Messages: 25760 Location: Australia
Registered: November 2003
Some unusual dials...>
Sun, 11 February 2018 11:05
This 1969 Accutron cal. 2182 has a less commonly seen up-down date dial, but what sets it apart is the colourful green "Hammertone" paint finish more often seen in industrial applications.
(Watch owned by Rob B).
Here's a 1898 Elgin Grade 172 watch with a very nice fancy glass dial. Such glass dials made by O'Hara and other makers are a lost art of American watchmaking. These dials are quite susceptible to cracking, particularly from mishandling, and are becoming harder to find in such good condition.
This fancy embossed dial is interesting in itself, but it's the "Hamilton 17 Jewel Movement" that marks it as something different. This is not a Hamilton dial. In fact it's not a Hamilton watch, apart from the movement. This is a "rebuilt" watch. Kits of case, dial, and hands were offered to fit various movements from major watch manufacturers, in this case a Hamilton Grade 987-F movement. The "Movement" marking on the dial differentiates these watches from factory-issued models. Other such watches had "Rebuilt" on the dials. These rebuilt wristwatches were reasonably common for at least two decades after World War 2, using movements from Hamilton, Bulova, Elgin, Gruen, etc. They were often offered cased-up as lower-cost alternatives to the genuine factory watches.
Minerva timers such as this aren't overly uncommon but this one has a specialty dial with resgisters for recording film footage and marked for a cinema supply store.
(Watch owned by Rob B).
The dial on this 1997 Molnija cal. 3602 pocket watch may not look all that uncommon but it is actually made of plastic. Yes, plastic :-) The Chelyabinsk Watch Factory, founded in 1947, made Molnija pocket watches in a wide variety of styles up to 2008. Molnija translates as "Lightning".
What makes this Orient watch dial different is simply the colour. Just how many purple-dialed watches do you see?
This is obviously different! It's a wood dial I made to fit this watch with an 1918 Elgin Grade 345 movement and a NOS Star Watch Case Co. "Defiance" case.
Zodiac Astrographic 2000 automatic mystery watch, with the normal analogue hands replaced by 3 clear discs on which the hands are printed. They seem to float with no apparent connection to the watch - thus the "mystery watch" moniker for this style of watch. Of additional interest is the perlage finish of the metal dial in this model.
1946 Hamilton Grade 917 "Safe Driver" dial. The normal applied gold numerals are replaced with applied letters, in this case on a award watch for 10 years safe driving with the Continental Baking Company. Presentation and custom dial watches were an important business for Hamilton. Below is an excerpt from a 1938 Hamilton catalogue page which features the personalised dial service available for their Grade 917, 912, & 923 pocket watches.
(Image via ibrary.ihc185.com/catalogs/)
Here's a 1925 Hamilton Grade 912 watch with a fancy heavily embossed dial. Hamilton made a range of such dials around the same time with various patterns. From what I've noted over the years they generally haven't weathered the decades too well. This example, whilst aged, is in better condition than many.
Messages: 25760 Location: Australia
Registered: November 2003
Did you mean glass and porcelain?...>
Mon, 12 February 2018 00:29
Those are terms that are often confused.
These glass dials have the main dial made up from successive firings of glass enamel layers, the various patterns being applied either by hand and/or offset printing. This produces depth and translucency. Porcelain dials have a layer of clay (mainly kaolin) applied to a metal substrate, fired, and then an enamel glaze applied to give a glossy surface. This results in an opaque material and is quite different in appearance to the glass dials. Many (most?) glass dials, such as the Elgin example shown here, have porcelain subseconds dials. The differing appearance of the materials is quite evident in the hand if not always so evident in photos.
Messages: 25760 Location: Australia
Registered: November 2003
It even has a loco on the back...>
Mon, 12 February 2018 06:11
...so it must be a railroad watch!
Here's a look at the cal. 3602 movement. It's a 16 ligne pocket watch movement (around 36mm) and runs at 18,000 bph. I understand the movement was based on a Swiss Cortebert design. My example is from 1997 as per the paperwork shown below.
Messages: 2283 Location: Israel
Registered: November 2003
The price once was 23 rubles.
Mon, 12 February 2018 13:20
In the Soviet time. Day-date Raketa was 33 rubles, Poljot pilot chrono - about 120 rubles.
The kings of Soviet black market watches - automatic Seiko 5 and Orient - were about 250-300 rubles.
In the USSR they had the same status value as Rolex nowadays.
Messages: 5620 Location: USA
Registered: September 2004
Great post, Paul; the Minerva is fascinating..
Tue, 13 February 2018 10:29
Film music composers throughout the history of cinema have always had to time their music to very specific and exacting lengths. I wonder if a timer like the Minerva was ever used in this capacity.
Messages: 25760 Location: Australia
Registered: November 2003
Thanks. I don't know, Rick. From my experience...>
Tue, 13 February 2018 11:01
...(I was a sound recordist/editor in my earlier days) a composer writing a score specifically for a film would generally work from an edit where the film running times were set, and they would time their music to that. They could use a normal stopwatch for that purpose. It could be done the other way around, where the film editor worked to already recorded music, (as is often done where a pre-existing song is used in the soundtrack). I took the scales on this Minerva dial to be intended for acsertaining film footage usage for different formats, but that may not be correct.
Heh! Yes, that Kodak 35 RF is a beast of a design. They basically slapped an external rangefinder control kludge onto an existing non-rangefinder camera. I got one as it was so ungainly.
