Watchismo Times

Just came across this strange vintage LIP "Memo" from 1970. At first glance, a typical looking vintage watch but look at the rotating bezel, it contains a variety of images intended to remind the wearer of something they need to remember. A phone, an envelope, a car, a heart, and a few others not shown.

A little bit more advanced than tying a string around your finger but not quite as modern as a Post-it note.



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From the 1933 issue of Popular Science;

LIGHT PRINTS TIME ON CLOUDS

Once engaged in the development of a death ray for possible military use, H. Grindell-Matthews, British inventor, has developed a new gun for projecting light rays. A motor carriage supports the cannon-like projector, which is designed to throw signs upon clouds miles away, and is an improved model of one he demonstrated in New York City not long ago. By inserting a special clock with a transparent face and opaque hands and figures in the projector, the correct time is also thrown on clouds.

Grindell Matthews was most infamously known for his incredible (so-called) inventions like an aeronautical wireless phone in 1911 and a airplane dropping death ray in 1924. He was a visionary as much as he was a charlatan. Actually, his first real invention was huge...The first talking film in 1921 (years before Hollywood). Sadly, the British film industry told him the "talkies" would never catch on. Karma is a bitch.

This Cloud Clock, looking more like an actual death ray machine, was part of his Sky Projector invention. Casting images of everything from angels and American flags in the sky, the potential for advertising never caught on for this project and his company went bankrupt soon after.

Learn much more about Grindell Matthews controversial inventions and history here-->Link

via Modern Mechanix and Fortean Times


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Recently finding evidence of this rare 1970s Jovial "Vision 2000" from a vintage advertisement, I still had little hope of ever finding photographic proof of it's existence. But thanks to my deep reaches into the crevices of obscure watch collections, a guy from Italy sent me these photos of his well-worn specimen. He described how he found it at an old watchmaker's shop near Venice almost 20 years ago, right before the store went out of business. How do you say "Please sell it to me!" in Italian?

From my original post-->Link



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The Accurate, Mantra, Decider, Right or Wrong, and More or Less are all the latest limited edition conceptual timepieces from Mr. Jones Watches.

Last time I featured Mr. Jones Watches-->Link, he had an exhibition-only series of prototype electronic watches developed to explore new cultural expressions, technologies of timekeeping and how they relate to contemporary life. "Each one was the embodiment of a social critique or observation." With a perfect sense of black humor, cultural irony and dry wit, London based Crispin Jones, the man behind the Mister, described his concepts as "work which lives in the intersection between Fine Art and Design - broadly this area is known as Critical Design - using the language and tools of design to articulate a critical perspective."

Now, his latest collection has taken this concept to public consumption. Featuring analog watches with rotating discs, each style of Mr. Jones Watches will be produced in a limited numbered series of 100. (£79.99 each - approx $159) Don't lose any more time, they're close to selling out! And just released this week, a series of Mr. Jones Watch videos by artist Steve Ounanian. Click play on any of the videos below.

Crispin mentioned, "For the Mr Jones Watches project I worked with two other designers (Ross Cooper and Graham Pullin) we took a fairly broad overview of what the watch means to people (as an object rather than as a time keeping tool). For part of the research we tried to look at interesting things which people did in the past, i'm always quite drawn to products which didn't quite succeed in the marketplace." He also let me know that my humble Watchismo websites have been "an invaluable resource for information like this."

The Mantra alternates a very positive statement (e.g. "you are amazing") with a very negative one (e.g. "nobody likes you"). The Mantra makes the arrogant person more humble and makes the humble more confident.



The Decider is a watch for indecisive people - when you need to make a decision you simply look at your watch to see whether it is displaying "YES" or "NO" (if you are inclined to cheat then you can pull out the winding crown which stops the mechanism giving you an answer with no ambiguity).

The watch can also answer a more complex question - when you receive it tell the watch what you want to know, then wait until the battery runs out - whatever the watch stops on YES or NO is your answer...




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"The story of the radium watch-dial painters is a classic case in the history of occupational disease. Attracted by easy work and high wages, these young women painted the luminous numbers on wristwatches that, designed for soldiers involved in the trench warfare of World War I, became a consumer fad in the 1920s. The women were taught to sharpen the tips of their paintbrushes between their lips and, as a result, they absorbed substantial quantities of radium. Their tragic illnesses and deaths led to crucial discoveries in radiobiology and contributed to the establishment of standards for the level of exposure to radiation in the workplace." -From The New England Journal of Medicine

I first learned about the Radium Girls when reading this AlanWatch article. He had conducted his own interesting X-Ray and Geiger Counter tests of antique watches with lingering radioactivity. And further explained "In the late 1920s, some dentists began to notice a high incidence of jawbone deterioration among young women, most of whom had worked at the dial company. Later, cancers of the head and neck, anemias, and other disorders were found, resulting in some early deaths." (and it has been said that 90% of these women died by 1931)

Alan's false-color optical density analysis shows that the crystal spotting is most intense at 10 and 4 o'clock, where the red color is indicated.

Radium Girls Wikipedia page-->Link
Damn Interesting article-->Link

And below, the book, "Radium Girls: Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935" by Claudia Clark;


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Well, maybe you won't know what time it is, but you'll be the coolest cat in that sweaty speakeasy! From an article in the September 1934 issue of Popular Science. Original text below...

