Are old watch hands always blued steel?

Heat-bluing was standard practice to protect carbon steel from rust in the nineteenth century. The process leaves a hard, dark blue oxide layer on the metal. Not all hands are steel, though. You often see gold or brass hands on fancy dress pieces, or radium-painted hands on military models.

How often should I wind it?

Most manual movements run for about thirty to forty hours. Winding it once a day at the same time keeps the tension even. Stop turning the crown as soon as you feel firm resistance. Forcing it past that point snaps the spring.

My grandfather left me this pocket watch that has a small lever under the front glass, what is it actually there for?

That small lever indicates a pin-set or nail-set mechanism. You press it down with your fingernail and hold it there while turning the winding crown to move the hands. Once the time is correct, you release the lever and the crown goes back to winding the mainspring. It was a transitional design between key-winding and modern stem-winding. These setup styles were largely phased out by the nineteen-twenties. They remain highly reliable mechanical solutions today.

The dial on the watch I am looking at has two different cities printed right below the main brand name, why would they put two places?

Twin city names almost always point to a retailer rather than the workshop that built the calibre. Large nineteenth-century jewellers often had a main shop in one city and a seasonal branch in another. They stamped their dials to advertise their reach. The actual movement inside might have been supplied by an anonymous workshop in the Jura mountains. Retailer stamps form part of the history. They tell you exactly where the piece first sold.

Home > Watches > Swiss Watches > Page 13

Antique Swiss Watches

← Page 13 of 17 →

Antique Swiss watches are precision mechanical timepieces, originally worn on chains or later strapped to the wrist, featuring intricate internal movements housed in metal cases designed to track the hours and minutes with steady accuracy.