Two Places at Once: Hamilton's Original Dual Time Zone Watches

World time has gotten flatter, faster, and more visual -- compressed onto our flat screen TV's, through our 24/7 cable news access, and on some highly complicated wristwatch dials.

We now live in all 24 time zones colorfully, simultaneously and with wrist defining flair. That's what came to mind when I saw the Louis Vuitton advertisement for its Escale Time Zone Watch (Wall Street Journal, March 17, 2016).

Escale Time Zone Watch. http://us.louisvuitton.com/eng-us/products/escale-time-zone-010461.

But hold on.  This post's not about that watch but three of its 60 year old predecessors which were equally impressive in their own time, 1956. That was the year the Hamilton Watch Company introduced the Cross Country and Trans-Continental models for men; and the Starflite for women.

In that year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, there were 46,004 "Revenue Passenger Emplanements." In other words, that's the total number of either originating or connecting passengers boarding aircraft in the US. Hamilton had an existing and growing market beyond the railroads.

[Quick Time Zone Tutorial: Time zones worldwide are based on longitudinal/solar calculations. Each time zone represents 15 degrees of longitude, roughly the distance covered by the sun in one hour. US National Time Zones (Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific) were an outcome of the nation's need to standardize railroad passenger and freight transportation in the late 19th Century to avoid the possibility of collisions and synchronize destination departure and arrival schedules across cities and states.  It was not until March 1918 that Congress officially established the four-zone system by passing the Standard Time Zone Act.]

National advertising was all important for this Hamilton innovation. The company featured the Cross Country and the Trans-Continental models in Time Magazine's March 26, 1956 issue emphasizing how wearing time when traveling or even using the telephone can cross time zones, solidify communications, and presumably clench deals.
 

Visual excerpt from Time Magazine advertisement, March 26, 1956,No. 13, p. 49.

According to the ad's copy, the watch at  top is the Cross Country model. It has a 10K gold case, is shock-resident and comes with a strap. In 1956, it retailed for $69.50 ($611.35 in today's dollars*); and with an expansion band, $75 ($659.73 in today's dollars).

  

Example of the Cross Country Model. From the www.Farfo.com Vintage Watches Image Gallery. http://www.farfo.com/vintage-wristwatches/hamilton-cross-country-vintage-watch-multipe-time-zones-1950s/

 The ad goes on to describe how to interpret the dial settings to read one's time in place and the time in a desired second place:

 

The watch on the left in the advertisement is the self-winding Trans-Continental  which was also shock-resistant and waterproof. (The self-winding feature was a new Hamilton innovation in '56.) The 10K gold-filled case with strap retailed for $95 ($835.65 in today's dollars); and with an 14K gold case, $185 ($1,627.33) in today's dollars adjusted for inflation). Its dial face had a map of the United States with the time zones marked accordingly.

Example of the Transcontinental "B" Model. From the Jones and Horan AuctionTeam Image Gallery. Full description can be found at: http://jones-horan.hibid.com/lot/77441-65047-1966/hamilton-transcontinental-b--swiss-time-zone-watch/

The Ladies' Starflite model was similar to the Cross Country in its dial design and price range, $79.50 to $85 ($699.31 to $747.69 in today's adjusted dollars). 

Excerpt from Hamilton Watch Company Dealer's Catalog, p. 6 Starflite model.

Now It's 2016--Sixty Years On -- And the dual time zone watch construct still offers traveling practicality. 

In a recent email exchange that I had with Adam Harris who teaches the popular workshop Luxury or Lie? How to identify Genuine Watches for the NAWCC and has served as a guest wristwatch curator at the National Watch & Clock Museum in Columbia, Pennsylvania (2012-2015), Adam wrote:

I live in two time zones, either living in Spain, but communicating with the Museum here on the East coast, or staying here and communicating with Europe.

A GMT or dual time zone watch does that for me instantaneously!

On Saturday, I fly to Singapore, prior to landing I will set my watch to Singapore time, and the GMT hand to Eastern Time.

I will then, for the first day base my body clock on Eastern Time, helping me avoid jet lag.  
It works, I know, I have traveled most of my life.

* Adjusted dollars are derived from the online US Inflation Calculator.


 

Happenstance Blue: Anthony Eglin and Chopard's Precious Couture

Baselworld 2016 ended on Thursday, March 24th, the same day I finished Anthony Eglin's mystery, The Blue Rose (Minotaur Books, 2005).

