Art deco- watches and beyond

ClarendonVintage · Aug 22, 2018

noelekal
True that.

Great thread Syrte

A jillion people daily pass the old Texas & Pacific Railway terminal on the freeway in my home town of Fort Worth, Texas never recognizing the jewel that's "always" been there. My grandmother worked there when I was a little kid. It came perilously close to being demolished a few years ago, something that the city was once quite adept at doing.

Wonderful examples.

Here is one which I see everyday.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senate_House,_London

noelekal · Aug 22, 2018

I forgot that I do have an art deco watch on hand. Found it in some things when we packed up my parents to move them a couple years back. Belonged to a great aunt though it looks like a man's watch of the era to me. A Gothic Jar-Proof.

Has a nice-looking 17-jewel Swiss movement and is an early effort to provide shock resistance. Some online research claim Felsa provided movements. Considered having it fixed and a sympathetic cleaning, but the only watchmaker who has seen it says the watch is not worth it.

ScubaPro · Aug 22, 2018

Some brilliant stuff in this thread. Well done all!

merchandiser · Aug 23, 2018

My business is in this building in San Francisco built in 1937:

It was originally known as the Western Furniture Exchange and Merchandise Mart but is now the Twitter Building. Note the beautiful street car too!

SaltWaterNTarmac · Aug 23, 2018

Another SF resident here. This is my favorite deco building in the city, 450 Sutter. Considering the entire city was rebuilt after 1906 we don't really have too many art deco buildings.

450_Sutter_St._San_Francisco_2-15-2010_3-49-47_PM.JPG

queriver · Aug 23, 2018

SaltWaterNTarmac
Another SF resident here. This is my favorite deco building in the city, 450 Sutter. Considering the entire city was rebuilt after 1906 we don't really have too many art deco buildings.

Beautiful entrance. You'd think US Post and the newspaper vendors would have been broadminded enough to shift their boxes a few meters to the left or right to avoid blocking sight lines to the entrance.
BTW: the art deco period was at its height in the 1920's and '30s.

JimInOz · Aug 23, 2018

Some excellent buildings to be seen in Napier, New Zealand.

After a huge earthquake in the 1930s, most of the city had to be re-built, and the contemporary style at the time was?
Yep.........art deco!

https://www.google.com.au/search?q=...woLdAhUBMN4KHUFVAoMQ_AUICigB&biw=1505&bih=792

queriver · Aug 23, 2018

Bedside light....

Professor · Aug 23, 2018

Would this qualify?

Syrte · Aug 23, 2018

And a watch with art deco dial.

JimInOz · Aug 23, 2018

Don't know if this qualifies, but it was described as "art deco" when I purchased it.

w154 · Aug 23, 2018

No idea if these qualify or not. Huber is a Munich jeweler that supplied to the German military, so when I spotted a black dialed Huber watch in a box of bits on eBay I had a go and won. It was too far gone to bother repairing, but in the box where three NOS ladies models. Probably from the forties or earlier.

And the Huber watch was only shown from the front in the listing, here it is from the front (cool dial) and from the back 😲🙁

I think if it at least had a caseback, then I might bother getting a working AS1130 and trying to fix it up.

Syrte · Aug 23, 2018

queriver
Bedside light....

Beautiful.....

@Professor, that’s a nice watch with some art deco feature (the stepped motifs on the edge of the case) - but it’s typical of the late 1940s and so IMHO no longer “pure” art deco if you ask me. However there’s a point where it becomes more instinct than science.... Those red indexes are incredible no matter the label 👍

JimInOz
Don't know if this qualifies, but it was described as "art deco" when I purchased it.

@JimInOz that is a beauty! The central motif with flattened stylized flowers is very typical art deco... (you can compare to the architecture pics with mosaics and wrought irons I posted...). The case doesn’t look very art deco from here but we don’t see much of it.... but perhaps in the back it does?

w154
No idea if these qualify or not.

And the Huber watch was only shown from the front in the listing, here it is from the front (cool dial) and from the back 😲🙁

I think if it at least had a caseback, then I might bother getting a working AS1130 and trying to fix it up.

Those little gems are perfect examples, and the first two on the left even epitomize the style! Sad to see the disaster at the back of the black watch, the dial is quite lovely.

divetime · Aug 23, 2018

thank you for this discussion - we see there are not many "real" art deco watches around
typical for this period was opaque enamel and sometimes eggshell...
like in this sample

divetime · Aug 23, 2018

divetime · Aug 23, 2018

Syrte · Aug 23, 2018

I would think most real “sector dial” watch or “step case” (with a strong “step”) from the 1930s-40s is art deco IMO so that’s still quite a few.... but for me the most beautiful that comes to mind is the one posted by @ConElPueblo in the following classic thread:
https://omegaforums.net/threads/two-stunning-arrivals-in-2018.69170/
Below are @ConElPueblo’s pictures of his stunning Tissot watch, followed by a couple of my own watches I consider art deco. (Credit Goldberger 1st edition for the black enameled Longines).
The last one is a Longines tre tacche which used to belong to a friend (credit Stiocour) who has now sold it to someone else.

Syrte · Aug 23, 2018

divetime
thank you for this discussion - we see there are not many "real" art deco watches around
typical for this period was opaque enamel and sometimes eggshell...
like in this sample

That is stunning. Yours?

noelekal · Aug 23, 2018

Oh yeah. Then there's this one.

allwoundup · Aug 23, 2018

Combining my love of Art Deco, classic cars and horology, some examples of Art Deco dashboards (incorporating clocks, where possible)....

Art deco- watches and beyond

ClarendonVintage

noelekal

ScubaPro

merchandiser

SaltWaterNTarmac

queriver

JimInOz

queriver

Professor

Syrte

JimInOz

w154

Syrte

divetime

divetime

divetime

Syrte

Syrte

noelekal

allwoundup

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