close

Watchismo Times | category: 1960s

home

Watchismo Times

THE WATCHISMO TIMES WATCH BLOG A reliquary of obscure timepieces from bygone eras as well as the cutting-edge watch designs of today.

watchismo.blogspot.com

New Zodiac Sea Dragon Automatic Watches - Flawless Vintage Reissue

seadragon

Limited Vintage Reissue

New Zodiac Sea Dragon Swiss Automatic

We love vintage! It's the root of Watchismo's existence. It's so rare to find a vintage reissue that isn't just 'inspired' by the past, but rather dedicated to replicating it. And we've seen some pretty convincing vintage reissues by other brands - but Zodiac hit the nail on the head with this new Sea Dragon Automatic collection. It's perfect and carries all the undefinable distinctions a vintage watch possesses - whether it's an unusual color combination, unique brushing of steel or a sculptural flair to the case that watchmakers just don't execute these days...
Summed up, this watch has it all and there are very few to go around...
Limited supply will be available,
Order your Zodiac Sea Dragon Automatic Here
Zodiac ZO9902front
Admired as one of the most legendary collections in the ZODIAC portfolio, the Sea Dragon represents the heroic spirit of the brand’s beginning. This fresh interpretation of the original features a classic retro case of proportion and simplicity, with colored dial options and a Swiss Made automatic movement. Available with either a genuine leather strap, Sea Dragon stands as the spirit of ZODIAC’s past and the ambassador for its future.
Zodiac ZO9902caseback
Zodiac ZO9905front
Limited edition - Individually numbered and only 75 pieces will be made!
Zodiac ZO9903front
Zodiac ZO9904hero
Zodiac ZO9900front
Zodiac ZO9901front
Zodiac ZO9904side
Zodiac ZO9901hero
Zodiac logo swissmade1882

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic Watches

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesTypically, when you think of plastic watches, you think of Swatch. But back in the sixties and seventies, plastic was still a very cool new medium for products. All of the watches featured here are vintage mechanical timepieces, a few with movements by Jaeger and others with automatic winding mechanisms. But overwhelmingly, they are all interesting designs and truly obscure models that you are likely to never find in a lifetime of collecting.

Above, a simple watch with oversized arrows for hands. The case is a somewhat oblong triangle.

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesThis is by a brand called appropriately "Handcuff", this thing is as large as they come and I first read about it in Pieter Doensen's fantastic (out of print) book "Watch - History of the Modern Wrist Watch". I was lucky enough to meet with Pieter back in 2001 and purchased the exact model used for publication. Thanks again Pieter, it's in a safe place!

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesAh, again discovered in the Doensen book, this Record Automatic (by Longines) was an amazing find on Ebay about 8 years ago...brand new in box, unfortunately too small for my wrist, made for women. Probably for the best as I would likely have the balls to wear this in public.

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesThe Helmet Jump Hour, not much to say here other than "look at that friggin movement!". Insane. I featured this a while back-->link

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic Watches
Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesPart of watchmaking history, the Tissot Astrolon Idea 2001, the worlds first all plastic watch, including the movement. For more info, go here-->link

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesAnd some of my absolute favorite watches to collect but hardly ever wear, the Pierre Cardin 1971 collection (shown above and below). Produced for just for one year, these fantastic watches had manual winding Jaeger movements and designs (both platic and steel) like no other! For more, go here-->link

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic Watches
Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesThe beautiful disc/hand dials of the vintage Mondia Moonstone

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesThe only plastic watch shown here made for kids, featuring gadgets for spying (expandable eyesights, etc) and a manual winding movement with an ingenious display for showing the hour through a rotating hole, for more go here-->link

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesThese plastic watches by Nivada are deceiving, the photos do not express their monster size, they measure approximately 70mm wide! The straps would usually match the dial, for more go here-->link

And for related plastic wristwatch posts.
..

| Watchismo Blog | Watchismo Shop | Contact Us | Subscribe |



BLASTS FROM THE PAST - Strolling Down The Memory Lanes of the Watchismo Vintage Museum Pages

BLASTS FROM THE PAST - Strolling Down The Memory Lanes of the Watchismo Vintage Museum PagesOk, I once used these pages to catalog and drool over time slipped through my fingertips these past 12 years online. Nearly all the watches from my now ancient Museum Pages are long gone - sold or in my carefully guarded personal collection, but the pages are worth revisiting for inspiration of all sorts. Hell, some of them are just downright ugly and worth a laugh. Enjoy!

LINK --> The Old Watchismo Museum Page 1
The Old Watchismo Museum Page 2



| Watchismo Blog | Watchismo Shop | Contact Us | Subscribe |



Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!A very rare private collection of vintage LIP watches are now available. Ranging from gunmetal and sterling silver pocket watches of the early 1900s to the iconic French designer series of the early seventies. Original Mach 2000 chronographs from Roger Tallon, very rare Prince Francois de Baschmakoff Jump Hours and some nearly singular examples from a rich history in time!

