Watches have become an utility, sometimes a fashion statement. No longer truly essential - thanks to the ubiquity of cell phones, computers, public clocks - they are desired for more than just telling the current time.

Vintage watches fill part of that desire, but they are still intended to be worn at least on special occasions. Collectibles and antiques however, need not even tell the time to be highly valuable, both in money and artistic worth.

Some items called antiques may be as new as only a few decades old. A Hamilton Pulsar watch from the late 1960s could qualify. One of the first models to introduce a quartz timing mechanism, its crystal vibrated 32,768 times per second and an electronic circuit connected that to the display.

The display itself was a series of LEDs that showed the time in hours and minutes, with a smaller display for seconds, made visible by pressing a button. It had almost no moving parts and could keep time more accurately than anything outside a laboratory.

But many antique watches are much older.

A turn of the 20th-century Railroad Pocket Watch might fetch several thousand at auction. Intended to be carried in the vest pocket of a station master, conductor or other employee it was both elegant and accurate. Typically made with 14kt gold cases and intricate internal mechanisms they were the state of the art a hundred years ago.

With care, such a beauty might well be working a hundred years from now. The scroll work on the back and on the interior of the case is often a work of art all by itself. Baroque designs produced by some of the world’s finest artisans made these mundane, utilitarian objects into something more than just a timepiece.

In rare cases, a collector may happen on something still older and more rare. There are antique timepieces that are too small to be termed clocks, that date back to the 18th century. These delicate, amazingly small pieces (for the time) would be highly prized by anyone who could pay the price.

Whether a 1790 French horologer’s tool or an 1864 Civil War Pocket Watch, these antiques represent the zenith in watch collectibles. Just as stamp collectors may drool over the mere sight of an 1855 Tre Skilling Banco Yellow, an antique watch collector would be happy just to see one of these examples in person.

But collecting antique watches isn’t just for those with a million dollars to spend. Antiques are available at auctions for moderate prices for those who keep an eye out. Just as a stamp or coin collector can still find those rare items in the most unexpected places, the collector of the horologer’s art can still get lucky.

Estate sales, eBay or even your great grandfather’s garage might just be holding that golden oldie.

 

Watchmaking today has reached the pinnacle of efficiency. Even complex watches can be had for little money, and they tell time down to the microsecond. Atomic watches are unparalleled in accuracy, diving watches are completely waterproof down to fifty fathoms, and nearly all will never need anything beyond battery or strap replacement for a hundred years.

Yet, there is something that is often lacking in modern watches that can be found in abundance among vintage or antique timepieces - a sense of style.

A vintage watch is one that was manufactured prior to the revolution in timing and internal design that produced modern electronic types. With the coming of quartz controlled timing, watches became ultra-accurate and radically reduced in moving parts. But, while vintages watches are almost all mechanical and hence more prone to wear, breakage and inaccuracy, they have an unerring sense of fashion.

Vintage watches were individualistic, stylish and daring. They were made of gold with inlaid designs. Or, they altered the traditional circular or rectangular shape into triangles, hearts and a dozen others. Or, they had a style that was hard to define but easy to see.

The faces were not merely backgrounds for hands - they were works of art. Scroll work, thin lines and subtle shades, and a thousand different variations in weight, shape, color and material gave them a unique character.

Hamilton produced one of the most distinctive designs in the 1950s, that is still popular today. The Hamilton Ventura chronograph, circa 1957, might just be the most celebrated work of watchmaker’s art in history.

But Rolex was no slouch either. While the company is still producing outstanding watches, the 1938 Pink Gold Chronometer remains one of its finest, thanks to the model’s simple elegance. It has stiff competition from Girard-Perregaux, Longines and others who have been producing reliable, accurate watches that are also stellar fashion accessories since the 1920s.

Many of these superlative items of the horologer’s craft can be found with interesting additions, some of which have little to do with telling the current time. There are vintage watches that track the phases of the moon, tell the day or date (but in unique ways) or display miniature analog stop watches.

