Watch story thread

I really enjoyed the Accutron per day thread by @Canuck It was fun to get up each morning to see what came next. Part of what made it so fun was that each watch had a story, and he is a good story. So let's keep this going. If you have a watch that has an interesting story, please share.

I'll start off with my oldest watch, an old Hapden-Dueber pocket watch that has long story. My great grandfather went to work for a small town jewelry store while he was in highschool just after the turn of the century. His main job was cutting wood and keeping the stove going to heat the place. This watch was likely originally purchased from that store by a man who worked for the railroad. It's serial number dates it to 1908.

My great-grandfather eventually bought the jewelry store and later passed it on to my grandparents. My Dad worked in the store growing up and always admired a certain pocket watch that an old railroad man used to bring in for service. When the railroad man retired, he gave the watch to my dad.

Growing up I admired my dad's pocket watch. He never wore it, but it was always on his dresser. As a teenager I went through a phase of wearing pocket watches and that was my introduction to mechanical watches. Last year my dad passed away and I inherited this pocket watch.

My goal is for others to contribute. My list of watches with interesting stories is short, but I'll post the next soon.

My next watch is very inexpensive. You can buy one new for $60, but it has long and unique story. When I first heard about these watches I knew I had to have one. The Vostok Amphibia was designed in 1967 by Mikhail Novikov and Vera Belov for the Chistopol watch factory in the Soviet Union. There was a need for a watch that could perform at depths equivalent to the far too expensive Swiss dive watches of the time. These Soviet engineers developed several innovations to accomplish a high depth rating at low cost. The watch is designed to compress under pressure rather than resist the pressure. The caseback is sealed with a thick rubber gasket that compresses as back pushes in under pressure, similarly the plastic crystal is designed to flex and form a tighter seal. The watch has a two piece stem which provides additional robustness, and also gives the Amphibia its unique wobbly crown.

These clever ways of accomplishing design features for a lower cost are representative of Soviet / Russian ingenuity. I am not arguing for the Soviet system, or honoring the USSR, but rather honoring some of the brilliant people of the USSR / Russia. When I was in college in the mid 90s, people were competing to compute the most number of digits of Pi. In those days there were two groups competing and exchanging records. One group of Japanese Yasumasa Kanada and Yoshiaki Tamura using a Hitachi Supercomputer and two brothers Gregory V. Chudnovsky & David V. Chudnovsky who had come from the Soviet Union and computed the digits of using a homemade computer in their New York apartment. When I think about the Amphibia, I think about the Chudnovsky brothers, and all the kind and brilliant Soviet born mathematicians I knew in graduate school.

Lastly, there is an unexpected connection between this watch and the first watch I posted. Vostok was formed during WWII when manufacturing of watches was moved from the First Moscow Watch Factory to Chistopol because of the advancing Nazi army. The First State Watch Factory was formed in 1930 under the orders of Joesph Stalin. The Soviets purchased the Ansonia Clock Company of Brooklyn, New York, and the Dueber-Hampden Watch Company of Canton, Ohio.

There are several versions of this watch with countless dials. Most are quite kitschy. Bill Murray's character in the move The Life Aquatic wore one. I chose one of the classier versions.



Some references:

https://forums.watchuseek.com/f54/vostok-amphibia-analysis-design-methodology-491757.html
https://vostokamphibia.com/amphibia-watch-history/
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/24/...ng-mathematics-faculty-is-a-quantum-leap.html

Great watch, with a great story. I imagine that there are not many watches that old with such a well-documented history.

I love it, a spectacular watch with a great bit of family history. I am glad you have taken the reins with this thread, as my watches with stories are limited. I agree, the most watches have stories. I hope others will join in too.

A fairly short story here, but my most treasured watch. You all are familiar with the model. It was given to my Dad for his college graduation in 1971, by my grandfather. The caseback is engraved (almost certainly) by my grandfather's own hand. At some point it must have had significant dial damage, and was redialed. I still have the original repainted dial. I don't ever remember my dad wearing it, but it was on his dresser. He always told me it was the type of watch they wore on the moon, and that it represents the pinnacle of mechanical watches. The second point is debatable for but it is and always will be my favorite watch. This is the watch that brought me to Omega Forums.

Here is the watch with the redail:



Here is how it looks today:

All vintage watches have a story, but sadly most of those stories are forgotten. However, I know there are more good stories out there on this forum.

I know @Mad Dog has got some great stories, although they usually come in cartoon form.

No, no I love your stories. Keep them coming.

Lovely to story and watch. Europe is so foreign to me literally and figuratively. We have no trains were I live, and the nearest town over 50,000 is a 3-4hr drive, it takes 5.5-6 hours to get to a city. The idea of taking a day trip via train to another country to buy a vintage watch sounds so romantic.