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Old 26 July 2009, 09:56 PM   #23
asadtiger
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Join Date: May 2007
Real Name: Asad A. Awan
Location: kabul, Afghanista
Watch: Tissot PRX
Posts: 2,698
I agree with a lot of Davidson's list but heres some stuff to add to it:

1.Cartier Santos : the first real men's wrist watch

2.Patek ladie's watch: The first real wrist watch (cuz the earlier one's were only worn by women).

3.The Accutron tuning-fork watch (predecessor to the quartz watches)

4.The only Rolex I would call truly historic is the first water-resitant Oyster watches, bringing this great techonolog, innovation and thought to watchmaking.

5.the Blancpain LIP fifty fathoms, for being what it is :)

6.the Breguet Tourbillons or minute repeaters or La Tradition, shock-resist para-chute mechanism watches, for their innovativeness.

7.Zenith El-Primero or Heuer-Breitling chronos cuz one of them was the first chrono, thats truly historic :)

8.Harwood watches, the first automatic winding watch, made in collaboration with Fortis.

9.the Hamilton khaki Hand-wound military watches for WWI or WWII, only as a historic representative of the world war military issue watches of Omega, Longines and the other purely military brands, that changed the face of watches cuz its the military issue tradition,also contributed to by Rolex, that actually made watches 'masculine' :D

10. And yes a complete historic list must include Swatch :)

Now I know my list is very old-school and lists the very old watches but thats what being 'Historic' is all about :D

I know this is by no means a complete list...many historic steps have contributed to the great timepieces that we are enjoying today...and you must observe guys that many steps that we take for granted may actually have been gigantic leaps at their time, the common example being a Helio-Centric earth, so I think we can never make a complete list of only ten historic watches, but its a good fun thing nonetheless :)

Many people here have listed very modern watches...that is valid too but only if it really carries a historic thing about it...say for example Blancpain's Karussel (or however it is written) is the first watch to be displayed at a Museum of Modern Art, thats some achievement and only that, it is the first wrist-watch to have that pocket watch complication, designed by vincent calabrese..I think now THAT is adding to history.

I think we should go by theme or complication for such a list as this, as I have gone by in making my list...hope this helped.

Really nice initiative Frans

regards,
Asad Abbas Awan
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