For this Friday’s Bring A Loupe, I specifically looked for vintage watches that we’ve never featured before. The result is an eclectic mix of under-the-radar vintage finds that deserve a closer look. We’ll start with an interesting variation on the Longines Railroad watch. You will find fewer chronographs than usual, but a great Gallet Yachting and a Wittnauer 242T both made the cut. And a very sharp Movado Curviplan reminds us of the great watches that the manufacture made in its past.
Omega Seamaster Memomatic Reference 166.072, With Double Alarm Function
The Vulcain Cricket and the Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox had paved the way, but the Memomatic introduced a much finer setting of the alarm, where both the hours and the minutes could be set separately. The Memomatic can’t hide its 1970s vibe, and it doesn’t try. At the time it was considered one of the greatest alarm watches, period. This is a big improvement from the previous systems, where the position of the alarm disc only allowed for an approximate setting of the alarm time. The Memomatic is also a fully automatic watch, so there is no need to worry whether the barrel for the alarm is properly wound up. One should not underestimate how revolutionary the patented caliber 980 was, and it promised to “uncomplicate your life in a way that no other wristwatch can,” as Omega’s ads of the time proudly boasted.
Longines Railroad Watch, With Crazy Hour Hand
The R.R. 280 on the dial of this watch refers to the railroad, and the number 280 to a Longines caliber praised for its reliable timekeeping. Prior to computerized timekeeping systems, it was indeed crucial that railroad conductors use highly accurate watches to avoid having two trains collide, a disaster that a faulty watch could easily generate. This vintage Longines is a great example of a watch approved for railroad use, exhibiting the required 24-hour dial and the correctly signed movement. This 35mm watch also comes with a most intriguing hour hand, with a double tip. This is a feature sometimes seen for Swiss railroad timepieces made for the Canadian Pacific Railway, where depending on the line, a train might cross from an area where Central time was in use, to one where Pacific time was used. In any case, this Longines looks killer, with a flawless dial and an interesting handset. And the movement, Longines caliber 280, looks beautifully clean.
The Curviplan is a very significant watch for Movado, which issued many patents for its design and movement. Launched in the early 1930s, the Curviplan was domed to follow the curvature of the wrist. However, its movement was built on a single layer, as opposed to the previous Polyplan watch, which had an angled caliber. The Great Depression soon challenged the sale of this striking watch, yet the Curviplan remained in production all the way through the 1940s. The watch here offers a striking case and interesting square indexes, plus the two red markers at 12 o’clock form a very interesting contrast to the rich black dial and the steel hands. As you can imagine, the small Curviplan won’t wear large, though it remains one of the dressy icons of the 1930s, alongside the Patek Calatrava.
