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F.Antl
·This is a 100% serious thread focusing on some essential parts of our watches which unfortunately often remain unmentioned and unnoticed. Ideally, it can help expanding our collective knowledge base.
So, dear nerds and fetishists obsessed with details among us vintage collectors:
Show us your vintage pin buckles - and ideally explain them a bit, too!
All types of pin buckles made from all sorts of materials are allowed here with the only requirement of meeting the following two criteria:
-) It must (at least presumably) be a vintage piece - so please no modern buckles and no replicas (which are unfortunately becoming increasingly common when it comes to buckles) - and
-) the depicted buckle shall bear a reference to the manufacturer or the watch brand it was used by (logo, embossing, unique shape etc.) - so please don’t post completely generic or sterile, run-of-the-mill buckles.
You might have already heard of the dedicated Omega buckle thread, so let’s skip these ones here and talk exclusively about all the other brands except for Omega.
In addition to pictures of the respective pin buckle, any further information and discussions providing insights on the manufacturer, material, dimensions and production or delivery periods are warmly welcome. Moreover, relevant illustrations from catalogues and other contemporary advertising material or external reference examples (with citation of the respective source, of course) are also helpful. But don't be shy: as a minimum, a nice picture without much text will do the trick.
I am starting it off with a few vintage Certina buckles from my own collection:
As far as I can tell, all these buckles are from watches originating from the late 1960s to 1970s, the one on the top right came mounted on an unused leather strap embossed with ‘DS’, as was originally available e.g. with the DS-2 models, while the one on the top left is from an unembossed Certina strap. On the front left you can see a buckle on a Certina Corfam strap (NOS), the corresponding watch model was available from 1971 onwards. This buckle has an inner width of 14mm, while the others all are 16mm wide. As with the gold-plated buckle, the surface structure on the part with the logo is grainy, in contrast to the grooved finish on the top right. But there also exist Certina buckles with a grainy surface structure (not just grooved ones) with an internal dimension of 16mm. Unsurprisingly, these look like this:
The bottom sides are all unspectacular, the buckle on the brown strap has no embossing at all apart from the Certina logo on its front side.
On the angled buckles there is a reference to the manufacturer embossed: the trademark 'UNROC' in the pointed oval stands for Cornu & Cie. SA from La Chaux-de-Fonds, a manufacturer of buckles and straps since the late 1910s (according to mikrolisk.de). This type of UNROC vintage buckle was available for numerous watch brands and we will hopefully see many more of them in this thread. Another embossing reads 'SWISS MADE MOD. DEP. INT.', whereby the abbreviation stands for 'modèle déposé international', i.e. internationally protected design. The 'STAINLESS STEEL' on the stainless steel versions is contrasted by 'PLAQUE G 10 MICRONS' on the gold-plated version. In addition to the catchy shape of the buckle itself, the pin is also very characteristic of this design.
Finally, here's another Certina buckle (not identical with any of mine), which I have already seen several times and primarily on Argonaut chronographs in supposedly unmolested condition. This one is characterised by its curvature and the shape of the pin (image from a sales ad posted on allegro.pl):
And now I’m inviting you to join in!
Kind regards,
F.Antl
So, dear nerds and fetishists obsessed with details among us vintage collectors:
Show us your vintage pin buckles - and ideally explain them a bit, too!
All types of pin buckles made from all sorts of materials are allowed here with the only requirement of meeting the following two criteria:
-) It must (at least presumably) be a vintage piece - so please no modern buckles and no replicas (which are unfortunately becoming increasingly common when it comes to buckles) - and
-) the depicted buckle shall bear a reference to the manufacturer or the watch brand it was used by (logo, embossing, unique shape etc.) - so please don’t post completely generic or sterile, run-of-the-mill buckles.
You might have already heard of the dedicated Omega buckle thread, so let’s skip these ones here and talk exclusively about all the other brands except for Omega.
In addition to pictures of the respective pin buckle, any further information and discussions providing insights on the manufacturer, material, dimensions and production or delivery periods are warmly welcome. Moreover, relevant illustrations from catalogues and other contemporary advertising material or external reference examples (with citation of the respective source, of course) are also helpful. But don't be shy: as a minimum, a nice picture without much text will do the trick.
I am starting it off with a few vintage Certina buckles from my own collection:
As far as I can tell, all these buckles are from watches originating from the late 1960s to 1970s, the one on the top right came mounted on an unused leather strap embossed with ‘DS’, as was originally available e.g. with the DS-2 models, while the one on the top left is from an unembossed Certina strap. On the front left you can see a buckle on a Certina Corfam strap (NOS), the corresponding watch model was available from 1971 onwards. This buckle has an inner width of 14mm, while the others all are 16mm wide. As with the gold-plated buckle, the surface structure on the part with the logo is grainy, in contrast to the grooved finish on the top right. But there also exist Certina buckles with a grainy surface structure (not just grooved ones) with an internal dimension of 16mm. Unsurprisingly, these look like this:
The bottom sides are all unspectacular, the buckle on the brown strap has no embossing at all apart from the Certina logo on its front side.
On the angled buckles there is a reference to the manufacturer embossed: the trademark 'UNROC' in the pointed oval stands for Cornu & Cie. SA from La Chaux-de-Fonds, a manufacturer of buckles and straps since the late 1910s (according to mikrolisk.de). This type of UNROC vintage buckle was available for numerous watch brands and we will hopefully see many more of them in this thread. Another embossing reads 'SWISS MADE MOD. DEP. INT.', whereby the abbreviation stands for 'modèle déposé international', i.e. internationally protected design. The 'STAINLESS STEEL' on the stainless steel versions is contrasted by 'PLAQUE G 10 MICRONS' on the gold-plated version. In addition to the catchy shape of the buckle itself, the pin is also very characteristic of this design.
Finally, here's another Certina buckle (not identical with any of mine), which I have already seen several times and primarily on Argonaut chronographs in supposedly unmolested condition. This one is characterised by its curvature and the shape of the pin (image from a sales ad posted on allegro.pl):
And now I’m inviting you to join in!
Kind regards,
F.Antl
