AUTHENTIC VINTAGE ILLINOIS STEWART GENTS WRISTWATCH

AUTHENTIC VINTAGE ILLINOIS STEWART GENTS WRISTWATCH

MADE IN/BUATAN: USA

CIRCA/TAHUN: 1920's

MODEL: ILLINOIS STEWART

CRYSTAL/CERMIN: SCRATCH FREE ACRYLIC CRYSTAL

MOVEMENT/ENJIN: ILLINOIS LADY STEWART 15 JEWELS MANUAL WINDING MOVEMENT GRADE 34

DIAL COLOR: WHITE CREAM

FUNCTION/FUNGSI: HOUR, MINUTES AND SUB SECOND AT 6:00

HANDS/JARUM: LUMINOUS BLUE METAL HANDS

MARKERS/TANDA WAKTU: LUMINOUS ARABIC MARKER

CASING : 10K GOLD RGP

BEZEL: 10K GOLD RGP

LUGS: 20mm

MEASUREMENT/UKURAN: 32mm DIAMETER w/o CROWN and 35mm LUG TO LUG

DITANDA/ENGARVED BACK CASING: NONE

CROWN: ORIGINAL UNSIGNED ONION CROWN

STRAP/TALI: GENUINE GOLD PLATED STRECTH BANDS

SIZE STRAP/SAIZ TALI: 8.5" FULL LENGHT

CONDITION: WORKING AND KEEPING TIME, EXCELLENT CONDITION

MY PRICE/HARGA :USD300 (NEGOTIABLE)

LIST USD300 SOLD USD

BRIEF HISTORY OF ILLINOIS WATCHES

Illinois Watch Factory

The Illinois Springfield Watch Company was organized in 1869 primarily through the efforts of J. C. Adams. The first company Directors were J. T. Stuart, W. B. Miller, John Williams, John W. Bunn, George Black and George Passfield.

John Stuart was a Springfield lawyer and former partner of Abraham Lincoln. John Williams was president of the First National bank of Springfield. William B. Miller was a local merchant. John B. Bunn owned a grocery business.

Though the first movements were produced in 1872, the company really didn't achieve full production until 1875. By serial number, the first watch made was the "Stuart" model, followed in order by the "Mason," Bunn," "Miller," and finally the "Currier. The first stem-wind watch was produced in 1875. The early Illinois models were key-wound and key-set and are quite collectible today. Illinois later produced an extensive line of extremely fine and accurate Railroad-grade pocket watches like the "Sangamo Special," "Bunn Special" and "Santa Fe Special" (just to name a few).

Illinois: A Great American Watch Since 1870

In 1879, due to financial difficulties, the company was reorganized and the name changed to the Illinois Springfield Watch Company. By 1885 the company name was changed yet again to the Illinois Watch Company.

Purchased by Hamilton

The Illinois Watch Company was purchased by Hamilton Watch Company in 1927, but continued to produce Illinois watches under Hamilton management until 1932 (the year the last "true" Illinois watch was made). Hamilton continued producing Illinois watches in the Hamilton factory until 1939.

The Illinois Watch Company produced watches under contract for several different brands, including Burlington Watch Company (Chicago, Illinois) which operated primarily as a mail-order business, and Santa Fe Watch Company (Topeka, Kansas). There is some question as to whether Burlington was actually a subsidiary of Illinois. Watches produced under the Burlington name include some very fine (including some railroad grade) watches, which are nearly identical to Illinois movements. Illinois also produced watches for the Plymouth Watch Company (Sears Roebuck) and the Washington Watch Company (Montgomery Ward).

