Benrus watches
Benrus watches are one of the most well-known upscale watch companies in the world
and they have a unique and complicated history within the watch world. Benrus
watches was founded by Benjamin Lazrus and the name Benrus was taken from the
Ben in the founders name and the Rus of the last name. Benjamin Lazrus opened a
watch repair shop sometime around 1921 but did not officially start manufacturing until
the mid-1920’s. Some say it is an American company while others maintain it was a
Swiss watch company. This is due to the fact that in the mid 1920’s Lazrus rented one
floor of a watch factory located in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland and used Swiss
workers.
Benrus continued this practice and also imported dial and other mechanisms from the
Swiss. What Benrus is truly known for is there innovative designs. The most notable of
these would have to be their infamous calendar watch which was introduced in the late
1940s. This was a manual wind watch that featured a “window” in the dial to show the
month and a “hand indicated date” that had the days of the month running around the
outside of the dial. The date would advance as you pushed the crown in. This would
turn out to be the most mass produced “complicated” watch of all time. Others
innovations include the 1950’s Dial-a-rama watches, water proof casing and the first
self-winding clocks in automobiles. While the company fell on hard times in the 1970’s
due to the availability of cheap watches on the market they are still known for some of
the most ingenious watch work of the 20th century.
Watch parts
Watches are a part of everyday life. You see them everywhere but the intricacies in that
little machine on the wrist are unfathomable to many. The standard watch may look
sleek and minimalistic compared to the ancient pocket watches of yesteryear but they
are much more than the buckle, strap and moving hands. In fact they are a marvel of
the human mind and evidence of its genius and creativity.
A simple mechanical watch contains over 130 parts. This is a huge amount of tiny parts
all crammed into a wrist watch, while some are minute, the main parts of a simple
mechanical watch are:
Mainspring, which provides the power.
Balance wheel and hairspring, which oscillate, thereby marking the division of
time.
Escapement, which distributes the impulses from the oscillator,
Gear train, which transmits the power.
Winding stem which is used in manually wound watches or the oscillating weight
used in self-winding watches.
Dial train which activates the hands.
More complex watches contain hundreds of watch parts. The most complex watch in
the world contained 1728 parts which was called the Calibre 89 made by Patek
Philippe. This watch was so complex that it included the phases of the moon, the date
of Easter, the times of sunrise and sunset, indications of sidereal time and a star chart.
Made in 1989; only four were produced and one was sold at auction in Geneva in 2004
for over 6.6 million Swiss francs.
Engraved watches
One of the best ways to truly create a unique gift is to engrave a watch. The beauty of
engraving a watch is that it is a private and personal way to let the recipient know how
you feel about them or to commemorate an occasion. Engraving is the practice of
incising a design on to a hard, usually flat surface, by cutting grooves into it. Originally
all engraving was done by hand. A hardened steel tool, called a burin, was used to cut a
design into the surface of the object. The burin produces a unique and recognizable
quality of line that is characterized by its steady, deliberate appearance and clean
edges.
Engravings on watches are typically reserved only for the eyes of the person who is
receiving the gift. Declaring your love can be done on the inside of your watch
discreetly so only your significant other knows it’s there, but they do know it’s there.
There are several things to consider when thinking of making a watch engraving. The
first and foremost is how much space you have. The second being what you want to
say. When you decide these two things then you can decide on the font type and size
you wish to use. While some people put in sentiments or phrases other popular watch
engravings are dates and monograms. No matter what type of engraving you choose for
your watch or the watch you are giving you can rest assured that it will be a timeless gift
that will be treasured.
Watch straps
Nowadays there is a deluge of different watch straps and designs to choose from.
Many watch companies offer multiple offerings for the same watch. Men pride
themselves on their watches; the style, the craftsmanship and the price. But did you
know that the watch strap started out as a dignified and gentile way for the ladies to
carry around a time piece? The first watch straps date back to 1790 when the first
wristwatches were designed on gold bracelets. These watches were tiny and were
intended only for women. They were adorned with jewels and had a tiny clasp to link
them. At the time men only wore pocket watches, that is until 1900. At the time many
manufacturers started producing chain watch bands which were made of silver nickel
but in 1900 an army soldier decided to make his pocket watch into a wristwatch while
serving in South Africa. He used leather to strap the pocket watch to his wrist. Soon
after, major watch designers began producing leather watch straps so other men could
wear their pocket watch on their wrists. New innovations also include the buckle closure
to keep the wristwatch closed.
