38mm Calatrava (Squirrel Bait) Style Longines 23M Arrived

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I'm afraid I can't help but step in and continue the thread drift @Syrte

However if I'm not mistaken Le Corbusier did display at the 1925 exposition - his 'machine for living'

This is where the two styles do collide as they were both born of the 'new' streamlined Machine age - a response to the hand made arts and crafts movement and art nouveau organic style

On a random note, a good friend of mine is a modern architect...he trained at Renzo Piano's Workshop in Genoa for two years. What is more interesting is that his father trained under Le Corbusier in the 1960's and his grandfather was a peer and friend of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Talk about family of talent!

Love this thread drift!
 
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I'm afraid I can't help but step in and continue the thread drift @Syrte
@conpueblo is correct
The Bauhaus school - which was one of the main players in the the modernist movement - followed the tenet of 'form follows function' and 'less is more' and was intended to be bereft of all superfluous decoration.
Contrary to Art Deco which by its very name espouses decorative arts.

However if I'm not mistaken Le Corbusier did display at the 1925 exposition - his 'machine for living'

This is where the two styles do collide as they were both born of the 'new' streamlined Machine age - a response to the hand made arts and crafts movement and art nouveau organic style
Thanks, I just did some reading on Le Corbusier. Very interesting.
 
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Contrary to Art Deco which by its very name espouses decorative arts.

Hmmm.... I must admit this is a persuasive way of putting it. (the word "art decoratifs"!today at least in French has become generic and refers to a field without implying "ornament" any longer, but if it did in the 1925 exposition then you and @ConElPueblo must be right. I'll have to go back and read.....).
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Found this fantastic dossier on the so called "1925 Decorative arts exhibition", which is really called "Exposition internationale des arts decoratifs et industriels modernes", ie "International exhibition on modern decorative and industrial arts".
It's really cool to play with the map and the pictures in the various pavillions.
http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/fra...s-arts-decoratifs-et-industriels-modernes-de/

Le Corbusier did with Pierre Jeanneret the "Pavillion of the new spirit", a model dwelling done only industrially and with the systematic use of standard elements"
ruboff1559-resp1090.jpg


The Pavillon de Lyon also represented the modernist trend, as well apparently a good number of Mallet-Stevens works.

21 countries took part, mostly European, but Germany did not, for economic and political reasons.
Which explains why there was no Bauhaus.
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On a random note, a good friend of mine is a modern architect...he trained at Renzo Piano's Workshop in Genoa for two years. What is more interesting is that his father trained under Le Corbusier in the 1960's and his grandfather was a peer and friend of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Talk about family of talent!

Love this thread drift!

Architectural royalty !

FLW is the darling of the Americas (and beyond) and designed some wonderful buildings (Guggenheim, Falling Water) but was also a visionary - proposing a mile high tower back in '57

Corb was a genius and doesn't get the praise he deserves -outside of France - responsible for shaping our modern cities (for better or for worse) with his designs for high rise living.
Developed stylistically throughout his career from modernism to brutalism
Villa Savoye, the chapel at Ronchamp, l'habitation and of course a whole city at Chandigarh

Piano is an interesting character -partners with Richard Rogers on one of the seminal buildings of the late 20th century - the Pompidou centre - was also involved with the design of the Fiat Tipo
(I have have been the proud owner of two in the past 😀)

Gosh - it's been a long time since I thought about 'proper' architecture
(Apologies OP for the thread drift -but thankyou for indulging the trip down memory lane)
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So it arrived...with the minute hand having come loose, so that will need to be remedied, but other than that I am pretty happy.

Here are some pics...
 
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So it arrived...with the minute hand having come loose, so that will need to be remedied, but other than that I am pretty happy.

Here are some pics...

Nice. If you have issues with the movement, PM me. I have a spare American market "LXW" movement that I had planned on using for a custom watch until I couldn't find anybody to build me a case for it. The 23M is pretty nice, but thin and apparently less robust than the 23Z that was its successor (at least in the US).
 
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It looks really nice.

One more note on the stylistic discussion, since the OP didn't seem to mind.
There' s a nice "focus on art nouveau and art deco", again from the web site of the French National Museum of Decorative Arts:
http://www.lesartsdecoratifs.fr/fra...ollections/dossiers-thematiques/zoom-sur-301/
Pictures are nice even if you don't speak French.

Bauhaus and LeCorbusier are mentioned as part of the historic overview of the "Art deco period- 1910-1930", along side with the advent of radio broadcasts, air travel and other influential factors.
(At the risk of beating a dead horse, I think we'll have to agree to disagree on the nitty gritty of the terminology, even as we agree on the fundamentals).
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@argonbeam Thank you sir! Even though there is damage to the lever, it still runs well. You are too kind to offer.

@Syrte killer Longines! It is acrylic...no mineral here, although my Wittnauer has the original mineral glass for sure.

Now I just need to get the hand fixed and it will be good to go.
 
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my Wittnauer has the original mineral glass for sure.
Have we seen that Wittnauer? 😉 (sounds alluring)
 
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The same stylized Longines originally silver cased - according to rhe Longines archives - but well fitted in a ss case.



Another Bauhaus example

 
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Another Longines one in 35mm and ss case.
Prefer the subsecond closer to 6 even more compared to the OP watch.
Strange times when people pay much more for a Nomos than for the original design. But that is another story...

Really one of the purest watch designs, both case and dial IMHO
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I am still hunting those type of watch but just with a different case Shape... Love the edge coin... And Even more when there is a step... 😉
 
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All original, near perfect shape, 35mm.
Magnificent... Dibs if you're letting this one go please!
 
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Heard back from Longines...

The original serial number 6'401'458 identifies a wristwatch in stainless steel bearing the reference 4734. It is fitted with a Longines manually wound mechanical movement, caliber 23.M and was invoiced on 23 December 1942 to the company Ostersetzer, which was at that time our agent for Italy.

So cool that Longines does this free of charge.