Today’s millennials may gravitate towards  “smart” watches that can do everything but make a cup of coffee, but many collectors are still interested in the character watches that had their heyday in the 1950s. With faces that used Disney characters, baseball stars, and movie heroes, these watches were all the rage among us Baby Boomers. Today children may be more apt to wear a watch with Captain America on the front than one.. Read More

Luminous watch hands have been in use since around 1910.  Originally the hands were treated with radium which is a radioactive substance that was painted on the hands. This material would glow an entire night, making this a real advantage in early watches.  Unfortunately this material was highly radioactive and was a major health issue for the workers that applied the paint at various watch companies. For more info, read.. Read More

Citizen Watch Company celebrates its 25th year as the Official Timekeeper of the US Open Tennis Championships. With courtside clocks and stadium scoreboards tracking time, Citizen plays an integral role at the US Open. Citizen is also the official sponsor of Arthur Ashe Kid’s Day on August 26, as well as the Exclusive Timekeeper and Official Sponsor of the US Open Series—including the BB&T Atlanta Open, the Bank of the.. Read More

As the summer is winding down and we just celebrated the Labor Day weekend. I thought I would like to give all of my customers one more reason NOT to wear their watch in the water.  I have had an  unusually high number of watches arrive at the shop this summer with water damage.  Most are simply rusted from fresh water, the worst that arrive have had an encounter with.. Read More

A watch that “hacks” or that has “hacking seconds” is one in which the seconds hand stops when the crown is pulled out. Hacking is achieved when pulling the crown out to the setting position causing a lever to come into contact with the balance wheel causing it to stop and to be held in position. Hacking allows the watch to be set to a reference signal, or synchronized with.. Read More

A watch winder is a device used to keep automatic watch running when not worn. Automatic watches operate on the principle of winding themselves using a moving weight inside the watch. The weight swings or rotates while the watch is worn and turns the winding mechanism inside the watch. So, fairly obviously, if the watch is not worn, then it no longer receives power this way and will run down… Read More

A skeleton watch is a mechanical watch, in which all of the moving parts are visible through either the front of the watch, the back of the watch or a small cut outlining the dial.   True ‘skeletonization’ also includes the trimming away of any non-essential metal on the bridge, plate, wheel train or any other mechanical part of the watch, leaving only a skeleton of the movement required for functionality. Often, the remaining thinned movement is decorated with.. Read More

Watches with a jump hour complication have an hour hand that does not sweep between the hours. Instead, it points exactly at the current hour and jumps to the next hour as the minute hand reaches 60 minutes. Theoretically this makes telling the time a bit easier, as the current hour is always being pointed at directly. Some watches with jump hour complications use discs with imprinted digits as opposed.. Read More

Just about everyone has a favorite pair of bluejeans.  What wardrobe would be complete without a great pair of jeans.  Most of us rarely notice that “extra pocket” on the right side of our jeans. Since it has always been there, we don’t give it a second thought. How many of us really know what it was designed for?? The fifth pocket was introduced in the 1800’s as a protective.. Read More

Like most any other metal material a watch can become magnetized when it comes into contact with certain levels of a magnetic field. Magnetic fields can be found in things like Smartphones, computers, tablets, monitors, speakers, kitchen appliances — they all produce magnetic fields and all have the potential to mess with your watch’s accuracy. Magnetic fields are one of the most common factors negatively affecting the accuracy of a mechanical watch. The.. Read More