In one of my previous posts, Botanical Companions: J.G. Ballard and Chaumet,  as is the case in this one, an author and a watchmaker, i.e. Eglin and  Chopard are connected by my old friend happenstance. The color blue is the bridge between the Eglin's novel and Chopard's Precious Couture wristwatch.
 

Chopard Precious Couture  Model 1044271004

 

Coincidentally, Isabelle Guignet wrote in her Swiss Watch Authority WorldTempus post  on March 24th,  "Blue is the colour — Cool blue is the hottest colour for this year’s Baselworld ... in every shade from cerulean to royal blue." 



So let's explore Eglin's haute horticulture work and Maison Chopard's haute joaillerie creation. In doing so literature can enliven horological artistry.

In the Blue Rose, the main character is the book's namesake, a blue rose bush.
Rosarians know that in nature, this is an unnatural bloom. Roses do not produce  delphinidin, the blue colored pigment needed to produce this wonder. Throughout garden history, such a colored rose is a beautiful genetic aberration  with discordant qualities of both attraction and lethality.

The presumptive owners of the mysterious hybrid are an English couple, Kate and Alex Sheppard who discover the flowering rarity when they purchase an English country home and its overgrown garden. The rose and rights to its hybridization will be worth millions to the international rose industry. In an effort to hide the rose's existence until it can be strategically marketed, Alex and Kate use the code name, "Sapphire" instead of referring to it by its color.  

Additional characters, like blooms and thorns, spring from the flower's find: a retired Edinburgh botanist, scheming buyers, lawyers, nursery owners, cryptographers, police inspectors, and murderers. All are critical to the narrative.
 
Chopard's Precious Couture wristwatch, making its debut at Baselworld 2016 reflects the Blue Rose in one very special, overwhelming way -- its pulsating sapphire adornment radiating in profusion from its central corolla.

In all its grandeur, the watch is 18 ct. white gold with 25 cts. of pear-shaped sapphires; 7.5 cts. of pastel blue sapphires, and marquise-cut sapphires and brilliant cut diamonds.  

It's akin to the distinctive singularity of Eglin's Blue Rose. A bracelet and time dial adorned by natural precious gemstones elements, conceived by designers and brought to market by the creativity of an entire atelier of fine craftsman,

It's a wondrous showstopper, at home in the international trade of  rarefied, luxury time. It can be owned but not ultimately possessed for posterity -- just as a blue rose would be.

Related posts:

Dials Too Can Get the Blues

 March 2016 Bench #3 -- Anthony Eglin




     

  

Two Years On and Timing Forward: My Latest Blogging Experiences

Every 5 or 6 months I write about my experiences of being a blogger during that time frame. I wrote my last update on November 1, 2015, Still Dialing Through at Twenty-two. Twenty-two months, not age or years that is.

Now Daylight Savings Time 2016 is here; Spring is a week away and it's again time for my short-term reflections/retrospection.  

My actual posting activity on this blog has slowed down.  I've only published 6  posts during the period under review. However, page views continue to be healthy and are close to 20,500. 


Lesson Learned #1: My greatest challenge has been finding time for blog  sustainability.

Chalk the time-sharing up to the holidays, tax preparation, providing technical guidance for my husband James Raciti's new blog, America's Revolutionary Voices;and helping him publicize his new book, Stephen Girard: America's Colonial Olympian 1750-1831 to libraries across the country.

Stephen Girard: America's Colonial Olympian published by Sunstone Press, Santa Fe NM, 2015, ISBN 1632930706

Not to mention going to a new dog park for daily-demanded outings by Gustav, our 180 pound, 8 year old Great Pyrenees Mountain Dog.

The family Gustav-Raciti

 
ADD to this my new blog, Strolling Among the Watches / Flanânt Parmi les Montres. This is a companion blog to Wrist Watch Redux. It describes "Short Walks on Historical, Corporate, Creative and Cultural Watchscape Paths." 

My New Blog: www.watchflaneuse.com

I've also spent more time reading the advice of  two exceptional blogging experts, Robin Houghton and Jane Friedman.  