In recent years to keep costs down manufacturers have opted for rubber, silicones and
other synthetic materials. These replaced the beautiful leather, gold and silver chains of
decades ago. But with the resurgence of the wristwatch more and more manufacturers
have taken note that people who are still buying wrist watches demand a certain
measure of quality.
Betty Boop watches
In recent years you could not help but notice the resurgence of Betty Boop especially
Betty Boop watches. These watches are cute, endearing and take you far back to a
bygone era. Betty Boop is an animated cartoon character created by animator Grim
Natwick. Betty Boop is the quintessential working girl known more for her heart than
her mind. She was modeled on the singer Helen Kane and the silent film star Clara
Bow. In fact, while Clara Bow could not adapt to talkies due to her thick Brooklyn
accent for Betty Boop it became a signature. Betty also adopted Clara Bow’s signature
short black pin curl hair and red bow mouth.
Betty Boop first appeared in human form in 1932, prior to that she was animated in the
style of a poodle. Betty was a hit with filmgoers, and despite having been toned down in
the mid-1930s due to the Hays code in Hollywood, she remains popular today. She has
been featured in two different comic strips, one in the 1930s and another in the 1980s.
this lead to a Betty Boop revival which lead to a massive influx of Betty Boop
merchandise which actually far outpaced her popularity in the 1930’s. And there are
many reasons why. How could you not resist the cute and girly watches? They range
from pinks with hearts, bejeweled with blown kisses and hearts to crystal with red
puckers. All are fun and there is definitely a style for any Betty Boop fan in your life.
Sports team watches
We used to think of them as cheap, kitschy and stale but no longer. The sports team
watch is now ready to please the most discriminating of buyers. Sports team watches
now offer exquisite design, materials and precision. No sports fan is complete without a
watch from his favorite club whether it be football, basketball, baseball or soccer. And
in fact some say if you don’t have this special item you aren’t a fan at all.
Sports team watches are a great way to show your devotion and your loyalty to your
home team whether they are five or five hundred miles away. It is also great way to
bond with your children while sharing your favorite pastime. Remember the first time
you went to a game with your family? Remember the first time you owned your favorite
teams watch, jersey or t-shirt. Giving your child your favorite sports team watch is a
great way to incorporate them into a family tradition that can be carried on by their
children and grandchildren after we are all gone.
And for each team there are many different variations to choose from. There are pink
watches for little girls. There are future star watches which could become valuable
collectors’ items in the future. Imagine if you had a rookie watch with Michael Jordan’s
face on it. Imagine the possibilities.
Sports team watches usually also incorporate ways for you and your child to become
better athletes. They usually include a stop timer so you can track your running
progress. Not to mention some of the new versions show you the time and date of the
next game…but you should already know that shouldn’t you. Regardless of whether
you are a diehard who wants all the wears your team has to offer or if you would like to
show your devotion in a more classic and aesthetically pleasing way there is a sports
team watch option out there that is perfect for you.
Elgin pocket watch
Elgin watches have a long and storied history. They never made the most complicated
watch or the most expensive but they did corner the middle market of the American
watch industry. The National Watch Company was founded in August 27th 1864, right as
the civil war was coming to an end. In September 1864, company executives were
successful in luring away seven key employees of the Waltham Watch Company.
These seven were to be known as the seven stars and changed watch history forever.
The company was founded on the idea of mass producing high quality pocket watches
using machine made, interchangeable parts. Until that time most watches were made
by hand which made it an expensive and time consuming art form. The future Elgin
watch company realized that there was a huge market for good watches that could be
sold and repaired cheaply using factory made replacement parts. The watch companies
signified America's emergence from an agricultural country into an industrial power. The
first watch company made, an 18 sized B W Raymond railroad grade watch, was
finished in 1867 and over the next 100 years, they went on to produce about 60 million
watches.
The name National Watch Company was never in common use and typically the
company’s watches were called watches from Elgin so in 1874 the company changed
its name officially to the Elgin National Watch Company. Elgin produced their first
wristwatch around 1910, leading most other American watch companies by many years.
Elgin watches continued to be popular throughout the 1930’s and 40’s with noteworthy
designs and appeal. Their influence on industrializing America can also not be in doubt
since Elgin housed the world's largest watch manufacturing complex in several buildings
from its inception in 1864 until moving to Elgin, South Carolina, in 1968.
