Anyone here an expert on obscure antique Swiss watch brands?

One of my friends Grand Fathers had a Nazi Sword and a Japanese Army Sword (very similar to samurai) that he "found" in battle.

One day I took the trash out to my apartment dumpster and there was a Nazi Book in there.

I was suprised people still hung onto that stuff.

 

I know you think they would have learned as all those old baseball cards, and comic books that they threw away aren't worth squat now........oh wait...

 

That reminded me of this story:
http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html

 

You need to get more specific - this is a BBS only for German military Watches.

http://germanwatch.proboards43.com/index.cgi?board=general

There is a site called german military watch.com Scroll to the bottom and hit gallery.

Here's where I got the list of manufacturers. The guy apparently only collects army service watches. Viewing the similarities and differences will give you a pretty clear idea that that what it's supposed to be. Check out the "Lavina caliber" Minerva, and compare the clockwork mechanisms on the others. You can also get a good feel for the fact that there are basic variations in style, but there are definately specific traits which your watch has. I found it interesting to observe that the seconds chronograph sometimes completely obscures the 6, but othertimes, like yours, the partial fragment remains.

This guy has his own site on german military watches. Unfortunately about 75% is only in German.

He does have a good description of the general background -

He mentions navy watches, but all of these I've seen have white faces and the addition of "KM" for kriegsmarine above the makers name. Luftwaffe watches generally don't seem to have the second hand.

 

Very interesting topic. I know nothing about watches (in fact I don't even wear one) but I love learning about random things like this.

 

Deutsch sind für ihre Uhren, nicht wahr nicht bekannt?

 

anyone have any info on Krieger watches? my dad gave me a Krieger lunar chronograph that i like a lot (it's unique), and have found some info about the company but not much on my particular watch.

 

I think that they mean that it wasn't an actual watch for soldiers, because it doesn't have the serial # etc, but I wouldn't let that bother you becuase the company did make wartime army watches, and so is probably pretty much to the same specs.

Apparently a Glashütte is a really nice watch, like a Cartier, or a Girard Perregau. I did a quick shopping trip online and found that new ones range €2000 to €15,000 in one extreme case!

I actually had them on my culprit list for a period, but even when they were making pocket watches, they were using the cursive script style that you can see on their homepage on the face of their watches. I couldn't find a picture of an antique Glashütte, in fact, that didn't have the logo below on them:

 

Wartime manufacturing, BTW can get a bit goofy. I dont know if anybody knows or cares, but IBM, the Rock-Ola Jukebox company, and the Smith-Corona typwriter company all made M1 Garand rifles for the US government based on the Springfield Armory specifications.

 

More history on the relationship between Glashütte & Tutima. I was unaware that Glashütte is the name of a town just south of Dresden, so the current Glashütte brand may not really be related?

 

http://hometown.aol.com/_ht_a/mingthein/blog/HorologicalDictionary1.3.htm

 

Sorry to keep posting but I'm really geeking-out on this subject at the moment. I think I'm going to have to start buying watches whether I want too or not

from Tutima

So like the moron I am who didn't know that Dresden was about as east as East Germany could've gotten, I didn't realize that the current Glashütte brand is UROFA/UFAG which was rebranded under Russian control and Tutima an attempt to recreate the original company's conditions. The brandname Glashütte only returned after reunification.

In this way, the story of Glashütte/UROFA/UFAG is like Fender getting bought by CBS, and Leo Fender splitting off to make G & L Guitars. I would imagine that the East German UROFA/UFAG basically went to crap like Fender under CBS. It appears, however, that they are making a comeback as Fender did in the post CBS years.

 

Sampmar Swiss watch.

Hi guys, I see some of you know a bit about watches.
Any information on Sampmar - Swiss watch?

It is very old and no trace on Google.
Any help please.

Thanks in advance.