AUTHENTIC VINTAGE ENGLISH SMITHS ACME LEVER H.SAMUEL MILITARY STYLE GENTS WRISTWATCH

AUTHENTIC VINTAGE ENGLISH SMITHS ACME LEVER H.SAMUEL MILITARY STYLE GENTS WRISTWATCH 

CIRCA 1940'S

SILVER COLOR DIAL WITH SUBSECOND AT 6:00

ACCRYLIC CRYSTAL IS CLEAN WITH NO CRACK OR SCRATCHES

ENGLISH MADE 15 JEWEL SMITHS CAL.12.15 MANUAL MOVEMENT

LUMINOUS BLACK COLOR METAL HANDS

RAISED ARABIC MARKERS

CHROME FINISH TOP AND  STAINLESS STEEL BACK CASE MEASURES APPROXIMATELY 35mm EXCLUDING THE CROWN AND 38 mm LUG TO LUG

SS UNSIGNED CROWN

18 mm LUG SIZE

NEW BLACK WITH BROWN TRIM LEATHER BAND FITS 7.5" WRIST

DISCONTINUED MODEL... RARE

EXCELLENT CONDITION, GOOD WORKING CONFITION

PRICE OFFER FOR USD220

The History of English Smiths Wristwatches

Smiths wristwatch history began in 1939 when Cheltenham factory was asked to produced watches for the war. By the end of 1939, Smiths produced 8,000 jewelled lever escapements every week. They were able to supply the military with a pocket watch and chronograph pocket within three years.

Within this period, Smiths managed to produce a cheap range of ‘pin-pallet’ watches marketed as Smiths Empire and also high quality wristwatches to compete with Swiss wristwatches. All Smith watches were produced at Bishops Cleeve factory in Cheltenham. One of the man behind the successful of Smith was Robert Lenoir, a Swiss trained watchmaker who lived in England after the First World War. Lenoir provided the impetus behind Smiths improvement in the design and finish of their work and which finally led to production of a high-grade wristwatch in 1945. Lenoir had been the person in charge of the Jaeger Instrument company in England. That's made many collectors/researchers believed that Jaeger-LeCoultre were involved in the design of Smiths which were not true.

In 1951 Smiths had changed their typically English looking movement with frosted and gilded plates to the new movement of ‘12.15’ calibre - 12 ligne in size (26 mm in diameter) and 15 jewels. This movement which fitted to their De Luxe model was a great success for The Smith Watches. Smiths gained very much needed publicity when Sir Edmund Hillary wore a De Luxe watch on his historic ascent of Everest in 1953, and became a major of Smith advertising campaigns.

AUTHENTIC VINTAGE BUREN ARTDECO MEN'S WRISTWATCH

 

AUTHENTIC VINTAGE BUREN ARTDECO MEN'S WRISTWATCH

BRAND/JENAMA: BUREN

MADE IN/BUATAN: SWISS

CIRCA/TAHUN: 1950's

MODEL:  ARTDECO

CRYSTAL/CERMIN: ACCRYLIC - CLEAN

MOVEMENT/ENJIN: BUREN 17 JEWELS AUTOMATIC WINDING INHOUSE MOVEMENT BUREN CAL.4

DIAL COLOR: CHAMPAGNE

FUNCTION/FUNGSI: HOUR, MINUTE, SWIPE CENTER SECONDS

HANDS/JARUM: LUMINOUS GOLD COLORED METAL HANDS

MARKERS/TANDA WAKTU: RAISED GOLD ARABIC MARKERS

CASING : 10K GOLD FILLED PLATED TOP SPIDER LUGS/STAINLESS STEEL BACK

LUGS: 16mm

MEASUREMENT/UKURAN: 33mm DIAMETER EXCLUDING CROWN and 35mm LUG TO LUG

DITANDA/ENGARVED BACK CASING: -WATER 10KRGP~STAINLESS STEEL BACK~AUTOMATIC

CROWN: GP

STRAP/TALI: BLACK LEATHER BAND

SIZE STRAP/SAIZ TALI: 8.5"

EXCELLENT CONDITION, WORKING, KEEPING TIME, DISCONTINUED MODEL

PRICE/HARGA: USD350 (NEGOTIABLE/BOLEH DIRUNDING)

BRIEF HISTORY OF BUREN WATCHES

Buren was named after the location of is initial start up at a little village in Switzerland called Buren, located on the banks of the Aare. The firm started in 1842 making watch parts. In 1873, Buren started making complete watches and called themselves F Suter & Co.