Illinois watches
The Illinois Watch Company was founded in December 1870 in Springfield, Illinois. It
made a wide variety grade of watches until it was bought out in 1927 by the Hamilton
Watch Company. An interesting fact about the Illinois Watch Company is that they had
lured many professionals from the Elgin Watch Company of Illinois to their plant.
Another interesting side note is that one of the originating partners, John Stuart, was
actually a former partner of Abraham Lincoln and even produced a watch named “A.
Lincoln” in his honor.
But interesting notes aside the Illinois Watch Company was most famous for their
watches and two of the most famous of all the watches produced by the Illinois watch
company are the "Sangamo" and the “Bunn Special”.
With these watches the aim of the Illinois Watch Company was to market towards the
people that needed the most precise and accurate watches available on the market,
which at the time were most notably railroad men. They needed to keep their trains on
time to keep America running. Therefore the Illinois Watch Company tried to produce a
watch of the highest perfection. This means a watch to meet the arbitrary and exacting
requirements of railroad service. What they came up with were the Sangamo" and the
"Bunn", and "Bunn Special" models. These models became standard with railroad men
and were a huge success. So much so that they became synonymous with railway
service.
Bradley watches
The Bradley watch company was a division of Elgin National Industries. Elgin National
Industries was what became of the famed Elgin watch company of the latter part of the
1800’s and 1900’s. The Bradley division did not come into being until the mid 1970’s
and when they did they were innovative in their techniques to grab the consumer’s eye.
The Bradley Company produced Mickey Mouse collectible watches between the years
1972 and 1985. Now if you are not familiar with Mickey Mouse then you might have
been living in a cave for the last 50 years but Mickey Mouse is one of the most
recognizable characters of the 20th century, whether cartoon or human. Legend has it
that the Disney company ran into some financial trouble and needed to attain capital
fast. To do that they teamed up with the Bradley Watch Company and seized on
Mickey Mouse’s exposure and capitalized on it. Although Bradley was based in the
United States, they used Swiss movements for their watches and many of the Swiss
Mickey Mouse watches for sale today are Bradley watches. The success of the Mickey
Mouse watch lead to the creation of many other Disney themed watches, including
Cinderella, Donald Duck and Goofy. Most of the Bradley watches were the wind-up
variety, however in the 1980s the company produced some quartz models that ran on
battery power. To find a working original Bradley Mickey Mouse Watch is a very
lucrative and satisfying treat for any collector. And even if not working since the
originals were wind-up watches if one is not working properly any jeweler can clean and
oil the watch for you and hopefully get the movement working again.
Vintage wrist watches
Vintage wrist watches speak volumes about your style aesthetic. If you love wrist
watches then you should definitely own a vintage wrist watch. Vintage wrist watches
offer you a chance to own something completely unique from what is out in the market
today. They allow your personal style and personality to shine through.
One of the best ways to get a vintage wrist watch is online. There are dozens of
different sites that can help you find the one unique piece you are looking for; whether
high end or low end. Auctions sites are also a great way to find unique vintage wrist
watch companies.
There are many different companies that you could look for when finding a vintage wrist
watch. Some can be unbelievably expensive and in fact any type of vintage collecting
can be expensive but there is a surprisingly large amount of vintage wrist watches that
are both appealing to the eye and the pocket book. Elgin watches are one of the
brands you should look out for. At one time they cornered the market on stylish yet
affordable wrist watches and there are still many available and in great condition today.
The key is to find them, which could be a painstakingly long process but once you find a
vintage wrist watch that you love then you know you can keep it forever. Since it’s
already survived this long as long as you properly maintain it then you should have no
problem keep it and later passing it on to your children.
Gold watches
Whether Rolex or Phillipe Patek nothing says luxury like a gold watch. While platinum
takes the cake in the dollar department nothing quite beats the look of gold for a sense
of luxury. This is true whether they have an understated black leather band or if they
truly are gold all over. Gold watches have long been the highest standard of the watch
trade. In the early years of watches no respectable or well off businessman would be
without his gold pocket watch. The same thing is true today although the place of
residence of the watch is no longer the pocket but has become the wrist.
There are many variations of the gold watch. It can be solid gold or it can be gold
plated. It can have gold accents and a black leather strap or it can be diamond
encrusted. One of my favorites is the dual tone which incorporates gold and silver or
platinum together so you get the best of both worlds.
A full solid gold watch can start pricing at upwards of two thousand dollars and can
drastically increase from there. If a full gold watch is more than you can spare at the
moment then why not look for a gold face or even gold accents. Any touch of gold and
work wonders on even the simplest of watches. Regardless of your pocketbook or style
with a gold watch you’ll know that you have a wrist watch that is timeless, elegant and
will always be a showstopper.