Robin's written The Golden Rules of Blogging (& When to Break Them) and Blogging For Creatives. I've read both and highly recommend them.  I've also featured her in one of my posts on Watch Flaneuse, 

Jane Friedman offers advice online through her Weekly Blog Round-up and newsletter, Electric Speed delivered to my email. Check them out.

Lesson Learned #2:  Reading does contribute to sustainability. It's just that it doesn't necessarily show up in or as more post writing in the short term.

Lesson Learned #3: Sustainability can come from Unexpected Sources.

The quintessential blog sustainability observation that has gotten me through this period comes from Nora Ephron.  Ten years ago this month, she wrote in one of her blogs titled Hello. By the Way. Whatever.:

"One of the most delicious things about the profoundly parasitical world of blogs is that you don't have to have anything much to say. Or you just have to have a little tiny thing to say. You just might want to say hello. I'm here. And by the way. On the other hand. Nevertheless. Did you see this? Whatever. A blog is sort of like an exhale. What you hope is that whatever you're saying is true for about as long as you're saying it. Even if it's not much."

So in tribute to Nora.  I'm Here. And by the Way. I'm Still at It.  

Related blogging experience posts:

 Still Dialing Through at Twenty-two (November 2015)

 BeWatching Midnight: Taking Stock Twelve Months On (February 2015)

 Taking Stock at Six O’Clock: Beginning My Blogging Career (August 2014)

   
      








Exploring what Pinerest can offer to bloggers

Heated Controversy: Warming Bernard Berenson's Wristwatch

Two of my favorite things:  Deep-dive research and wristwatch vignettes -- those idiosyncratic incidents that put a wristwatch at the center of a memorable tale.

Here my focus is on Bernard Berenson (1865-1959) who is often acknowledged as the 20th Century's greatest art historian of the Italian Renaissance, his wrist and his wristwatch.

Bernard Berenson. Photo appearing in Italophile Book Reviews,  http://italophilebookreviews.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-florentinevenetian-painters-of.html.
Photographer and date of original unknown.

In Meryle Secrest's 1979 biography, Being Bernard Berenson, the author spends one page (384) retelling an amusingly controversial  incident.

Principally it  involves three of Berenson's intimates and an unnamed journalist.

Character No. 1 is Igor Markevitch, a Ukranian-born composer and conductor. He and his wife spent seven years living with Berenson, his wife Mary, and his secretary Nicky Mariano at a villino on the grounds of "i Tatti," Berenson's Tuscan estate outside of Florence, Italy;

Character No. 2 is Bertram M. Goldsmith, a Post-World War II American friend of Berenson  who served as Military Governor of Florence after the city's liberation in August 1944. He and his wife frequently visited Berenson.

Character(s) No. 3 is Berenson, or more specifically the man, his wrist and the watch that he wore.

This is how the story goes according to Secrest:

(Quoting Markevitch): "One day after the liberation of Florence a journalist came to interview me about Berenson. He was so persistent that I got bored and to amuse myself, I started inventing stories. I said that Berenson was just like the princess and the pea, who felt the lump through seventeen mattresses, and that he even had to have his watch warmed for him. After the journalist left I told Berenson about it and we had a good laugh."

(Quoting Goldsmith): "It's true! [the watch-warming story]. I saw it with my own eyes!" He goes on to say that on one of his postwar visits at i Tatti, he and his wife were having aperitifs with Berenson and Nicky when  "all of a sudden a butler arrived carrying a red velvet cushion. On the cushion was a white towel and on the towel a was a warmed watch. We asked about it and Nicky Mariano explained, 'We never let him put his watch on, because of the shock of the cold against his arm.'"

Prior to Secrest's publishing the story in 1979, the warmed watch tale circulated in the postwar popular media. Life Magazine, April 11, 1949 said in its article, "Life Calls on Bernard Berenson,":

"He leads a highly punctilious and fastidious daily life under the watch of and supervision of his secretary, Nicky Mariano. Promptly at 6 a.m., B.B. awakens, and propped up on his canopied bed, reads, writes or receives visitors until 10, when he gets up. A vase of fresh flowers is placed in his room, and a butler warms up B.B.'s wrist watch, which he finds unpleasant to strap on when it is cold."

Berenson would have been 84 at the time of this Life article. 

Bernard Berenson at rest. Photo appearing in the archives of Writers at Work http://writersatwork.pfauth.com/post/21971201256/bernard-berenson
Photographer and date of original unknown.

