Club Obi Wan

So I'm curious, just to get real techy here, does anyone recall Indy wearing a wrist watch, and if so, what did it look like? Dr. Jones, Sr. had his pocket watch, but I'd be interested to know what kind of timepiece Indy kept about his person, if anything. I have a few watches from the era (mostly inherited from grandfathers and great grandfathers) but I'd be interested to know what style of watch Indy probably carried.

My guess is that it MUST have been a pretty rugged wrist watch with a solid leather band, but I can't recal off the top of my head ever seeing Indy look at a watch.

bink

This has been covered a couple of times, but I am always fascinated by it. I too wonder why the character didn't wear some kind of watch:

http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic ... ight=watch

http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic ... 2ae68be5ac

http://www.indygear.com/forum/viewtopic ... 2ae68be5ac

Peace,
Cliffhanger

Thanks for the links! I did a search which came up with so many replies that I wasn't sure if it was for wristwatches or just the word "watch."

No problem. I did the same thing. I am sure there are more discussions on Indy's watch, but thar ya go!

Peace,
Cliffhanger

Especially if I have anything to do with it! (grins) High regards. Michaelson

Oh yeah, you got THAT right! (binkmeister, Michaelson is also our in-house time piece afficianado).

Peace,
Cliffhanger

Sweet! Well, Michaelson, you'll be happy to know that I'm currently wearing an art deco Bulova which belonged to my grandfather. I love old timepieces! Unfortunately, that makes yet another hobby I wish I could keep up with.

I'm carrying my 1898 16s 15j Hampden pocketwatch, so I'm right there with you on the 'to many interest irons in the proverbial fire.' Regards. Michaelson

Sometime I'll have to send you some pics offline of the watch that was given to my great grandfather in the 20's. It's in beautiful shape and I wear it out on special occassions or whenever I feel like "kicking it up a notch." I'm having a major brain fart, or I'd tell you what kind of watch it is!

I think Indy looked at the position of the sun. Believe or not, you can get pretty good at telling the time that way by a pretty close margin. That's the way I do it anyway. Some of you though, need a more exact time for big importatnt things. In that case, get a wrist watch.

Or better yet, ask either binkmeisterRick or me! Gives us a reason to pull out our watches and show them off! Seriously, I recently saw a special on how you told time on the OutDoor network, but it was so time consuming, I really can't remember all the details now. I'm sure there's a REAL simple way to do it, but man, they turned it into a general science problem. Regards. Michaelson

When the sun's (can be rare in Oregon sometimes) it's easy to tell time
by using what are called daymarks. Simply divide the path the
sun takes into sections starting directly overhead with 12noon.
If you have a general idea what time the sun has been rising and
setting you can easily tell time within 15-30 minutes. Sunrise and
sunset generally change about 5-6 minutes each day. I think that
this is probably how Indy did it since he was never shown carrying
a timepiece in the field.

Regards,
Indybill

Those cloudy days always play havoc with my schedule.

Michaelson said:

Or better yet, ask either binkmeisterRick or me! Gives us a reason to pull out our watches and show them off!

LOL! Yeah, there's just something classy and cool when someone asks you the time and you pull out your pocketwatch to do so.

As I've said before, the web has taken all of the romance out of research. A quick lunchtime search has revealed that wrist watches weren't widely used until the end of WW2. Even then I think that they would have been considered somewhat of a novelty. Does anyone remember the 2x4-like cellular phones that were prevalent in the 80s? I would think that owning an early wristwatch would have been about as “cool” as owning a first-generation cell phone (yes, that’s the fresh scent of sarcasm in my missive).

Jack Flanders said:

As I've said before, the web has taken all of the romance out of research. A quick lunchtime search has revealed that wrist watches weren't widely used until the end of WW2.

Wrist watches were used in the First World War. It makes sense, since it's not a good idea to put down your Enfield just to check the time. My guess is that from about WWI on, the transition to using wrist watches began, but it probably wasn't until the 30's until they picked up more popularity. That's my uneducated guess, anyhow. I'd be interested to see the source.

Can you shed any light on this, Michaelson?

It's not so much the danger of dropping your weapon to see if it's teatime, but the usual (and rational) explanation is that it was far easier for officers timing the fall of artillery rounds or anything else to use a wristwatch, which is immediately at hand, rather than a pocketwatch, which requires additional motion to retrieve and open. Using a wristwatch also left that hand free for whatever else was needed (binoculars, gas mask, weapon, etc).

As far as personal preference goes, I have several vintage Gruens and Hamiltons, any one of which will undoubtably outlast the modern quartz watch I have lying around somewhere. Hamilton in particular offered some very beautiful dial designs in that period.

Ironically, I was involved in research about an Elgin I was interested in recently, and came across the information that Elgin really began cutting back on lower end carry pocketwatches in 1909, BEFORE WW1, as folks were buying more converted PW to WW 's than low jeweled PW. Of course, with the advent of the War, immediately after it ended, men coming home wearing the rectangular, curved WW that they had purchased in France during the conflict caught on with the younger crowd in the early 20's, essentially killing PW sales even more. That's why the curved, rectangular/squarish older WW are called 'tankers', as most of the soldiers who came home with these WW's were in tank crews.
Back on topic, I can easily see Indy with either a large silver PW (as mentioned in one of the novels), or a tanker wrist watch, him being a WW1 veteran, as with a past background in ground transportation during that war (YIJC program when he was a motorcycle messenger), he'd have WORN a tanker. Those were most readily available where he was located. during that period of service How's THAT for speculation? Regards. Michaelson

How's THAT for speculation? Regards. Michaelson

Um, pretty good, I'd say. And by the way, that pocketwatch I mentioned earlier is a Hamilton.

I have also heard that so-called "tank" watches were so named because Cartier felt that the side bands running along the watch case resembled tank tracks.

I have an old " Glashütte " wrist watch which is one of the first wrist watches which are made in East Germany during/after WWI !
I think this watch looks very nice to IndyGear.
You can get such watches very cheap in the German Ebay
sometimes you also find German Military Watches from WW2

How did indy keep time?

Probably like every other Blues man.

By tapping his foot along with the beat!

Eiti wrote: You can get such watches very cheap in the German Ebay

Cool! I'll watch out for that.

Swindy

Hunter57 wrote:

I have also heard that so-called "tank" watches were so named because Cartier felt that the side bands running along the watch case resembled tank tracks.

My understanding is that they called them tank watches because they were styled after the wristwatches tankers wore during the war.

That could be, I suppose, but perhaps this explains where the tankers got the watches ---

From a description of "Cartier : The Tank Watch"
by

"Franco Cologni is a specialist on jewelry and watchmaking, and the chairman of the Association Interprofessionelle de la Haute Horlogerie. He is also the author of Made by Cartier; Piaget: Watches and Wonders; Platinum by Cartier: Triumphs of the Jeweler's Art

Dominique Fléchon is one of the world's authorities on watchmaking and the vice-president of the French Association des Collectionneurs et Amateurs d'Horlogerie d'Art. He is a frequent contributor to numerous specialist watch journals."

"Among all the timepieces created during the 20th century, the Tank watch, designed by the master jeweler Louis Cartier has remained the most long-lived and the most coveted by glamorous people around the world. Inspired by the modernistic design of the Renault tank and given to General Pershing in 1918, it was the first elegant wristwatch destined for the modern man of action. Adapted also for women, the Tank has been a constantly evolving masterpiece of the jeweler's art while remaining an object of practical design for an age of technological progress."

Maybe even the tank crews wanted to be stylish. Nice reference. Thanks!