Some vintage watches are available at modest prices, others are valuable antiques. But whatever you pay, all will benefit from special consideration. Since they’re mechanical, they will usually require winding and occasional cleaning.

Vintage watches don’t have the advantages in every case of modern precise manufacturing and contemporary materials. Though given the limitations of technology 50 and more years ago, it’s amazing how carefully constructed they were. It may be necessary to replace a crystal with something contemporary. Stems are more easily broken and springs may not be as accurate as they once were.

However, if you wanted the most precise accuracy possible, it might be better to opt for an atomic watch. These technological marvels sync up with a signal from the US Naval Observatory or the National Institute of Standards in Colorado. Or, you could just look at your computer or cell phone.

But if you remember or can imagine a period when style was worth more than efficiency, you’ll want to investigate what’s offered among vintage watches. You might just recapture the spirit of bygone days, and find your contemporary life lifted to the zenith. After all, the best is always timeless.

Beginning in the 1850s as the Waterbury Clock Company, Timex has grown into the world’s largest supplier of watches on the planet. They introduced the first inexpensive mechanical pocket watch in the 1880s and it has been upward ever since. Growing out of Connecticut’s Naugatuck Valley, the 19th century’s ‘Switzerland of America’, it now has offices and manufacturing facilities around the globe.

Successful over a hundred years ago, the company’s fortune and fame really took off in the 1950’s with the introduction of the Timex. Wristwatches became popular after returning WWI veterans carried them back from the battles in Europe. But for many they were still something of a luxury item.

Timex changed all that.

Inexpensive, reliable, personal timepieces could now be had by just about anyone. And when we say ‘reliable’, we mean it. The company initiated a series of magazine and TV commercials to prove it. Timex watches were strapped onto motorboats propellers, plunged beneath icy waters and dropped from three-story buildings. Whether tumbling over the Grand Coulee Dam or worn by a cliff diver in Mexico, the Timex became the watch that ‘Takes a licking and keeps on ticking’.

But there was much more behind all this than clever marketing.

Timex was indeed an innovator not only in making watches cheap and available, but truly sturdy and full featured. Today’s Ironman is worn by more athletes than any other brand. It is used not only to tell the current time, but to time races, measure laps and more.

Even the case and band are designed with function in mind - intended to be worn not on the top of the wrist but on the side. That makes it easier to read while running, with additional help from large, slanted digital numbers.

The Expedition model is equally feature-packed. It provides the basic functions, yes. But it also has a compass in the form of a 4th hand. That compass is adjustable for your particular magnetic declination, making it ultra accurate. With the Timex proprietary Indiglo backlight, it’s even easy to read at night, so you need never get lost.

Many models offer temperature read-outs, chronographs, measurements of the tides and much more. For those who want not just to look at their watch, but to operate it, there’s plenty here to please. Water resistant to 10 atmospheres (100 meters), and offering a bidirectional bezel, it’s stylish, functional and sells for a modest price.

The company sold its 1 billionth watch a few years ago and shows no sign of slowing down - which is appropriate for a watch company. Timex Company, like its watches, takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

In these days of atomic-clock regulated radio watches, the ability to maintain accuracy to within three seconds per month may not seem very impressive. But in 1970, when the Hamilton Pulsar watch was first announced, it was an extraordinary step forward in horology.

The Pulsar was announced in May of 1970, and went on sale a year later at the then outrageous price of $1,500. It was an enormous amount of money for anything that wasn’t a fine piece of jewelry, such as a Cartier or Rolex. But the innovations in this watch were fully reflected in its high price.

Prior to the introduction of the Pulsar, watch accuracy had been increasing, particularly since the use of tuning forks had begun. Miniature tuning forks were continually stimulated by a current, causing them to vibrate rapidly. Early tuning forks were not crystal and vibrated at 360 Hertz (cycles per second), which was transferred to a mechanical mechanism.

But tuning forks, as great an advance as they were, had several drawbacks. They were sensitive to temperature and mechanical shock. The watch components were still essentially an electro-mechanical system, with all the physical and accuracy limitations inherent in them. Cool technology, but inherently imperfect.

