It’s Sunday, so that means it’s time to turn our world to the history of watches. As with the last time I took this series up, I am going to target another roundup of sorts for you. Today we have a watch in the form of a snake, a history of dive watches (before dive watches existed), and a look at what separates automatic movements from manually wound ones.
Thanks for popping in to our regular Sunday feature, the Watch Video Rewind, where we point out watch related videos we come across that we think are of interest. Today, I am going to combine the Watch Video Rewind with a bit of Historical Horology, and point out some museums and museum exhibits related to the watch world.
The Historical History series has one that has become a good bit more infrequent, and I have played around with some different ways of approaching it in the more recent appearances. Today is another experiment, one that I hope you will find a bit easier to consume. It’s a bit more of a roundup (rather like our Saturday posts), and gives you some bite-size summaries into some deeper topics. Today, we have articles covering watches that Elvis Presley owned, an editorial about the earliest form of chronograph, and then an article about the very first watch created by Giulio Papi.
Welcome to our regular Sunday feature, Watch Video Rewind, where we point you to videos of interest related (at least somewhat) to watches or watch making. This week, we have two rather lengthy (but still interesting) videos on watches from the gang over at the National Watch & Clock Museum that also have us verging into Historical Horology territory.
It has been some time since we have had a Historical Horology post, so I would say we are long overdue. For whatever reason, I was just not running across a lot of interesting material about watches of the past. That is, until I came across a recent three-part series that dug into the watches that Cousteau and his Calypso team wore.
Today’s post id a bit of an odd beast – I went looking for something to post up about watch videos, and ended up running into something that could also be considered Historical Horology as well as Watch Video Rewind. So, without further ado, let us dive in to the history (and sounds) of minute repeaters.
When it comes to iconic dive watches, I am sure we all have many of the same ones pop to mind, most often coming from Rolex and, due to their more recent resurgence, Panerai. Back in the 1950s, though, there was another brand that produced what I feel is an iconic diver as well – the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms. That is the watch we will be going through in today’s edition of Historical Horology.
When it comes to mechanical time keeping, the oscillator is truly what allows the measurement of time. Take, for instance, a grandfather clock – it is the frequency of that pendulum swinging back and forth, at a constant rate, that allows the internal gearing to tell us the time. While things are on a much smaller scale, the same sort of principle applies to watches, be they mechanical or quartz watches. The humble oscillator has some really rather interesting developments recently, and that is what we will talk about in today’s edition of Historical Horology.
When it comes to watches, many brands seem to have an iconic model that comes to mind when you hear the name of the brand. For Omega, that watch is (for me, at least) the Speedmaster. This is a watch that started life in the late ’50s, and has seen some interesting developments. Read on for a dive into the history of the Omega Speedmaster.
I do not know about you, but for me, Longines is a brand that has not occupied a lot of space in my watch-related focus. To be sure, I am well aware of the brand, and run across their print ads with some regularity. Today, you might be familiar with their sponsorship in horse racing, or perhaps their aviation history. Let’s take a peek a bit further back, however. Today’s edition of Historical Horology will go back to the start of the Longines brand.
