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Thread: Five Things

  1. #251
    Quote Originally Posted by tribe125 View Post
    • Joseph Stalin had a fear of wristwatches. World War II had allowed Russian soldiers to see foreign lands and foreign wealth. Thousands of Russian soldiers had traded their possessions for the watches that British and American soldiers seemed to wear so casually. The bacilli of western materialism could be carried by watches. Stalin commissioned (and named) the mass-market Pobeda (‘Victory’) a month before the German surrender. At the time, Stalin may have been carrying the Hamilton pocket watch presented to him by American jewellers in 1944, via Russian Ambassador Andrei Gromyko.
    A 992B, I trust?
    La lutte elle-même vers les sommets suffit à remplir un cœur d'homme; il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux.

  2. #252
    Moderator - Central tribe125's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KennethRSloan View Post
    A 992B, I trust?

    That’s a good question, and I don’t know...

  3. #253
    Zenith & Vintage Mod Dan R's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by KennethRSloan View Post
    A 992B, I trust?
    Interesting. With all the minutia that is available, this one is not that readily available.

    Dan

  4. #254
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan R View Post
    Interesting. With all the minutia that is available, this one is not that readily available.

    Dan
    Might be a 987a - those appear to have been given to the Russian medical corps.
    La lutte elle-même vers les sommets suffit à remplir un cœur d'homme; il faut imaginer Sisyphe heureux.

  5. #255
    Moderator - Central tribe125's Avatar
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    • The Rolex Day-Date isn’t nicknamed ‘The President’ because President Dwight D. Eisenhower wore one. The watch presented to Eisenhower was a gold Datejust and he was a General at the time. Lyndon B. Johnson was the first President to wear a Day-Date. John F. Kennedy might have been the first, having been given one by Marilyn Monroe, but he told an aide to get rid of it. The ‘President’ nickname is rarely used outside of America. And what is it with American Presidents and these middle name initials?

    • The Heuer Autavia was originally a dashboard timer for rally cars. It was the first Heuer chronograph to have a name rather than a reference number and the name comes from AUTomotive and AVIAtion.

    • Breguet made pedometers - or military metronomes that regulated the steps of marching soldiers. The metronomes were commissioned by Tsar Alexander I when he made an incognito visit to Breguet’s Paris workshop in 1814. Breguet received his illustrious visitor in his small first-floor office, where the two men talked about watchmaking and shared a modest meal. The Tsar couldn’t help buying a couple of watches while he was there, one of which was sent back for repair nine months later. The accompanying letter said the watch had been ‘disturbed’, possibly meaning that the Tsar had dropped it.

    • According to Daniel Niederer (founder of SevenFriday), there are ten times as many watch factories in China as Switzerland - but only a minority focus on quality. “If you knock on their doors, they’ll turn you away because they’re full - with Swiss watch brands.”

    • Walter Lange was a member of the Hitler Youth, but let’s not be unreasonable. It was extremely hard not to be a member of the Hitler Youth and there was precious little to do in 1930s Glashütte. Of more concern to some might be that he later became a wholesale distributor of quartz watches.

  6. #256
    El bot. geoffbot's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by tribe125 View Post
    • Walter Lange was a member of the Hitler Youth, but let’s not be unreasonable. It was extremely hard not to be a member of the Hitler Youth and there was precious little to do in 1930s Glashütte. Of more concern to some might be that he later became a wholesale distributor of quartz watches.
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  7. #257
    Hangaround member Fantasio's Avatar
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    Lange quartz, how vulgar! Some mistakes just can not be forgiven.

    Quote Originally Posted by tribe125 View Post
    Walter Lange was a member of the Hitler Youth, but let’s not be unreasonable. It was extremely hard not to be a member of the Hitler Youth and there was precious little to do in 1930s Glashütte. Of more concern to some might be that he later became a wholesale distributor of quartz watches.

    Sent from Maxwell Smart's shoe.

  8. #258
    Quote Originally Posted by Fantasio View Post
    Lange quartz, how vulgar! Some mistakes just can not be forgiven.




    Sent from Maxwell Smart's shoe.
    Yep! That's why I won't buy the 1815 chronograph......well......probably not the main reason.

  9. #259
    Super Member Raza's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CFR View Post
    Yep! That's why I won't buy the 1815 chronograph......well......probably not the main reason.
    Of all the reasons not to buy a Lange, a history of quartz is hardly high on my list!
    Read my latest IWL blog entry! An Ode To Rule Breaking

  10. #260
    Moderator - Central tribe125's Avatar
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    • In America, a gold Rolex has been called a Texas Timex. In 1984, an article in the Texas Monthly said: “Let California and New York pass the time with dainty, wafer-thin cocktail watches. Texas wants a ticker with guts - more Rolexes are sold here than in any other state and most European countries.”

    • SevenFriday watches are designed in Zurich and manufactured in China. The company’s second batch of watches from China was blocked at Swiss customs because they carried the word Zurich on the dial. Red8 watches are also designed in Switzerland and manufactured in China, and the company was told that they could not allude to the Swiss design of their watches. The Nomos Zurich was designed in Zurich and is manufactured in Germany. There are no reports of Nomos watches being blocked at Swiss customs.

    • Lange made watches in West Germany before Lange & Söhne was re-established in former East Germany. Ferdinand and Walter Lange, sons of Rudolph Lange, settled in Pforzheim, the ‘other’ centre of German watchmaking. Ferdinand set up a watch company, assisted by Walter. The watches bore the name ‘Lange vorm. Glashütte’ (Lange formerly Glashütte). The watches weren’t a great success and are now rare.

    • For Omega, the main value of the co-axial escapement was that it gave them a point of difference. Then they had to make it work.

    • The rider tabs on Breitling bezels first appeared on the Chronomat model in 1984. Screw fixing allowed the bezel to be converted to a countdown timer by exchanging the 15 and 45 minute tabs.

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