The Luxury Watch Blog

In memory of all the brave men and women who gave their lives to protect the country we cherish and love.!

First of all What are Automatic Watches?

They should be called Watches with an Automatic movement. Here is some historical information.

* Perrelet

The Swiss watchmaker Abraham-Louis Perrelet invented a self-winding mechanism in 1770 for pocket watches. It worked on the same principle as a modern pedometer, and was designed to wind as the owner walked, using an oscillating weight inside the large watch that moved up and down. The Geneva Society of Arts reported in 1776 that fifteen minutes of walking was necessary to wind the watch sufficiently for eight days, and the following year reported that it was selling well.

* Breguet

Perrelet sold some of his watches to a contemporary watch making luminary, Abraham-Louis Breguet who improved upon the mechanism in his own version of the design, calling his watches “perpetuelles” the French word for perpetual and possibly the source for Rolex’s name for its automatic movements, the “Perpetual”.

* Harwood

Self winding mechanisms were more successful in wristwatches because the rotor could operate every time that the owner moved his or her arm. However the first version did not appear until the 20th century. It was invented by a watch repairer from the Isle of Man named John Harwood in 1923, who took out a UK patent with his financial backer, Harry Cutts, on 7 July 1923, and a corresponding Swiss patent on 16 October 1923. The Harwood system used a pivoting weight which swung as the wearer moved, and which in turn wound the mainspring. The ratchet mechanism only wound the mainspring when moving in one direction. The weight didn’t rotate a full 360°; spring bumpers limited its swing to about 180°, to encourage a back and forth motion. This early type of self-winding mechanism is now referred to as a ‘bumper’.

When fully wound, the watch would run for 12 hours autonomously. It did not have a conventional stem winder, so the hands were moved manually by rotating a bezel around the face of the watch. The watches were first produced with the help of fine Swiss watch manufacturer Fortis and went on sale in 1928 and 30,000 were made until the Harwood Self-Winding Watch Company collapsed in 1931 as a result of the Great Depression. ‘Bumper’ watches were the first commercially successful automatic watches; they were made by several high grade watch manufacturers during the 1930s and 1940s.

* Rolex

The Rolex Watch Company improved Harwood’s design in 1930 and used it as the basis for the Rolex Oyster Perpetual, in which the centrally mounted semi-circular weight could rotate through a full 360° rather than the 300° of the ‘bumper’ winder. Rolex’s version also increased the amount of energy stored in the mainspring, allowing it to run autonomously for up to 35 hours.

* Omega

Most mechanical watches sold today are automatic. A notable exception is the Omega Speedmaster Professional “Moonwatch”, the model first used by NASA astronauts during the Apollo Program, and which remains standard issue on all manned space flights.

* Patek Philippe

Because a manually wound wristwatch does not require the weighted rotor which is necessary for an automatic watch, some extremely fine watch companies, such as Patek Philippe, continue to design manually wound watches, which can achieve a case thickness as low as 1.77 millimeters.

Tie’s look great! They compliment a persons attire greatly and what better way to make them sparkle with some 14k Tie Accessories

Enjoy

Movado Diamond Watches are unique items however they are always complemented by Men’s Accessories like Cufflinks Enjoy!

We are proud to Share with you two exciting coupons for GoldWatches.com

1. For 3% off all Geneve Italy Watches enter code: geneveitaly3 in Google Checkout

2. For 5% off all Movado Watches enter code: movado5 in Google Checkout

Be sure to checkout the Luxury Diamond Watches

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to announce that you can how track The Luxury Watch Blog on twitter. Please go to www.twitter.com/jewelerslounge and follow us.

We will be adding some new Features in the coming days to enhance user experience when looking up information on the Luxury Watch Blog

When Alfred Cartier, the son of a goldsmith, started managing the production of jewelry, his three sons, Pierre, Jacques and Louis Francois Cartier were the ones to help the family business expand. They eventually turned the Cartier brand into the most known name in the world of jewelry and watchmaking.

Louis Francois, who had the same name as his grandfather, joined the family business in 1899. His abilities as a businessman later helped in making Cartier a famous brand worldwide. The expansion continued with the opening of the Cartier London store in 1902 and the New York store in 1909.

In 1910 the Cartier family opened two new stores, in Moscow and the Persian Gulf. However, the success of the New York store helped Cartier to receive world recognition. Between the two World Wars, Cartier was able to open stores in Cannes and Monte Carlo. Later the expansion continued with the opening of new shops in Hong Kong, Munich and Geneva.

In 1912 Cartier introduced the Baignoire and Tortue, which are two models still in production today. 1917 saw the debut of the Tank.

It was also during this period that Cartier began adding its own reference numbers to the watches it sold, usually by stamping a four-digit code on the underside of a lug. In fact, many collectors refuse to accept a Cartier as an original unless these numbers are present.

Louis Cartier died in 1942. In 1945 his brother Pierre took over the family business and became the president of Cartier International. Later Cartier International turned into a huge multinational organization. In 1972 its president, Robert Hocq, took over the branches of Cartier in London and New York, and re-established the prestige of Cartier. Today Cartier watches have the movements of such famous Swiss watchmaking companies as: Vacheron Constantin, Audemars Piguet, Movado and Le Coultre.

However Cartier also makes Gold Cufflinks

Back with another Luxury cufflink post! They are our Luxury Watches best and dearest neighbor so why not here in our Luxury Watch Blog also! A new cufflink design we will be looking at today is Mesh Cufflinks Classy and intriguing. Here have a look!

Amongst the technical masterpieces of 21st century jewelery are Knot Cufflinks . An Engineering masterpiece Just look!