Above, a Sixties sterling silver LIP wristwatch with actual wood inlaid bracelet and wood dial. Never seen another like it, ever!

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!Rudi Meyer's very unusual 70s "Galaxie"


Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!Unusual Mystery Dial "Ecrusson"
1970s Roger Tallon Design

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!Uncommon Automatic Mach 2000

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!Early 70s Mach 2000 Moon by Roger Tallon

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!Rare prototype LIP Moonphase Mach 2000
(never went into production)

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!1975 LIP Mach 2000 LED
(light emitting diode)

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!1974 Tallon LIP Electrique

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!Modern Design Sixites Ladies LIP

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!1960s Sunken Hours Manual Mechanical LIP

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!1970's "Les Candides" by Michel Boyer
(beat Swatch by 10 years!)

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!Seventies Lip "Instrument" by Rudi Meyer

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!"Hermes" Style 60s Lip Mechanical

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!The Classic Lip Mach 2000 "Aeronef" by Roger Tallon 1974

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!The All Steel Lip Baschmakoff Jump Hour - 1970

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!Early 20th Century Gunmetal Lip Pocketwatch

Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!
Vintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!
Related Posts at The Watchismo Times;
All Vintage Watch Stories
All LIP Watch Stories

| Watchismo Blog | Watchismo Shop | Contact Us | Subscribe |


VINTAGE WATCHING - An Unusual Vintage Planetary Display Watch by Juvenia

VINTAGE WATCHING - An Unusual Vintage Planetary Display Watch by JuveniaI dare you to find another model like this. In all my years of collecting, I have not seen another three-disc watch quite like this vintage 1960s Juvenia. Each circle is offset from each other so each one representing seconds, minutes, and hours (small-to-large) rotate in an off-kilter formation. Each is attached at the far end of their marker lines creating an oblong rotation similar to planets with a variety of orbits. What is even more surprising is how small this watch is, only 20mm wide. A very cool and strange ladies timpiece!

VINTAGE WATCHING - An Unusual Vintage Planetary Display Watch by Juvenia
'60s Juvenia Mystery Planetary Watch Product page


VINTAGE WATCHING - An Unusual Vintage Planetary Display Watch by Juvenia
LINK All Vintage Posts at The Watchismo Times


| Watchismo Blog | Watchismo Shop | Contact Us | Subscribe |

Vintage Watching - A Bumper Crop of New Old Watches

Vintage Watching - A Bumper Crop of New Old WatchesJust compiled a collection of oddities and obscurities from the forties through the seventies! So fresh to the site that not all the descriptions have even been written!

Visit the new collection here-->LINK


Vintage Watching - A Bumper Crop of New Old WatchesAll kinds of rare oddball stuff!

Some highlights; 1960s Omega Dynamic, 1950s White Gold LeCoultre, 1970s Wittnauer Futurama Retrograde.

| Watchismo Blog | Watchismo Shop | Contact Us | Subscribe |


Subscribe to The Watchismo Times
Enter your email

Delivered by FeedBurner

Clock Wise - Rare Vintage Patek Philippe Solar Clock & A Homemade Etch-A-Sketch Clock


Two 1960s Patek Philippe Solar clocks to be auctioned at the upcoming Antiquorum Important Collectors' Wristwatches, Pocket Watches and Clocks in Geneva. The full catalog here-->Link

Estimate: 3,600 USD - 5,400 USD (2,500 EUR - 3,700 EUR)
Auction-->Link

Previously auctioned 1960 Patek "Pendulette" Solar Clock
(or the "R2D2" as I like to call it)
Sold for approx $7000 in 2007->Link


From the Timezone history of the Patek light-powered clock-->Link

"By contemporary standards, the Patek light-wound clock is a technological anomaly and peculiarly primitive. It combines what were, in 1950, state-of-the-art electronics (including very expensive photoelectric cells) with a traditional Patek mechanical hand-wound movement.

To place the light-wound clock in historical perspective, 1950 was also the year that Patek introduced the Gyromax balance wheel, which at the time seemed an important development for the future of the wristwatch. It would be only two years later that Patek would introduce a "fully electronic clock, i.e. without moving parts," and still another year--1953--before Patek introduced its first automatic wristwatch. Just a year after the automatic Patek introduced the first "nuclear-powered" timepiece, "deriving its energy from a radio-active isotope." And finally, in 1958, Patek produced its first quartz-controlled clock. This is an interesting history for a company that is, today, so strongly associated with conservative and traditional mechanical wristwatches."

And now for something completely different...

Angela Yuan, a young NYC mechanical engineer has built a fun little clock from an Etch A Sketch toy. Each minute that passes, the machine tilts the toy, shakes it clean, and mechanically draws the correct time.