Building on the success of its first purely electrical watch, the Ventura, Hamilton introduced a timepiece that was more computer than watch. Using a quartz timing mechanism controlled by a micro-computer, the Pulsar could be much more stable and accurate.

The piezo-electric effect causes the quartz crystal to twist in response to an applied voltage. Turn off the voltage and the crystal untwists. Repeat 32,768 times per second and you’ve got a very accurate, vibrating ‘tuning fork’. That vibration was then sensed and transmitted to a circuit that divided the oscillations to one pulse per second and controlled a timing section.

Coupling that quartz movement to a micro-computer, then to a series of LEDs enabled Hamilton to create the Pulsar. The result was the world’s first watch with almost no moving parts. No hands, no bezel, only a button to display the time.

Early models could only display the time by pressing a button, with a second one required to display seconds being counted off. The LEDs required too much power to display the time continuously.

Naturally, the limitation was touted as an advantage by marketing ads. It worked. Consumers took to the watch, particularly as prices came rapidly down. Later the LED styles were replaced by LCDs that required much less power and could show the time continuously.

The Pulsar technology started a timekeeping revolution in more than just wristwatches. It was used by NASA for rocket ships and thousands of other high-tech applications that required extreme accuracy.

Pulsars continue to capture the imagination of vintage watch collectors, technology aficionados and anyone else who admires innovation and elegant design. Hamilton rightly deserves the praise it received and continues to innovate in fine watches today.

Once upon a time the major goal for watchmakers was to make an accurate, reliable timepiece.

Years of careful thought and extreme care in manufacturing went into making a watch that would stand up to the rigors of everyday life. Sometimes more than that. Wristwatches first became popular among men during WWI when they had to withstand harsh conditions. True, there was sometimes attention paid to delicate scrollwork, fine gold or silver and other artistic elements. But the emphasis was on merely keeping time to within a few minutes per month.

With advances in technology came tuning forks and electric watches, followed by quartz movements, then atomic-clock regulated radio watches. Over the same time period even mechanical watches became sturdy and relatively immune within mechanical limitations from temperature, shock, water infiltration and other traditional problems.

Today, an electronic watch can be so accurate that one can debate what one means by ‘What is THE time?’ The vibrations in a cesium atom at the center of an atomic clock are so regular they simply define the standard of what IS the current time. The movement of the earth around the sun, and the stars movements through the sky are no longer considered the most accurate standards.

But watchmakers are nothing if not clever. Having solved one problem to even the most demanding person’s satisfaction, they’ve turned their attention to other things. Watches are no longer just timekeeping objects, they are master consoles of electronic wizardry.

Timex’s Ironman is used by athletes around the world to measure laps, time events and other functions. Including heart rate monitors, body temperature gauges and other devices it has every feature a sportsperson could want.

Miniature cell phones are embedded in some models, such as the m300 or the Wristomo. Weighing less than 3 ounces, it’s the ultimate for those who don’t like a mobile phone weighing down their pocket, purse or pants.

You need never get lost now that GPS technology can be had on a wristwatch. With a backlit display for easy reading at night or in the dark forest, your only concern now should be the bears or your water supply.

Sure, watches have had simple calculators for over 20 years now. But now you can get a complete PDA in a wristwatch. Some models even tout a miniature monitor with browser access, ala your cell phone. If you just have to have Yahoo! Finance at your fingertips with the flick of a wrist and the stab of a pen, you can now have it.

Are you a big talk radio fan? FM radio has been available on a wristwatch for years. But now you can get satellite radio and never be far away from your favorite program. Perhaps you prefer TV? That too has been incorporated in watches, though the small screen still has the same old limitations. But if you want to get stock quotes and video commentary from Bloomberg, it’s there at a price.

With the omni-presence of cell phones, wireless Internet and other means of telling the time, the death of the wristwatch has been predicted over and over. At best, it was thought, they would simply become pieces of jewelry - which in some cases is certainly true. But watchmakers have been among the most ingenious inventors for 700 years and their product is not likely to disappear quite so easily.

The future in wristwatches may still contain a few surprises in the years to come.