"Purdue University physicists say the whole body may be kept cool during the hottest weather by a recently developed miniature refrigerator that straps to the wrist in the manner of a watch. The refrigerator is somewhat larger than a wrist watch and encloses a pellet of dry ice— solid carbon dioxide. As the dry ice evaporates, it forms an invisible gas. Escaping from the case, the gas has the same effect as cold water poured over the wrists. It lowers the temperature of the blood in the arteries and this cooled blood is carried to every part of the body. The metal case is insulated from the wrist by rubber, as the temperature of the dry ice is 109 degrees below zero and its contact with the skin would result in a severe burn. With proper insulation, however, there is no danger of this occurring. And thus the device can be worn in perfect safety."
Via Modern Mechanix

Related Posts;
Other vintage watch ads & videos


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Sometimes you can match your watch to suit your suit, tie in with your tie, or in this case, look cool with your tattoo.

Josh Rubin, founder of one of the best blogs in the world, Cool Hunting pairs his vintage Rolex Airking with customized aqua dial with his fresh sleeve of water themed tattoos. Realizing how fantastic they looked together, I immediately requested he share a photo after having dinner with the Cool Hunting crew - A great group of people I don't see often enough but always show me a good time. I was originally interviewed for their video series (which by the way inspired the creation of this blog!) and have been subsequently contributing watch stories to their site.

Josh also let me know that his other arm will soon have a theme of fire -- so I'm already thinking of some watches he should buy. Perhaps any from my recent Clockwork Orange photo-post would work...



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For the first of The Watchismo Times’ British epistles (by new TWT contributor Alex Doak), here’s a suitably charming tale of British eccentricity, demonstrating a stalwart sense of heritage combined with that slightly anorakish tenacity of ours…

The surreal photo above (via worldarchitecturenews) actually depicts a 92-year-old gentlman by the name of Roland Hoggard. Bolted to the side of his barn, on a smallholding in Nottinghamshire, is the original clockface from London’s St Pancras railway station.

The story goes that back in the Seventies, the faux-Gothic Victorian architectural masterpiece was falling into disrepair. British Rail, in all their wisdom, therefore decided to tart the place up, which – in the Seventies at least – meant replacing everything with concrete. So the priceless fixtures and fittings were sold off. An American collector quickly earmarked the historic 10-foot-wide platform clock for an astronomic £250,000.

When the day came to take the clock down, British Rail, in classic British Rail style, managed to drop it. Backed by steel and weighing about 2.5 tons, the clock landed none too gracefully.

Thankfully, Mr Hoggard – then a train guard on the London–Nottingham route, and something of an amateur horologist – was at the London end when it happened, and saved the pile of shattered slate and cast iron from the skip with a mere £25 and a wheelbarrow.

Over the next 18 months, he painstakingly restored the clock between his railway shifts, even creating new numerals using concrete and moulds and making 108 bolts from scratch – a achievement of which his is rightfully proud.

St Pancras station is now getting the facelift it deserves, as the new home for the London-to-Brussels Eurostar route, from this November. And beaming down onto the ultra-modernised platforms, shopping complex and Europe’s longest champagne bar, will be an exact replica of the original clock, built by none other than the recently revived London watch brand, Dent & Co. (dentwatches.com).

It’s unsure who originally built the clock hanging on Mr Hoggard’s barn, but Dent was an obvious candidate for the new one, as Edward J Dent himself built the mechanism for the St Pancras’ external four-faced clocktower (which bears more than a striking resemblance to Dent’s other magnum opus, Big Ben, or the Houses of Parliament’s Great Clock to be more precise (Big Ben being the bell inside).

Which isn’t to say Hoggard’s 18-month toil went unnoticed. Frank Spurrell of Dent takes up the story: “Mr Hoggard kindly donated an actual chunk of the original face, which we sent to Loughborough University for petrochemical testing, to ascertain the slate’s provenance. We could then pinpoint the exact source in Wales required for the 12 new hour markers.”

Here’s hoping they doesn’t suffer the same fate going back up as the old stuff did coming down...

*Alex Doak - Freelance watch geek, and recent graduate of London's vaunted QP magazine, where he enjoyed a 4-year schooling under the aegis of horolo-guru James Gurney.

Related stories;
Dent article in QP Magazine-->Link
Big Ben on your Wrist-->Link




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Rolling eye clocks - first patented in 1926 by the J. Oswald Company of Germany with early models carved of wood and cast from metal after World War II. (Time shown above is 2:46)

The dials are represented as the eyes separating the hours on the left and minutes to the right. This collection of cross-eyed genies, skulls, monkeys, gnomes, owls, and dogs (LOTS of dogs) are an interesting cast of antique novelty clocks.

Thanks to Mike from Florida for sending me the Patent information here-->Link

Price ranges are approximately $200-$800 depending on condition and rarity. The authentic models were generally built with 8 day movements. Many cheaper knock-offs have appeared during the sixties and seventies. Likely inspiring the art of kitschy 'Big Eyes' painter Margaret & Walter Keane.

From an exhibit in 2005;

"The exact origin and age of these clocks is not easy to determine. We know that they came from Germany, but very few details are available in writing, due to the destruction of records during WWII. For this reason we have to rely on bits and pieces of information gleaned from many sources to come up with some sort of history of these novelty items.Most were made by the Oswald company in the Freiburg area which is in the Black Forest area of Germany. We say most, because we have three rolling eye clocks that we cannot, with certainty, attribute to Oswald. However, a personal friend has a wooden rolling eye clock marked "U.S. Patent 1926 Made in Germany." So, if patents were effective in those days, it is reasonable to assumme that Oswald may have made our "unmarked" ones as well."

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