I own a secondhand store in sunny California. I see a lot of interesting items, once in a while I get something unique or rare. I would consider this one a rare find. This is a Movado Chrono-Timer from the 1940's. Often referred to as a "Doctor's Watch", it can be identified by the single chronograph pusher. This function starts, stops and resets center hand to zero. The movement is Swiss made, Movado Caliber 478, manual wind chronograph movement . Normally I sell all my manual wind-up watches as they are not to my taste, however I like this one. Maybe, I will wear it for awhile to see if it grows on me.

 

it is a beauty! -- i like manual wind ups - running or not

 

To bad on the sloppy redial on an otherwise interesting vintage timepiece

 

Do you mean for this particular model? I find it easy to obtain excellent original dials on most Mido models...

 

Oops – I transposed. Yes, Movado dials were uneven in quality, though of course there were/are some nice ones.

 

To wit:

 

Yeah, yeah ... keep rubbing it in how nice your example is (and it is). I've found one or two, but they pale by comparison.

 

Sorry to have helped catalyze a thread-jack, and with a mistake, no less! But what the hell, here's a well-preserved and uncommon 24hr dial version…

 

Shameless!

 

Title should have read, "Likely Doctored Movado Watch"

 

That particular Movado caliber is very, very beautiful.

I think the only contemporary, equivalent simple chrono is the Longines 12.68z.

 

Love those Midos! For such as small watch, they have held their value very well.

 

I am Quartzophobe

 

I remember seeing a couple of watches being called Doctor's Watch... Does it apply to movado only or to a certain style (like the calatrava) ?

 

Yes, a bit like "calatrava".

Omega introduced their first centre seconds watch and called it "Medicus" as the large sweep second hand made it easy for a doctor to check a pulse rate in increments, e.g.: 15 secs, 30 secs.

So just as a lot of watches are called "military", very similar examples are "doctors" watches.

There are a number of chronographs (even Speedmasters) with scales graduated per pulsations, again either 15 seconds or 30 seconds. These in my opinion are true doctor's watches.

Some nice ones here.

http://www.behindthewatch.com/blog/the-doctorparamedics-watch

 

It's amazing how by simply changing/modifying the dial or the bezel a simple watch can become such a useful tool. No extra complications, sub-dials, nothing.

 

The only watches that I and I think most collectors consider "doctors" watches are either ones that were marketed or intended for the medical field (for example, certain references during the world wars), or watches with pulsometers.

 

Good value watches chronograph with a following