Another vintage chronograph that I fished out of “the bay”, this time from Jaquet-Droz.

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The history of Jaquet-Droz is colourful to say the least. Pierre Jaquet-Droz opened his first studio in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1738 where he specialised in automata, or ’self operating machines’. He started by adding singing birds to clocks and pocket watches and as his talent grew, he moved on to larger, more technical pieces, i.e. richly decorated bird cages with multiple automated song birds.

A trip to Spain in 1758 proved very lucrative for Pierre. The King of Spain was so enchanted with his automata that he bought his entire collection, enabling him to open a second studio in London and devote all his time to his craft. Consequently, his reputation spread rapidly and his creations found their way into many European courts.

His three most elaborate creations are referred to as the ‘Jaquet-Droz Automata‘ and can be seen at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire of Neuchâtel, in Switzerland – “The Draughtsman” draws four different images, “The Musician” is a female organ player who physically plays the tunes rather than miming to a music box, and the most complex of the three is “The Writer”, who can be ‘programmed’ to transcribe any 40 character message. Here is a short video of the three of them in action.

Pierre died in 1790, shortly after opening a watchmaking factory in Geneve with his son Henry-Louis. Tragically, his son also died the following year while traveling and this had a devastating effect on the company, which ceased trading sometime in the early 1800’s.

The Jaquet-Droz name was resurrected in the 1960’s by a consortium who produced a range of chronographs and diving watches. Unfortunately, the company was hit by the quartz crisis and closed before it really got started. (Watches from this period, like the one in this post, can be recognised by the arrow logo.)

Like a phoenix from the ashes, Jaquet-Droz rose yet again in 2001 when the name was bought by the Swatch group. Since then the company have produced a range of dress watches and chronographs with in-house calibres. You can see their current range here.

Ok, back to the watch. By the 1970’s, whistling birds and other such tom-foolery were no longer incorporated, but removing the caseback did reveal an unexpected surprise, a rhodium plated Landeron cal. 189.

The cal. 189 is one of the rarer Landeron calibres, and was used in very few production watches, the best known probably being the Heuer Carrera Dato 45.

The cal. 189 differs from other Landeron calibres in that it has a date display, and operates like a regular chronograph; the top button is used for start/stop and the lower button resets. On most Landeron chronographs the top button starts the mechanism and the bottom button is used for stop and reset.

Overall, the watch was in relatively good condition but hadn’t been serviced for years, so after a routine service it was back up and running again.

Cosmetically it was still in good condition, but you may have spotted in the first picture that the sweep second hand had been broken off at some time. After that was replaced, there was little left to do except clean the case and polish the crystal.

Rich.

To quote Monty Python…. “And now for something completely different”. A Tissot Seastar Electronic.

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From the front there is little to distinguish this Tissot Seastar from many of its 1970’s stablemates. The word ‘Electronic’ on the dial is a clue that there is something different going on here, and opening the caseback reveals an electronic or transistorised calibre, the ESA cal. 9154 Dynatron.

Transistorised watches form an interesting chapter in wristwatch history. They were first introduced between the true electric watches of the 1950’s, such as the Hamilton 500, and the earliest quartz watches which appeared on the market in 1967.

They can be thought of as hybrid calibres in that they have a balance, hairspring and regulator just like a mechanical calibre, but the mainspring is replaced by a battery and an electronic module. The obvious advantage is that being battery powered they never need to be wound, but also the power from the battery remains constant unlike the torque from a mainspring which varies depending on the state of wind.

To say that the watch has a traditional balance assembly isn’t exactly true, here is a picture of the balance suspended on a balance tack.

The balance wheel consists of two discs which pass above and below the induction coil on the electronic module as the balance rotates. On each disc are two magnets which are used to convert the electric charge from the induction coil into electromagnetic energy. You can see the magnets on the lower disc in the picture above, the upper disc has two identical magnets on the underside.

