Tag Archives: Watch

HISTORY: INCABLOC

Posted by gordonmiller on December 4, 2010 Comments Off

By the 1930′s the Swiss watch industry was coping with the demands of a growing audience for more “sport style” watches…those that could take more of a stressful existence. The result was several “shock” absorbing systems.

The most sensitive part of the watch is the balance assembly, this was where the innovators needed to look to solve the problem. As the watch took a shock..the balance wheel pivot had a tendency to “bounce” in the opposite direction of the impact…this sent the pivot up into the jewel and the cap jewel…often times cracking the jewel or actually breaking off the tip of the balance pivot…rendering the watch useless for timekeeping.

With the advent of the “shock-proof system”…the impact was absorbed. This was accomplished by placing a metal spring system over the balance jewels..this allowed the pivot and jewel to rise away from the balance plate thus absorbing the shock, and then to return back down to it’s original position.

In the picture, the jewel is in red, the cap jewel in pink…the pivot is in green, and the “incabloc” shock absorber is in gold. Picture is a Vintage BWC Chronograph Incabloc mechanism.

BWC Incabloc Mechanism

BWC Incabloc Mechanism

Swiss watch-tradition since 1924

Posted by gordonmiller on December 3, 2010 Comments Off

The Buttes Watch Company (BWC) was found in 1924 by Mr. Arthur Charlet, in his birthplace, Buttes (Canton Neuchâtel). The “Val de Travers”, an aesthetic high-lying valley in Switzerland nearby the French border, is well known for watchmakers in the 18th Century. During the economic crisis in 1923 which Switzerland was also oppressively affected, he founded courage to pioneer as a watch manufacturer.

From this time on the BWC-SWISS was the only used trade mark in Europe and in English speaking countries. It is also registered as a world-wide trademark.

The company first started off with producing all different variety of pocket watches. The first markets was initially launched in Germany and then expanded to England, Spain, Poland and Hungary. Later, sales areas were opened to the most important trading countries in Europe at that time like Greece and Turkey. The main overseas markets were USA, Cuba and Canada.

Mr. Arthur Charlet’s son-in-law, Mr. Edwin Volkart, took over the company in 1953 and continue to operate it with alacrity.

BWC-SWISS realized quickly the state-of-the-art in watch-technology. By 1967, electro-mechanical watches were also part of their watch collection. Thus in 1972 the collection of the BWC already carried the first quartz-digital-display and in 1975 the first fully developed quartz-analogue watch.

With the lack of competent workers in the “Val de Travers” valley and the changing of ownership in 1991, the company had to move the manufacturing plant to Canton Solothurn. All commercial activities of the BWC Fabrique d’Horlogerie SA / Bienne is since then availed by Reek GmbH in Pforzheim, Germany.

In the course of re-organization in 1999, BWC-SWISS was integrated in the newly founded Maddox AG in Pforzheim, Germany. In the year 2000, the 75th anniversary watches, designed by Mr. Alexander Schnell-Waltenberger from Pforzheim, won the Good Design Award. This award which is one of the oldest and most meaningful awards for industry design in the United States, was presented to BWC-SWISS in Chicago.

Vintage 18k Gold BWC Watch

Vintage BWC Chronograph

Marking Time in a Digital World

Posted by gordonmiller on June 2, 2010 Comments Off

People who know me are often surprised to find out that while I work in the digital world, much of my personal life enjoys more traditional mechanical items of days gone by. Few people really appreciate the precision that goes into making a certified chronograph or how critical those precision instruments were to sailing and ship navigation and more recently air travel. A precision time keeping instrument is a work of art that can be enjoyed everyday and handed down for generations. While precision time pieces can be expensive, good ones will provide a lifetime of worry free service and still be handed down to the next generation. Among my favorites are the watches from IWC.