Wrist band for POCKET watches

Straps, straps, straps, and bracelets!
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Saffy
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Wrist band for POCKET watches

Post by Saffy »

Forgive if this has been posted before...

http://mkleathers.pl/?cat=14

The guy is making leather straps for pocket watch, rather unique looking.
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Amor Vincit Omnia
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Re: Wrist band for POCKET watches

Post by Amor Vincit Omnia »

Very hard to find. They are a late 19th century idea, basically a leather cup on a wrist band designed to hold a small pocket watch. Designed for the military to be convenient when timimng manoeuvres. They were called wristlets.
At the start of the 20th century they started attaching lugs, the cases became smaller and the wristwatch was born with the style now known as the trench watch.
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Robin CB
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Re: Wrist band for POCKET watches

Post by Robin CB »

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up Saffy :)
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Re: Wrist band for POCKET watches

Post by gweilgi »

Unusual and not terribly useful, IMHO.

These wristlets were an interim solution on the way to true wristwatches, and the only watches to fit them are ladies' fob watches.

Trouble is, these fob watches were built to be pretty rather than robust, let alone reliable and accurate.

Your standard fob watch has very pretty hands, often a painted dial and almost always a chased and bejewelled case. The movement, by contrast, is very likely to be dirt-cheap and unjewelled, sporting a cylinder escapement -- fine for use in a drawing room where the most strenuous activity might be the pouring of tea or an afternoon's embroidery, but quite unsuited to exposure on one's wrist. The g-forces of normal movement alone are liable to give the cylinder escapement a fatal fit of conniptions.

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Re: Wrist band for POCKET watches

Post by Robin CB »

gweilgi wrote:Unusual and not terribly useful, IMHO.

These wristlets were an interim solution on the way to true wristwatches, and the only watches to fit them are ladies' fob watches.

Trouble is, these fob watches were built to be pretty rather than robust, let alone reliable and accurate.

Your standard fob watch has very pretty hands, often a painted dial and almost always a chased and bejewelled case. The movement, by contrast, is very likely to be dirt-cheap and unjewelled, sporting a cylinder escapement -- fine for use in a drawing room where the most strenuous activity might be the pouring of tea or an afternoon's embroidery, but quite unsuited to exposure on one's wrist. The g-forces of normal movement alone are liable to give the cylinder escapement a fatal fit of conniptions.

Alex
You are right Alex - they are an unnecessary and useless nice-to-have - but some people say that about watches :lol:
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