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| Re: Goal ? [message #10171 is a reply to message #10170] |
Wed, 24 April 2019 03:00   |
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afire
Messages: 1344
Registered: May 2013
Location: Wisconsin
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Gruen Authority |
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Nope. No goal, just parameters. If I could think of a goal that would be realistic, I would set it. But with 1920s and early 1930s Gruens, just about every subset you could define is amply studded with models that range between virtually impossible to find and possibly nonexistent. Not that I can afford to spend with reckless abandon, but even if I could, the watches I'd really like to obtain just don't seem to exist. For two of my white whales, the 1918 18k green military square, and Strap 73, I've seen orphaned movements with the dials that tell the sad story of scrapped cases, and that may be all I ever see of either of those models. But even those are just a couple of watches I yearn for, not a cohesive vision (to borrow Barney's spot-on term). I would say that Gruen's product line was just too sprawling for even the most dedicated and well heeled completist to come even close to tackling. A lot of us here are familiar with Mark, the owner of vintagewatchforums.com. I think his goal was to obtain every non-round watch Hamilton made before whatever year Hamilton ceased to really be Hamilton. And he achieved it. That's an ambitious goal, to say the least, with any brand. But it would be impossible with Gruen. Maybe you could come up with something achievable in Gruen's later years. Like every 440 Curvex? That might be doable.
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| Re: Goal ? [message #10176 is a reply to message #10175] |
Wed, 24 April 2019 20:44 |
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timeliz
Messages: 602
Registered: May 2013
Location: Northern California
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Gruen Master |
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WOW! That's a beauty, Gary
"Some days are diamonds, some days are stones..." -John Denver
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| Re: Goal ? [message #10182 is a reply to message #10175] |
Fri, 26 April 2019 21:47 |
Gary
Messages: 2164
Registered: May 2013
Location: Seattle
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Gruen Authority
Cheerleader |
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afire wrote on Wed, 24 April 2019 17:33Gary, you might enjoy the Wikipedia page on John Harrison, the creator of the first successful marine chronometer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Harrison
John yes what a good read that is. I was a radar man aboard a Vietnam era class destroyer in San Diego in the big hair days. I didn't make much and could not afford an apartment. My home was aboard ship in and out to sea. Us radar guys also did chart navigation along with the quartermasters who also did navigation. This was a check against each other to give the captain a good sense of where we were in relation to PIM, point of intended movement on the chart and how far we were off track. We had an early version of GPS but it was always way off and could not be trusted for an accurate fixes. We mainly relied on precision time, latitude, radar and visual fixes with land and stars, also dead reckoning with a plotter tied into the ships gyrocompass. We still carried sextons to take star fixes at night.
Goes to show how Harrisons inventions were and are still used today. I'm almost certain ship still have clocks, quartz I presume and probably use it as a backup to GPS as GPS has gotten more accurate.
[Updated on: Fri, 26 April 2019 22:29] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Goal ? [message #10183 is a reply to message #10180] |
Fri, 26 April 2019 22:16 |
Gary
Messages: 2164
Registered: May 2013
Location: Seattle
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Gruen Authority
Cheerleader |
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timeliz wrote on Thu, 25 April 2019 23:15Gary,
You can take a peek down memory lane at this Hamilton 21 here :
https:// atgvintagewatches.com/military-watches-forum-nsn-6645-a/7372 -incoming-hamilton-model-21-ships-chronometer.html
Darn! Now I want one. 
Liz that clock is the same one we had on our ship, beautiful! I can still recall the quartermaster setting our Chelsea clocks to the time he obtained from the Hamilton chronometer using his Hamilton deck pocket watch to transfer the correct time to all the clocks throughout the ship.
We have a Navy doctor in our clock organization who served in Korea era that works and collects these Hamilton chronometers. He put one up for auction last year and it went for $1,000. Now I'm thinking that was a steal. I'm sure he will put another one up for auction this year, I ask him if he intends to.
There is a lot of information on the Waltham that I'm seeing now. These clocks were the first mounted chronometers purchased by the Naval Observatory. These were standard 8 day 7 jewel car clock movements but were made to the observatory's standards like having an upper diamond cap jewel, gold balance, double roller escapement and sapphire roller jewel.
Here another picture of the clock showing it's double box, also a 1917 ad from Life magazine I believe.
[Updated on: Fri, 26 April 2019 22:17] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Goal ? [message #10408 is a reply to message #10239] |
Tue, 04 June 2019 01:34 |
Timeticker
Messages: 568
Registered: June 2013
Location: Somewhere in the world
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Gruen Master |
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I need to send my Accutron off because although I can hear the fork hum, the hands will not advance. The one I have is a rare beauty, too!
People you thought were your best friends will stab you in the back to your face!
Love them anyway.
A "Paradoxical Commandment"
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