F Suter & Co. continued with varying success to make watches with the trade name of 'Buren' for several years until it was taken over by the British firm of H Williamson Ltd in 1898.

>H Williamson Ltd, specifically bought the Buren factory to supply Swiss parts for the watches he was making in the UK. This later lead to a court case where he was found guilty of selling 'English Made' watches with Swiss parts in them. While H Williamson Ltd owned the Buren brand, they generally allowed the company to continue on its own with them just being the Parent company and receiving parts from them.

By 1905, Buren were making 500 watches a day. Many of them for the parent company, but some were sold in Germany and the USA under the Buren name.

By 1949, Buren were back producing 22 different calibers for watches. In 1954, they patented the mini-rotor for automatic watches. This was a major achievement as the smaller rotor meant that it could be sunk flush with the watch movement, so making automatic watches a lot slimmer than they had been - just under 3mm in fact.

In 1966, Hamilton Swiss acquired the Büren Watch Company in Switzerland, including all factories and technologies that had been developed by Büren up to that point. From 1966 to 1969, Hamilton Lancaster and Buren Switzerland were operated as a joint concern, with Hamilton using a number of Swiss movements for their "American" watches and Buren utilizing a number of components manufactured by Hamilton Lancaster. It was during this time that Hamilton started to selectively incorporate the highly innovative Buren Microtor (aka Micro Rotor/Microrotor) movement into small numbers of certain upper tier watches (in addition to their ordinary hand-wind and traditional automatic watches).

The Buren (now Hamilton/Buren) Microtor was the first patented automatic wristwatch movement to eliminate the sizable external oscillating weight inherent to most automatic winding watches. Instead, it utilized a much smaller weight that was entirely integrated into the chassis of the movement. This design allowed for a substantially slimmer automatic watch that still retained a center sweep second hand. The Microtor concept was also conceived by Universal Geneve for use in their famous Polerouter series of timepieces during this same time. The official title of "first Microtor movement" is still in dispute amongst some horology aficionados, even though Buren patented their design in 1954 while Universal Geneve applied for their patent in May of 1955

In 1969, the Hamilton Watch Company completely ceased its American manufacturing operations with the closure of its factory in Lancaster, PA, shifting the entire balance of its manufacturing operations to the Buren factory in Switzerland.

From 1969 to 1972, all new Hamilton watches were produced in Switzerland by Hamilton's Buren subsidiary. In 1971, the Buren brand was returned to Swiss ownership and by 1972, the Buren-Hamilton partnership was dissolved and the factory liquidated, due to decreased interest and sales of the Hamilton-Buren product.

AUTHENTIC VINTAGE WITTNAUER HIDDEN LUGS ARTDECO GENTS WRISTWATCH

BRAND/JENAMA : AUTHENTIC VINTAGE WITTNAUER HIDDEN LUGS ARTDECO GENTS WRISTWATCH

MODEL : DRESS SMART CASUAL

MOVEMENT/ENJIN : 17 MANUAL WINDING  INHOUSE MOVT CAL.8T

ORIGIN/BUATAN : Longines/Wittnauer Swiss
NO. SIRI/SERIAL NO. : -

CIRCA/TAHUN : 1930's

CASING/KEMASAN : 10K GOLD FILLED CASE

FUNCTION/FUNGSI : HOUR AND MINUTES
DIAL: CHAMPAGNE GOLD RAISED GOLD DOTS MARKERS
BEZEL: 10K GOLD FILLED

MARKINGS/TANDA JENAMA : DIAL, MOVEMENT
BAND/TALI : GENUINE BLACK LEATHER BAND WITH GP BUCKLE FIT 8" WRIST
LUGS SIZE: 18mm
BAND WIDTH: 120mm

