Vintage automatic and mechanical watches are both traditional mechanical watches that rely on mechanical parts to measure time. This is in contrast to modern quartz watches which use electronic components. Both mechanical and automatic watches use a complex series of gears, springs, and other mechanisms to maintain time. Strictly speaking, both movements are ‘mechanical’, the…Read more
Category: Manual wind
Browse our articles on vintage manual wind watches. Before automatic movements became widespread, manual winding was the standard way to power a mechanical watch.
Tissot Visodate Seastar Seven, 1960s.
This is a recent addition to the Set Back in Time collection, a Tissot Visodate Seastar Seven wristwatch dating from the 1960s. The watch has a hand-winding movement which is working well. It is a Tissot calibre 782-1 with 17 jewels with a date function. The watch is a reliable and accurate timekeeper. Tissot Tissot…Read more
The importance of originality in the vintage watch market
The dream of every vintage watch collector is to come across a watch in pristine condition, as if it has never been worn or left its box. It is possible with New Old Stock (NOS), which refers to a vintage watch that was never sold to a customer and is still in its original packaging….Read more
The Dirty Dozen watches
The story of the Dirty Dozen watches began in 1943 when the British War Department realised the necessity of having a general service wristwatch built to high standards. They commissioned a watch for its forces. The aim was to find a replacement for the old A.T.P. (Army Trade Pattern) watches that had been in service…Read more
1970s Certina Bristol 235 wrist watch
This vintage Certina watch is stunning. It is branded, Certina Bristol 235, and has a good quality 17-jewel hand-winding movement, calibre 25-66, which is working nicely and keeping good time. The clean movement bears the Certina name in full. Certina Adolf and Alfred Kurth founded Certina in 1888 in Grenchen, Switzerland. The Swiss watchmaker has…Read more
Gents Smiths De Luxe watch, box & papers, 1958.
This vintage Smiths De Luxe watch, dating from 1958, has a black dial and comes with its original box and guarantee. It is in great condition for its age and is keeping time well. It is very unusual to find a vintage watch of this age with its original box and papers. They are simply…Read more