Watchismo Times

Be sure to come check out our new blog at The Minutes where you'll find features like the following and much more!

DOES YOUR WATCH HAVE BALLS?

the coolest wood watches EVER MADE

PUTTING SOME STEAM BACK INTO STEAMPUNK

ANDREW GRIMA'S UNUSUAL OMEGA & LED WATCHES 1969-76

ARE WATCHES ART?

THANK GOD IT'S SEVENFRIDAY

WHAT DOES TIME IN THE 4TH DIMENSION LOOK LIKE?

Always the sucker for cloaked clocks & watches, I recently discovered the genre of antique walking stick timepieces and couldn't resist sharing...

Above, a 1900 lion cane with sliding panels for hidden watch, keyless winding by the revolving bezel.

1890 walking stick with silver cane handle and patented keyless concealed watch by Albert Bertholet and Louis Burry-Haldi, Bienne.

1815 Snake Stick by Ch(ris)t Moricant à Genève. Concealed watch and tobacco compartment.

All via Antiquorum

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Japanese design company Vinta has created a wooden table clock that measures the time by rotating on its perfectly round bottom, tilting to one of two models that rotate once every hour or every minute.

Their description;
"We wanted to express the idea of "feeling the time", not "measuring the time". It can be shown from revolving slowly on its own axis once every hour with an ambiguous change in its inclination. And we used the preciseness of a Japanese craftman technique to make this delicate shape to revolve smoothly."

Product Link
Video Link

via Make




The website Instructables offers this step by step guide to making a cool kinetic op-art wall clock-->Link




Source via Make

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Ok, 40,000 unique visitors to The Watchismo Times in two days caught my attention - Due in part to the all-wood pocket watch story picked up by Digg and BoingBoing. Well, if you really want to know more, I got the lowdown on who made these amazing handbuilt & handcarved mechanical watches made entirely of wood, ivory or bone (except for mainspring, balance spring and pivots). A horological dynasty is responsible, the Bronnikov family from Vjatka, Russia. The earliest model appearing in 1837 and rumored to have been purchased by the future Czar, Alexander II. A tradition carried out through the 1800s into the early 20th century by Semyon's sons Mikhail and Nicolai - Producing only one watch per month with approximately 500 ever made, and of those only about 250 have survived today. More about the history below the photos...

Pictured above, the 1865 'Bone Watch'. Double-body, hinged back cover, polished, bezels with turned ribs at the edges, a small circle in the center. Chain: single and double links, carved from bone, 8 mm ring-links. D. Bone with Arabic numerals on circular cartouches, subsidiary seconds. Bone hands. Made entirely made of bone with pinned bone bridges, excluding the main-spring, balance-spring and pivots, with going barrel, cylinder escapement with bone staff, plain bone three-arm balance, bone index regulator. Back cover signed in Cyrillic. Diam. 50 mm. Selling at auction in 2005 for over $25,000 USD. Close-up photo-->Link



Bronnikov's inventive design features a movement which is an integral part of the case, the dial which serves as the pillar plate and the bridges and cock supported by brackets milled in the back part of the band. The same idea was later employed by the celebrated Albert Potter. Bronnikov, A family living in Vjatka, Russia, which specialized in the making of all-wood, and all-ivory watches. The first recorded member of the family was Ivan Bronnikov (c. 1770 - 1860), a skillful joiner and turner. Upon the occasion of an exhibition in 1837, the Vjatka Industrial Town Council asked Ivan to exhibit some objects of his making. He refused, saying he was too old, but that his son, Semyon Ivanovitch (1800 - 1875) would contribute "some small thing". This turned out to be a pocket watch entirely carved out of wood which greatly impressed everyone. It is said that the future Czar Alexander II, then visiting Vjatka, purchased the watch. Encouraged by this success, Semyon continued the manufacture of wood and ivory watches. Semyon had seven sons. Of them, Mikhail Semyonovitch and Nicolai Semyonovitch continued his work, as did Mikhail's son Nicolai Mikhailovitch, who was the last watchmaker in the family.