LENS/CERMIN : HARDLEX ACCRYLIC CRYSTAL

MEASUREMENT/UKURAN : 30 mm WITHOUT CROWN X 36mm LUG TO LUG
WATER RESISTANT: NOT TESTED

CONDITION/KONDISI : EXCELLENT WORKING CONDITION AND KEEPING TIME
PRICE/HARGA: USD200 (NEGOTIABLE))
SOLD RM

HISTORY OF LONGINES-WITTANAUER WATCHES

As soon as Ernest Francillon opened a small manufacturing plant, which started to produce the following year, the story of Longines started in 1866. Francillon, who was the grandson of Auguste Agassiz (a pioneer of Swiss horology whose name appears on wrist and pocket watches of high-quality), learned his trade at his grandfather's watch assembly shop, the "comptoir". He would finally become director of the shop, but this thirty-two-year old man got acquainted with the limits of the comptoir and the areas in which he would be more likely to have a better production.

The first Longines watches arrived in America in 1868. A few years later, Longines was awarded a gold medal for precision and reliability at the Universal Exposition of Vienna. To prevent himself from imitation, Francillon decided to trademark the dials on his watches with a winged clepsydra and the word "Longines".A clepsydra is an ancient device which measured time by marking the regulated flow of water though a small opening. Looking carefully at the centre of the Longines trademark a small box that represents this device is seen.

The company eventually departed from this procedure fairly quickly because there are several Longines watches that do not have the logo. In 1889, Longines provided five chronometers to the Italian explorer Luigi Amedeo, who did his best to reach the North Pole. His failure is hardly noted in history books, but the mark Longines'illuswtrious history as the watch choice by explores and adventurers.

In 1904, Longines furnished chronometers to a U.S. naval exploration of the North Polar Region. Unfortunately, Robert E. Peary was the first to reach the North Pole in 1909. Longines, unfortunately, missed the chance to be part of that event. At the beginning of 1900s, Longines started to express an interest in gentlemen's wrist watches and joined other Swiss makers which showed the same interest as well.

The Longines Co. states that the first wrist watch was cased in 1905. The first wrist chronographs to appear in the sports market were seen in 1910s. Moreover, Longines produced military watches for World War, some of the, with pierced shrapnel covers, "demi-hunter" cased varieties, and others for being used at sea and in the air.

Around 1920 - 1930s the golden years for Longines started. The factory had a remarkable growth from 20 to 2.500 workers, who produced more than 122.000 pieces every year. Longines would be recognized as the constant and steady companion of many pioneering aviator in a decade that aeroplanes and airships were recognized as military and exploration tools of great importance. Aeroplanes started to experience several problems such as magnetism, moisture, low temperatures, issues which had to be overcome right away. And Longines was acquainted with theses issues after having experienced the Artic cold temperatures. It was during this era that Longines would produce its most famous two wrist watches -- the Weems and the Lindbergh models. (The Lindbergh is also referred to as the Hour Angle Watch.) In 1930, Admiral Richard E. Byrd would arrive to the South Pole for the first time. His trips would always find him with a Longines on his wrist.

The A. Wittnauer Co. would become the exclusive sales agent for Longines in1880. This relationship lasted for the next 114 years. In 1936, the Wittnauer family sold A. Wittnauer Co. and renamed the Longines-Wittnauer Co. the name became so pervasive that some people think that the watches are synonymous. But, of course, they are not. Their movements are distinct and not interchangeable with one another.

World War II and beyond

The company began to produce military issue watches during the Second World War. Most of these watches were for the European forces. In 1994, Longines and Wittnauer parted company, and Swiss giant SMH, which holds title to Hamilton, Omega and Tissot, got the name.

Chronographs

The company started to show its affinity with sporting events during the 30s and 40s, producing a lot of unusual types of chronographs. Many were manufacturer with Longines's own movement, unlike the rest of the companies which would rather buy chronograph from other companies. Therefore, the Longines chronographs, those which were produced from the 20s to the 50s are highly prized and have their own separate niche in the collecting world.

The best of Longines's chronograph movements was said to be the Caliber 13 ZN. It was first released in Longines' 2-register models, but was later adapted for use in its 3-register models. The following chronographs would show movements made by Valjoux and others. These are not recognized nearly as collectible as the chronographs with Longines' own movements.