty, I have to remove the watch to do anything), low-volume tinny beep, no backlight, no chrono split-time, not that many functions. Can't even set the minutes and seconds different to basic digital time other than by fiddling around with the reset function and thereby messing up the 2nd timezone - duh.

Unfortunately, there's some stiff competition from another member of my collection . . .


The Wingman has many more timezones and two alarms, not just one; it's hands can be set completely independently of the digital (LCD) time. It has a really loud alarm and a good backlight.

Best regards,

xpatUSA

Is your tool watch decreasing your mental agility?

Occasionally, it's nice to wear a high-quality vintage watch. It tells the time and nothing else. So any activities to do with time required some mental effort, maybe even a little mental arithmetic in the form of base 60 addition or subtraction. Such effort is good exercise for the mind, thereby keeping it in good condition.

The other day, I was wearing this beautiful watch:


(more pictures here).

Suddenly, my dear wife wanted to be reminded of something in 55 minutes' time. Without thinking. I rushed to my collection, strapped this one on and set the count-down timer accordingly. Didn't even have to think about it. 55 minutes later, sure enough it beeped. "Why is this watch beeping?", I asked. Duh!


(see more tool watches here).

When I think back to my youth, "55 minutes" was about an hour, something easily handled by the mind and confirmed by a couple of glances at the Elgin or whatever. The seconds hand's main duty was to confirm that your watch was running. At school, we learned our multiplication tables by rote up to 12x and we also learned how to do long division on the back of a fag packet. Those were the days when shopkeepers and counter clerks added up long columns of figures on sales receipts and general ledgers with nary a calculator in sight. Discounts or markups were figured mentally.

I would say that progress in the tools of mankind, not just watches, has reduced our mental agility quite considerably. What say you?

Best regards,

xpatUSA