Gut Shot!
How to Open a Fusee Pocket Watch Case
How do you get the cover off? We’re sometimes asked us how to open antique fusee pocket watches, so here is a video to help everyone navigate their way through a case and locking mechanism seen in most fusee style pocket watches.
According to Wikipedia, a fusee is a cone-shaped pulley with a spiral groove around it, wound with a cord or chain which is attached to the mainspring barrel. Fusees were used from the 1400s to the early 1900s to improve timekeeping by equalizing the uneven pull of the mainspring as it ran down. Read the full article
KeepTheTime.com is constantly adding new watches to our inventory. Please check out our pocket watch collection here.
Pocket Watch Size Guide
The pocket watch sizes below refer to the movement size. These measurements are not related to the size of the case or dial. The chart below will convert American pocket watch sizes to millimeters. Check out the KeepTheTime collection of antique pocket watches here!
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Special Sauce!
I am seeing more and more watches with the Unitas movement being dressed up and sold as the the elite of all watches. As I mentioned in a previous post the watch movement is a starter kit set up. Asking $6000.00 plus for this is watch movement is crazy in my opinion. Check for the “special sauce ” models as I like to call them. Cheap movement with lots of boxes, papers and hype, it all equals expensive. The case maybe titanium etc. it just does not add up Caveat Emptor.
“The Willy Loman Watch”
Richemont group owns and operates some of the best watch and luxury goods companies on earth! Then, came Mont Blanc! The well known pen company said about 10 years ago, hey let’s make watches and so the under-appreciated brand of watches began. Pens, being their forte, they still produce watches, whether people buy them or not they still get assembled and with hope they will sell…. The sad part is, they are nice, real nice. Beautiful designs, the nicest bracelets you have ever seen. If you search for a real bargain, Mont Blanc is the watch! Take the above shot, 7750 movement, all stainless steel, black coal dial with hints of red that contrast perfect. Tons of money and effort and they still don’t take off in America? Get one why you can, I hope they hang on, maybe celebrity spokespeople, oh it’s been done? KTTB
Broad Arrow Omega “The Other Column Wheel”
The poor little Piguet 1285 movement from Omega, so over shadowed by the Rolex Daytona that it gets very little action in the watch market. Yes, it is a column wheel chronograph also, but with little respect. The Broadarrow is not cheap and people often times don’t know why it is sooo expensive for a steel chronograph. This sleeper movement gets compared to prices on the 7750 Valjoux models all the time, and they could not be anymore different. You get what you pay for on these cool movement models, the 4130 Rolex which we will highlight soon is a closer comparison for value. So try to keep this in mind at the cash register! KTTB
