H-SPOT - American Watches

American Watches

A-Z A complete listing of all watches shown in alphabetical order.

Mechanical Watches powered by a traditional, mechanical movement.

Quartz Watches with battery-powered quartz movements.

Electric/Electronic Battery-powered watches with electro-mechanical, electric or electronic movements.

British Watches made in Great Britain.

Chinese Watches made in China.

Russian Watches made in the Soviet Union or modern-day Russia.

Japanese Watches made in Japan.

American Watches made in the USA or by/for American companies.

Military/Space Military and Space related watches including homage and commemorative pieces.

Pilot/Aviator Watches intended for pilots or with some aviation connection.

Sport/Diver Watches associated with a sport or a particular sporting event or personality.

Pocket Pocket watches.

Movements For those interested in what makes watches tick! A selection of watch movement pictures.

Links A selection of links to the interesting websites of other collectors.

Bulova:
The origins of Bulova can be traced back to 1875 when Joseph Bulova (a 23 year old immigrant from Bohemia) opened a small jewellery store on Maiden Lane in New York City, USA. By 1912, Bulova had begun manufacturing movement components in Switzerland. This watch was manufactured in 1950. Just two years later, Bulova would begin development of the Accutron (see below).

Bulova Accutron Astronaut:
Introduced in the early 60's, the Bulova Accutron was the world's first electronic wristwatch. Utilising the high frequency vibrations of a tiny "tuning fork" rather than the oscillations of a mechanical balance wheel to regulate timing, the Accutron achieved extraordinary levels of accuracy. Accutrons were worn on several of the early NASA space missions and were used in some of the onboard timing mechanisms. This watch is an Accutron Astronaut from 1966. The Astronaut was modelled by NASA Astronaut Scott Carpenter in Paris Match magazine and was featured in the film Seven Days in May worn by Kirk Douglas in the role of Colonel Martin "Jiggs" Casey. Accutron 214 Tuning Fork movement.

Elgin GS MkII:
GS MkII refers to a type of military watch issued to the British Army from around the mid-1930's until the early years of the Second World War. This example is circa 1941 and was imported from the American, Elgin Watch Company. It has a fancy, hinged case featuring a protective cover for the 7 jewel movement. This example also appears to have its original crystal which exhibits severe burns over the numerals from the Radium-based luminescent paint.

Gruen Veri-Thin:
Gruen was an American company founded by German watchmaker Dietrich Grün and his eldest son Frederick. Gruen arranged for movements to be manufactured in Switzerland which were then cased and timed in America. From it's style and the numerous watchmaker's marks inside the case, I would guess that this watch is from the early 1950's - a time when the Gruen Watch Co. was undergoing considerable hardships which would lead to the Gruen family selling their interests in the company (latterly known as Gruen Industries) and to its ultimate demise in 1958. The watch has a 17 jewel cal. 422 R SS movement.

Waltham:
Waltham was founded in Roxbury (USA) in 1850 by Aaron Dennisson, Edvard Howard and David Davis before settling in the Massachusetts town of Waltham in 1854. A century later, the company was relocated to Switzerland. This elegant watch is one of the earlier Walthams, manufactured in the USA. The serial number of the movement dates it to 1937.

Wittnauer:
Wittnauer was founded in America in 1880 by Albert Wittnauer and manufactured watches in Switzerland for the American market. In the 1930's the company struggled during the Depression so in 1936 it was sold to the Hella Deltah Company. The Wittnauer brand was revitalised and during the 1940's, following the outbreak of World War II, the company concentrated on manufacturing compasses, laboratory timers, aircraft clocks and watches for the American military. However, Wittnauer craftsmen worked overtime during this period to produce watches for the civilian market using movements imported from neutral Switzerland. I would think that this little 15 jewel example would have been one of them.

Yes Space:
Yes Watch is a Californian-based company that has used modern technology to develop a watch that tells time in a very traditional way. It has only one "Solar" hand that rotates about the dial once every 24 hours following the path of the sun. The background LCD display divides the dial into a light-coloured daytime area and dark-coloured night time area and incorporates a moon phase display and a standard digital read-out which can be switched off if you prefer. The watch is pre-programmed with data for 500 cities worldwide or can calculate the display based on Latitude and Longitude settings entered by the user. It has dual-time functionality, alarm and chronograph functions too! It's pictured here on an RLT Fleiger leather strap.

Avocet Vertech Alpine and Suunto X-Lander:
I decided to show these two together as they're less "watches" and more "wrist-top computers". As well as all the normal watch functions, these devices have altimeters, thermometers and barometers. The Suunto has a compass too. I use them whilst winter mountaineering and literally wouldn't know where I'd be without them!!