Video-->Link



| Watchismo Blog | Watchismo Shop | Contact Us | Subscribe |

Subscribe to The Watchismo Times
Enter your email

Delivered by FeedBurner

When you buy a man's watch, buy a MAN's Watch. 1960s Macho Watch Ads

When you buy a man's watch, buy a MAN's Watch.  1960s Macho Watch AdsAbove, a 1969 Rado Diastar advertisement appealing to men with abnormally large & hairy arms. Below, a 1960s Hamilton Thin-o-matic ad for the punctually homicidal end of the market.

When you buy a man's watch, buy a MAN's Watch.  1960s Macho Watch Ads
Have an old magazine with some cool watch ads? Email them to me!

See also;
The Zodiac Killer's Zodiac Watch
1960 Live Television Timex Torture Test Failure
1970s Timex Commercial Collection
1960s Timex "Underwater Dating"
1978 Texas Instruments
1961 Bulova Accutron
Laser Beam Wristwatch
A New Age in Quartz
1940s Jam Handy for Hamilton
1970s Seiko Memory Bank
1940's Conquer by the Clock


| Watchismo Blog | Watchismo Shop | Contact Us | Subscribe |


Subscribe to The Watchismo Times
Enter your email

Delivered by FeedBurner

Shoot to Kilfitt - 1969 Prototype Camera-Watch Sells for $60,000!

Shoot to Kilfitt - 1969 Prototype Camera-Watch Sells for $60,000!Like a Russian Matrioshka doll, these obscure vintage and antique camera watches keep appearing and gratefully outdo themselves with each layer of the photohorological onion.

The first that caught my attention was the 1950s Steineck ABC wrist camera, which in turn, turned me onto the world of subminiature spy camera watches and the surprising discovery of this 100+ year old secret photographic history starting with this 19th century pocket watch camera.

And just when I thought I've seen them all, this
UKA 659 model by Kilfitt kills them all with a single 1969 prototype that never went into production and recently sold on eBay for nearly $60,000 (US). Update! It seems to have been relisted and is currently at $58,000 --> Auction Link

Shoot to Kilfitt - 1969 Prototype Camera-Watch Sells for $60,000!Kilfitt camera history-->Link

Shoot to Kilfitt - 1969 Prototype Camera-Watch Sells for $60,000!
See also;
Subminiature Camera Watches
Steinheil Camera Watch
Victorian Camera Pocket Watch
1950s Minifon Spy Recorder Watch
Victorian Wrist Horn & Prototype Wrist Camera
James Bond Movie Gadget Watches
Satellite Watches of 1979


via Gizmodo (thanks to Felipe!)


| Watchismo Blog | Watchismo Shop | Contact Us | Subscribe |


Subscribe to The Watchismo Times
Enter your email

Delivered by FeedBurner

Math Watches Part 2.1249 - Vintage 1960s Juvenia Protractor Watch

Math Watches Part 2.1249 - Vintage 1960s Juvenia Protractor WatchNot long ago I featured some of the coolest in vintage geek wristwear with my Math Watches post-->here. And thought I'd follow it up with a phenomenally rare opportunity to own this vintage 60's Juvenia. The hour hand is a miniature protractor, the minutes a golden arrow, and the seconds is a double edged blade-propeller. Stainless steel, manual winding, and completely overhauled. $2495

Available from Derek at Watchestobuy.com here-->Link (part of his personal collection for fifteen years and just now for sale)

Math Watches Part 2.1249 - Vintage 1960s Juvenia Protractor WatchSlim sideviews

See also;
Math Watches Part 1.4593
Discs Instead of Hands
History of LED Calculator Watches
All Mystery Dial Posts
Collection of Gadget Watch Posts



Check out my $100-$100,000 holiday gift guide!-->LINK


| Watchismo Blog | Watchismo Shop | Contact Us | Subscribe |


Subscribe to The Watchismo Times
Enter your email

Delivered by FeedBurner

Watchismo's Top Ten Vintage Plastic WatchesBLASTS FROM THE PAST - Strolling Down The Memory Lanes of the Watchismo Vintage Museum PagesVintage LIP Watches - Rare Private Collection Available After Decades in Storage!VINTAGE WATCHING - An Unusual Vintage Planetary Display Watch by JuveniaVintage Watching - A Bumper Crop of New Old WatchesClock Wise - Rare Vintage Patek Philippe Solar Clock & A Homemade Etch-A-Sketch ClockWhen you buy a man's watch, buy a MAN's Watch.  1960s Macho Watch AdsShoot to Kilfitt - 1969 Prototype Camera-Watch Sells for $60,000!Math Watches Part 2.1249 - Vintage 1960s Juvenia Protractor Watch

Report "Watchismo Times"

Are you sure you want to report this post for ?

Cancel
×