For me, the intriguing aspect of this vignette is its ultimate inconclusiveness.

Who is to say that the joke was really on Markevitch and Berenson was the jokester letting his friend think that he had fabricated what was really the truth?

Or was what started out as Markevitch's fabricated detail of toilette to become for Berenson a part of his morning and afternoon daily routines?

Both would be in keeping with one of Berenson's famous quotes:

"Give us today our daily idea and forgive us all those we thought yesterday."

(Note: Meryle Secrest is a noted American biographer who has written books on Romaine Brooks, Kenneth Clark, Salvador Dalí, Frank Lloyd Wright, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Richard Rodgers, Joseph Lord Duveen, Amedeo Modigliani, and Elsa Schiaperelli.) 


    

And the Winner Is: GEM Awards Watch Design

On January 8th, the Jewelers of America hosted its 14th Annual GEM Awards in New York City. Considered the Academy Awards of the fine jewelry industry, the event "recognizes the outstanding achievements of individuals and companies whose work raises the visibility and status of fine jewelry and watches."

The nominees for Watch Design, an inaugural achievement category at this year's ceremony were Cartier, Piaget, and Roger Dubuis. All three are exhibitors at SIHH 2016 and are part of the Richemont group, a Switzerland-based luxury goods holding company.

For this category, "Innovation in Design" and "Technical Expertise" were two of the primary criteria for the nominees' initial selection.

And the the Award goes to Cartier. 

The firm's watchmaking was recognized for its longstanding history of capturing Parisian flair in its watch forms and movements.  Case in point is the new Clé de Cartier Collection -- its shape, new house movement, and new crown which is seamlessly integrated into the watch's case.

Strapped for time, watch the Watch Design Awards Presentation segment (1:18:42-1:26:50). 

David Bowie, Derek Boshier, and Lodger's Omega Watches

(Portions of this post can also be found on my companion blog, www.watchflaneuse.com.), Walks No. 14 and 15.

A week ago, David Bowie, rock star and so much more tragically passed away at age 69 from cancer.  Although many of his songs reflected the concept of time passing, did he have any specific connection to wristwatches?

The answer is only obliquely at best -- that being through the artifice of Bowie's friend, artist Derek Boshier.

Bowie’s concept-album Lodger (1979) contains pictures of an Omega Speedmaster Professional and an Omega Flightmaster. The images can also be found in Boshier's stunning new monograph documenting his own work, Rethink/Re-entry published in the fall of 2015.

Did Bowie select these? And if so, why?

The answer is No. According to Boshier who designed the album's inside sleeve where the Omega images appear,  “I chose them from a lot of watch pictures because I liked the double watch image and it was a good, clear photograph. It could have been other watches, by any brand. I never even knew they were Omega’s”.

Read the entire story in Paul Dezentjé's  Speedy Tuesday Fratellowatches' post (February 17, 2015),  "How a Speedmaster and Flightmaster ended up in David Bowie’s album art."

In tribute to David Bowie, I am posting a recent photograph of mine, Looking Skyward Major Tom in his memory.

© Maryhelen Raciti-Jones

 

Celebrating the New Year: Watch Flaneuse

Goodbye / Adieu 2015.

 Hello / Bonjour 2016.

As the New Year begins, I've launched a new blog to accompany Wristwatch Redux.  It's called Strolling Among the Watches / Flanânt Parmi les Montres.  

Flanerie Barcelona: Pathways at Dawn and Dusk. Copyright Maryhelen Raciti-Jones, 2011. 

This new blog will take you on short walks through the historic, corporate and cultural watchscape. My intent is to frequently post my individual excursions down serendipitous paths beginning in 2016.  

Quite a personal challenge, but that's what creative fitness is all about. 

Why use the strolling construct? Why take these mental walks?  

Well, as a dedicated watch observer, my own contemporary description of a  watch flânuese, I stroll the media: printed books, magazines, journals, newspapers and online sources for information and insights. 

Some items become the inspiration or creative nudge for my extended blog posts found on Wrist Watch Redux.

There are other content meanderings that even though they do not make it to maturity on this blog are worth capturing and sharing on a passing basis.

This is the reason for Strolling Among the Watches.  It's my younger blog sister, the more lively companion second watch hand of wristwatchredux.net. 

Until Next Time / À la prochaine