To compensate for the weight of these four magnets, the lower disk also has a counterweight (see inset). As the balance wheel has to be poised to minimise positional errors, just like a traditional balance wheel, several holes are drilled into the counterweight to achieve this.

At the heart of the calibre is the electronic module, which consists of a stop contact, a transistor, two capacitors, a resistor, and two induction coils. Although it looks like a single induction coil it is actually two coils wound together, one is connected to the base contact of the transistor and the second to the emitter.

Here is how it works. The key to the circuit is the transistor which acts as a switch. As the first pair of magnets on the balance wheel pass over the induction coils and a positive current is induced in the coil connected to the base of the transistor. This current effectively ‘opens’ the transistor and allows a larger flow oc current from the capacitor/battery through the transistor and down through the second induction coil.

While this is happening the balance rotates further and the second pair of magnets are over the coils just as the second coil is charged which repels the magnets, giving an electromagnetic push to the balance wheel. When the balance returns in the opposite direction, the first pair of magnets induce a negative current in the coil which ‘closes’ the transistor, cutting the power from the battery.

The system is undoubtedly ingenious and it is a shame that this invention, along with many others, was effectively “kicked into the long grass” with the introduction of quartz watches. You still see a few of these watches around, but they aren’t really that collectible due to the lack of available spare parts and difficulty of repair.

I bought the Tissot in a non-running state which was a bit of a gamble, but I did have another watch with the same calibre which I could use as a donor, so I was confident that I would be able to make one good watch out of the two.

The original hands were pretty tired so I found some suitable replacements, and after cleaning the case, fitting a new crystal and battery, the restoration was complete.

Rich.

As regular readers will know, I don’t mind taking a gamble on a ‘blurry’ eBay item now and then. I took a chance this time on a Wittnauer Professional Chrono-Date from the 1970’s.

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In the eBay listing the seller’s description was worded ‘economically’ to say the least, here it is in its entirety: “Does not run but the movement looks great.” The second picture wasn’t much better than the first but I still thought it was worth the risk.

Albert Wittnauer created the Wittnauer brand in 1880 after spotting a gap in market for an affordable Swiss watch designed specifically for US buyers. The watches were designed and produced in Geneve, and as he was already working for a watch importer, getting his watches into the US was no problem. Priced lower than Swiss competitors at that time, the brand was an instant success.

The popularity of the brand continued to grow over the following decades and when Wittnauer timepieces were fitted to the aeroplanes using during World War I it began a strong link with aviation, their timepieces being used in later historic flights such as Amelia Earhart’s solo crossing of the Atlantic in 1932, and Howard Hughes’ coast to coast speed crossing of the US in 1937.

In terms of notable wristwatches, Wittnauer released the world’s first waterproof, shockproof, anti-magnetic wristwatch, the “All-Proof”, in 1918…

… and the first Swiss made electric watch available in the US, and still a candidate for the watch with the coolest hands ever, the Electro-Chron in 1957.

Wittnauer are still producing watches but they are now owned by Bulova who took over the company in 2001. If you would like to read more about the history of the Wittnauer brand, you can do that here.

When my watch arrived I was pleased that the risk had paid off, the case, dial and hands were in great condition and the seller had been true to his word, the movement did indeed look great.

All the watch needed was a full service for the movement, so after that, a thorough cleaning of the case, and fitting a new crystal and strap, here is the result….. “Retro”!

Rich.

There has been quite a few chronographs on the blog recently so here is something completely different, a ‘Directime’ from the French company Lip, one of the strangest watches to feature on the blog so far.

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Known as the ‘De Baschmakoff’ this watch was first released in the early 1970’s when Lip commissioned a number of architectural, interior and graphic designers to develop a series of groundbreaking watches. This model was designed by Prince François de Baschmakoff in 1971.  (I wrote recently about another model from the same series, the Lip Mach 2000, you can read that post here).

Rather than displaying the time with hands in the traditional manner, in this watch the time is represented by three spinning disks, one each for the hours, minutes and seconds. The red line on the crystal is used as the reference point for the current time.

