Just a few quick site updates for my Collection and Shop pages.

This is a beautifully preserved late-1940s Gruen Veri-Thin tank wristwatch, freshly serviced and regulated, and representing one of Gruen’s most important postwar dress-watch designs. Compact, elegant, and mechanically refined, it captures the restrained sophistication that defined American watchmaking in the years immediately following World War II.

This Helbros chronograph is a fantastic slice of mid-century timing hardware, built around the legendary Venus 170 column-wheel movement. Here, it is the star of the show. Fully serviced, regulated and running strongly, it is in exceptional condition for vintage chronograph movement from this era and helps make this piece a great value.

This Elgin is pure mid-century charm: a clean silver dial with raised gold Arabic numerals, slim baton hands, and a playful red arrow seconds hand sweeping around the edge. Hidden safely in the monoblock case is Elgin’s grade 777 – a 19-jewel, U.S.A.-made manual movement with an extremely innovative free-sprung balance design.

This charming mid-1960s Longines takes the classic dress watch formula and gives it a subtle twist. It’s just been fully serviced and regulated, so you get the pleasure of winding a crisp 1960s Longines without worrying about what’s happening under the hood.

If you’ve been looking for an attractive, affordable vintage chrono with real 1950s charm – and freshly serviced for regular wear – this Olma is ready to get back on a wrist instead of living in a drawer.

I finally got around to a project I’ve been meaning to do for some time - sharing my own personal watch collection on the site. The new pages have detailed photos and information on the watches I’ve restored for my own appreciation. I’m hoping this will be interesting for fellow vintage watch collectors, and also serve as an “idea page” for folks looking for a vintage watch that suits their tastes. You can visit the collection by clicking on the link in the nav bar.

This 1950s Longines has developed a gorgeous honey-colored patina on the dial which really makes for a fantastic vintage look. Inside the 10K gold fill case is a beautifully made Longines 23ZS manual movement, so nice looking that it’s really a shame watches from this era didn’t have exhibition case backs.

Hamilton Illinois co-branded watches, which were only produced for three years from 1953 to 1955, are relatively rare. Hamilton Illinois watches in good running condition are even rarer, so this elegant men’s tank is a great collector’s watch. Perhaps ironically, given both Hamilton and Illinois were storied American brands from the pocket watch era, this watch uses a Swiss ETA movement.

This great looking late 1940s Gruen has a striking guilloche dial with a distinctive cross pattern that contrasts nicely with the gold plated case and a classic sub-second configuration. The Swiss-made 17 jewel Gruen 435 manual movement is small, but a strong runner nonetheless.

This vintage Bulova is highlighted by a full stainless steel case - a relative rarity for the brand - with a matching dial and gold numerals. Inside, the 23 jewel Bulova 10BZAC automatic movement is in fantastic condition.

Sporting the signature red pointer second hand, a calendar display, and a dial with some really interesting and cool numerals at the 6, 9 and 12 o’clock positions, this attractive Waltham makes a great vintage watch statement. It is powered by a relatively rare R614 manual wind movement. Both the case and movement were made in Japan.

An attractive vintage Tissot ladies dress watch in excellent condition. The 17 jewel Tissot 2403 movement powering this beauty is tiny but mighty, with a high 28,800 bph rate for accuracy and a 36 hour power reserve.

This tiny powerhouse Tissot from the 1950s has classic looks coupled with great timekeeping. The Tissot 717 21-jewel movement is unquestionably the smallest fully automatic movement that I have worked on, but it doesn’t skimp on functionality, sporting a sophisticated automatic mechanism with jeweled reversing wheels.

Highlighted by a lovely fluted bezel, this vintage Tissot is a great looking and functional ladies timepiece. The Tissot 2341 automatic movement packs a lot of watch functionality into a very small space, including day and date functions with quickset via a 3-position crown, a ball bearing automatic rotor, and a high 28,800 bph rate for excellent timekeeping.

Even in the heart of the quartz crisis Bulova was still making really nice, handsome mechanical watches like this 2930 calendar automatic. This example has been serviced and given a new crystal, but is otherwise in original condition. The Bulova 11ANACD 17 jewel movement (Bulova movement codes were getting slightly rediculous at this point) has a 21,600 BPH rate for excellent accuracy and an automatic mechanism that is fully integrated into the main plate providing a thin 9mm profile.

Combining Waltham’s signature red pointer sweep second hand with a very cool “sun ray” dial pattern this is a really sharp looking 1960s Waltham. The 21 jewel UTC 233 movement was designed and manufactured by Seiko, and has innovative design elements that exist in Seiko movements to this day, including the highly efficient Seiko Magic Lever automatic winding mechanism

This early 60s Gruen has been given a “light touch” restoration focused almost entirely on the A. Schild 17 jewel Swiss movement, which has been given a full service to assure solid performance and timekeeping. The dial hands and case have been left in original condition, with a clean chrome finish and a nice patina on the dial and hands. The one exception is the crown, which has been replaced as the original was missing.

It’s been a while, but I finally added to the Learning material on the site by publishing my Watch Movement Cleaning Guide. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Looking super sharp in gold and black, this early 1960s Gruen Precision is driven by their innovative N710 SS automatic movement, making this watch a great combination of style and substance. With a 35mm bezel, it also looks great on the wrist.