Watchmaking Student Discovers Lancaster County Horology

GearPatrol.com features a terrific story by Jason Heaton about his quick tour of Lancaster County, PA, and some of its offerings for watchmakers and collectors. Jason is the timekeeping editor for Gear Patrol and is responsible for all timepiece coverage on the site. He also contributes to HODINKEE, the watch blog (which was named one of [...]

Abraham Lincoln’s Pocket Watch Recorded for New Lincoln Film

“I heard the actual pocket watch existed,” director Steven Spielberg said in a recent interview, “and I wanted to know whether they’d let us wind it and record it. I didn’t know if they would, but they did. I thought that was very important. So, every time you hear that little ticking in the story, [...]

A Timepiece for Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher has been laid to rest. England’s former prime minister was a revolutionary twentieth-century leader, who along with President Ronald Reagan and Pope John II, helped bring about the fall of the USSR. Conservatives loved her, but liberals protested her policies. She stood firm in her beliefs. She was quoted as saying about her [...]

Watches of Historically Significant People

Exquisite and practical watches of historically significant people, including our Founding Fathers and a few presidents in the twentieth century, are posted at the link below. Marie Antoinette’s gold Breguet pocket watch, ca. 1827, with the case back open, is fascinating to behold. It took 44 years to complete after it was first commissioned in [...]

Watch Experts Weigh in on Favorites from 2013 SIHH

Read what five top watch experts have to say about their favorite watch from the Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie show held in late January 2013. http://www.askmen.com/fashion/trends_700/729_sihh-2012.html

General Norman Schwarzkopf and His Watches

General Norman Schwarzkopf died on Dec. 27, 2012. Part of the many tributes, memorials, and recollections that followed his passing center on his wristwatches. During the Persian Gulf War, he famously wore two watches: one on each arm—one for Saudi Arabian time and the other for Washington, DC, time. Blogger Arial Adams chronicles Schwarzkopf’s career and [...]

All the Presidents’ Watches

George Washington paid 25 guineas for a simple gold watch with a virgule escapement by Jean-Antoine Lépine, watchmaker to King Louis XVI. Ulysses S. Grant pawned his watch in 1857 for $22, perhaps so that he could buy Christmas gifts for his family. Warren G. Harding, a Freemason like 13 others who have held the [...]

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Breguet Clock Presides Over Carnegie Hall

To mark its new sponsorship of Carnegie Hall, the craftsmen at Breguet custom-designed a clock to overlook the venue’s grand Morse Lobby. The clock’s design is based on the brand’s original tourbillon timepiece, which was made in 1801. The dial is backlit and decorated with Breguet’s guilloché pattern, white with blue hands. The case is [...]

Turn Your Swords into Watches: GoS Forges Creative Watchmaking

Master bladesmith Johan Gustafsson and watchmaker Patrik Sjögren met in 2007 and realized that they were both inspired by Scandinavian nature and history and had a similar creative vision. They decided to start making beautiful Nordic-flavored watches together under the name GoS Watches, with Gustafsson hand-forging and patternwelding steel (another name for patternwelded steel is [...]