Vjatka is an important metallurgical center, which suggests that it was not for the lack of metal in the area that the Bronnikovs made wooden watches. Indeed, it would appear that their predilection for wood and ivory and bone was the result of a specific and deliberate choice. As opposed to metal, wood is not subject to the thermal variations created by very warm and extremely cold temperatures. All-wood watches were more expensive than god ones, selling for approximately 120 rubles whereas a gold watch cost from 90 to 100 rubles. The clockwork parts were made of various woods, including walnut, honeysuckle, boxwood, and hardened bamboo ; the cases from birchwood, or boxwood, and the dials were often decorated with ivory or mother-of-pearl. Bronnikov watches feature an unusual type of construction: rather than having the wheels installed between two plates as is usually the case, the dial also serves as the pillar plate, as well as being an integral part of the case. These watches were not intended for everyday use but rather as expensive and rare souvenirs. This was not the first use of wood as applied to watch mechanisms, however: the Russian mechanician Kulibin used wood for some parts of his clocks and "pendulum watches". Skorodumov, a peasant of the Burga village in the Novgorod region, also used wood as the main material for his watches.

As to the number of Bronnikov watches produced, it seems likely that the three watchmaking generations of the Bronnikov family may have made some 500 watches; the production of a greater number would have required an existing watchmaking industry in the town, which seems not to have been the case. The number of surviving Bronnikov watches has been estimated at approximately 250. Although many - but not all - Bronnikov watches are signed, they do not always carry the initials of the maker, making it sometimes difficult to determine which Bronnikov made the watch. The signature is carved on the inside of the back cover.

History and photos by Antiquorum


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You're not gonna see me spotlight too much Bling here at The Watchismo Times...But this is a bit different. It's the Diamond Rotolog by Nixon. Their retro watch collection that borrows heavily from the 1970s Direct Read/Jump Hour style display (As I write about often here-->Link) and famously for their wood series which feature inlaid bamboo and teak.

Nixon has been featuring skull-print Rotologs exclusively at Barney's New York in recent months but now they stepped it up a carat. These are encrusted with 764 white diamonds and 1,087 black diamonds for the skull pattern, a stainless steel case, Japanese Quartz movement and LED lamp for lighting the spinning disc display.

LINK



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Take a break from the complicated world of mechanical innovation for a few seconds... The orgy of Tourbillons, Forged Carbon, and Silicium Components can fade for a moment while you appreciate this early 1900 Russian pocket watch entirely made of wood. The case, the hands, and the gears, all from a tree - a living material that also marks time with it's rings - natures own clock and a profound medium for a watch.


via Casalonga Odd Watches --> Link
(The site is sadly out of date but nevertheless features some fun nontraditional watch displays)

UPDATE! The history of the wood-watchmakers from Russia who also carved watchworks from bone-->Link


Other wood related features;
Hamilton Electric Wood Prototype --> Link
Swank Woody --> Link


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The first of a few features about transparent mystery dial timepieces, both wristwatch and clock oriented. I recently bought this oddball vintage Panasonic (model #RC-6500C) clock-radio on Ebay and was just blown away with it's design -- Appearing to be floating in space, the hour, minutes, seconds and alarm are split into four layered clear disks spinning in a porthole for both clock and radio. Each disk is a gear in itself with the contacts of the outer teeth & notches hidden by the case. The concept has also been miniaturized for some spectacular watches, stay tuned...

See my short video below showing off the clock's transparency. Once I find someone to repair the lamp feature, the displays will again glow blue for night viewing.






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Two modern LED block clocks. The Jonas Damon independent cube LED alarm clock. You can stack, align, or zig-zag them however you want.

The Kouji Iwasaki designed wood block clock. The LED digits shine through a thin veneer of wood bright enough to be seen. 


And if those aren't big enough for you, or you're legally blind, check out the 12 foot long self-setting GPS LED wall clock built by Spark Fun Electronics