The movement inside this watch is a manually wound A. Schild cal. 1902, which is a standard mechanical manually wound movement but with modifications to support the three disks. Here is a picture of the movement with the dial removed so you can see the disks.

This style of watch is known as a ‘jump hour’ because rather than rotating constantly  like a traditional hour disk, the hour disk springs forward when the hour changes. With the second and minute disks removed you can see the mechanism that makes this happen.

In the centre of the hour disk is a separate section containing a coiled spring. The hour wheel sits over the cannon pinion like a regular hour wheel, but rather than the whole disk turning, only the centre section turns, building up power in the coiled spring as the hour passes. The outer edge of the hour disk is stepped and the disk is held stationary by the release lever.

The changing of the hour is triggered by the minute disk which has a raised point on its outer edge between ‘0′ and ‘5′ (see inset above). As the end of the hour approaches the raised point on the minute disk begins to push out the release lever, until it is eventually pushed off the step and …. ‘choing!’… the power from the coiled spring is released, the hour disk jumps forward to the next hour, the release lever hits the next step and the process begins again.

As you can see in the pictures, the mechanism is quite fragile and while good in principle, it didn’t prove strong enough to handle the rigours of daily use, relegating the watch to more of a novelty item than a serious timepiece.

This particular watch came to me with a broken hour spring and other sundry problems. Also supplied was a second watch to use for parts, so after puzzling out how it was supposed to work, I was able to make one working watch from the two.

Like many of the designs from the 1970’s, Lip have chosen to release a modern version of the De Baschmakoff in a variety of styles, this time the watch is  fitted with a Swiss Ronda quartz rather than a mechanical movement.

For more details, and to see the current Lip range, visit www.lip-horloges.nl.

Rich.

** Many thanks to Henrik de Keizer for letting me feature his watch on the blog. **

This chronograph from CWC is the first military watch to feature on the blog.

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The brand name “CWC” stands for Cabot Watch Company, who were established in 1972 and have been providing equipment to the British military for over 30 years.

As you would imagine, a wristwatch is an important piece of equipment for any defence force and performance specifications have to be met before any timepiece is deemed fit for military use.

Every country has its own specifications (and suppliers) which have evolved as technology has advanced. The British forces have been supplied by several companies over the years, namely Lemania, Rolex, Hamilton, CWC, Tudor, Newmark, Precista, Seiko and Pulsar.

Any watch issued to a member of the armed forces is marked with a designation number and a serial number which includes the year of issue. In addition to this, equipment issued to British personnel is marked with the “Broad Arrow” symbol. As you can see, the watch is marked with the Broad Arrow symbol on both the dial and caseback in this case.

The Broad Arrow symbol is used to denote British Government property or more specifically Ordnance; weapons, ammunition, combat vehicles and equipment. The history of the symbol dates back to 1553 when Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the Royal Exchange, smuggled gunpowder into England in barrels marked with the symbol “(/\)”. In 1633 it became the universal marking for Ordnance when it was used on all small arms and ammunition, and the symbol has developed over the years into the Broad Arrow symbol used today.

The watch in this post arrived in a pretty sorry looking state, it did run, but the chronograph didn’t work or reset. Opening the caseback revealed a relatively clean Valjoux Cal. 7733…

As you can see the caseback gasket had deteriorated into black gunge but it had managed to keep the moisture out.  Mechanically the movement was sound with no damage or signs of  corrosion, so a regular service restored it to fully working condition.

The case needed two cycles through the ultrasonic to remove the build up of dirt and the pushers had to be taken out and relubricated, but after that, all that was left to do was install a new crystal and the job was complete.

It is still possible to find these watches on auction sites and sales forums in a variety of conditions, but you may need to open your wallet wider than you think as most military watches are extremely collectible.

It is also possible to buy a modern interpretation of this watch (fitted with a ETA cal. 7760) directly from CWC… but go for the original I say!

Rich.

** Many thanks to Lee Curtis for letting me feature his watch on the blog. **