How do watches work?
The art of time measurement has been a source of mystery for people for as long as
time has been recorded. Common people always puzzled over how time was
measured. This later translated into how modern time measuring devices, such as
watches, work. We may think we know, but do we actually know time keeping devices
and modern watches work.
The earliest known time keeping devices were sundials. Sundials are devices that
measure time by the position of the Sun. In the most common designs, such as the
horizontal sundial, the sun casts a shadow from what is known as a style sometimes
called a gnomon, a thin rod or a sharp, straight edge, onto a flat surface marked with
lines indicating the hours of the day. As the sun moves across the sky, the shadow-
edge progressively aligns with different hour-lines on the plate. Such designs rely on the
style being aligned with the axis of the Earth's rotation. Hence, if such a sundial is to tell
the correct time, the style must point towards true north (not the north or south magnetic
pole) and the style's angle with horizontal must equal the sundial's geographical
latitude.
As you can imagine to the ordinary person this can be more than perplexing and the
mysteries of timekeeping didn’t stop with the advent of modern pieces and their
components. For most modern pieces there are three main components.
A drive mechanism, a device that measured time sometimes known as an
escapement device and a method of display. A windup alarm clock, for example,
uses a tension spring as a drive mechanism,
An escapement wheel.
And the gear driven mechanical hands moving across the clock face as a
display of the time.
No matter what time keeping device or era of time we must all agree that time
measurement is something of a marvel in the echoes of history.
Breitling watches
Breitling watches are of the old Swiss tradition. The brand originated in Sanit-Imier in
1884 and founded by Leon Breitling. Breitlings are famous for their certified
chronometers which are designed for aviation use. The term chronometer was coined in
1714 by Jeremy Thacker of Beverly, England. Today a chronometer watch is a kind of
watch tested and certified to meet certain precision standards. In Switzerland, only
timepieces certified by the COSC may use the word 'Chronometer' on them. Some of
the most famous being Breitlings.
While designed for aviation use Breitlings have become a status symbol among the
wealthy. Known for their high quality, technical-oriented watch Breitling has made name
for themselves and can boast a multitude of very well respected high end models. The
epitome of which is the Bentley Mulliner. A Men's Tourbillon manual wind Chronograph
watch with a platinum dial. While there were several Breitling Bentley watches, which
were to commemorate Breitlings sponsorship of Team Bentley during the Le Mans 24
Hours campaign, this watch alone can cost upwards of 170,000 U.S. dollars. However
there are many Breitling styles which are much more affordable and attainable to the
average consumer. Quartz models such as the Breitling Aeromarine Colt start at a tad
bit over two thousand dollars on a rubber strap, while typical prices of mechanical, steel
cased models are over seven thousand dollars for the Breitling for Bentley
Motors model. The expense is due to the exclusivity of the Bentley trademark, as well
as the 38 jewel self-winding movement as these steel cased models are more
expensive than some of Breitling's titanium and gold models.
Minerva watches
Minerva watches are known for their quality and staying true to the time honored Swiss
making traditions of old. For years and years Minerva was a very exclusive family
owned business. Each watch was made with the finest materials and painstakingly put
together to make sure even the tiniest detail was upheld to their pristine reputation. No
detail was too minute to look over and to keep intact. This painstakingly attention to
detail made it impossible for the family run Minerva watch firm to produce only about
one thousand pieces per year. These watches featured their own Caliber 48 and 49
movements. For all the attention to detail and precision Minerva watches were
reasonably priced and exceptionally well made.
One of the most important facets of these watches is that when you purchase a Minerva
watch you know that you are connected to one of the most noble and precise traditions
in Swiss watch making. A tradition that had stood the test of time and quite simply
cannot be beat. The Pythagore and the Palladio models were especially well made
watches produced by the watch company.
In 2000, an Italian conglomerate bought the small family owned watch making firm.
Many believe that due to this you should stay clear of the company. This in not so,
while obviously the number of watches the company manufactures has increased that
does not mean the company’s attention to detail has decreased. This being said most
collectors do find that the pre buyout Minerva Pythagore and Palladio models
appreciate in value faster than the later models. But this is to be expected since if there
were less in circulation there is more demand for fewer pieces of Minerva watches.
Regardless of whether you choose a new or older version Minerva watches have
always been held to a very high standard.