[lukeaar]

Hey Janne, is there any way that you could do a few more of the photoshopped dials in the Laco case for us to see?

If Janne (or anyone else) hasn't got around to it by mid next week, I'll be able to do a few mockups. I'll be away until Monday night, but after that I'll find some time.

 

[kubelwagen]

...i could not find a pic of a wempe b-uhr i was sre had original hands, but from those 3 examples we can see that the hands had an identical design. They are not interchangable, as those movements are different, and i guess the stems (?) are different.

Nothing prevents us from being creative with the hands!

here's a Wempe:

got the pic from here -- B-Uhr. cheers

 

[Biggie_Robs]

How about this one? (front view photo from unknown internet seller, back view from old laco website)

View attachment 422162
View attachment 422161
This was acutually a limited edition of 200pic released several years ago.
If Laco still have the same case(=35mm) in stock, that would be the best match for Durowe 7425.

Personally, I would like to have a watch like this in mat black dial with golden index.

I like this idea a lot. I'm skeptical I would be happy if we go the military route with a movement that doesn't hack.

 

[Janne]

We can just use our imagination....

 

[Biggie_Robs]

We can just use our imagination....

I guess I'm saying I would prefer not to do that (with regard to hacking).

 

[Janne]

It all depends on which dial we choose to work on.
The "Torpedo" stopwatch cn be done without the hacking function, as it never was a watch .

But, it is still better to have a vintage (decorated?) Durowe movement without hacking than a modern ETA with hacking, imho.

 

[Biggie_Robs]

It all depends on which dial we choose to work on.
The "Torpedo" stopwatch cn be done without the hacking function, as it never was a watch .

But, it is still better to have a vintage (decorated?) Durowe movement without hacking than a modern ETA with hacking, imho.

If we were choosing between a vintage Durowe non-hacking movement and a modern ETA hacking movement, then perhaps I would agree with you. But we do not have this choice. Our movement doesn't hack, so we're deciding between designing a non-hacking watch for which hacking is a key function or a non-hacking watch for which hacking is not a key function. I think I prefer the latter.

 

[Janne]

The B-uhren had hacking movements.
The Navy Timers had not, as they were stop watches.
The W-SS I guess had a hacking movement.

So maybe we should do a Navy Timer dial? 2 to choose from, unless Uwe has managed to find some more.

Edit: Found one more:

Not so interesting as the others, though!

 

[Piccolo8]

I like this idea a lot. I'm skeptical I would be happy if we go the military route with a movement that doesn't hack.

I agree with your thinking on usage of non hack movement.
How do you like this dial? This is a civil watch and I don't care if it hack or not.

Just a quick search with "LACO" or "LACO-SPORT" through the internet will lead us to really, really interesting vintage design of historical LACO watches. Non of them are mediocre design to me.

I do like Pil-Mil watches as well but if knew the brand used to produce "mediocre design" civil watches, I would just stay way from them.;-)

 

[lukeaar]

Edit: Found one more:

Not so interesting as the others, though!

That link's broken for me. Says access is denied.

Even though the timers weren't historically hacking watches, wouldn't the fact that it's a TIMER want a hacking movement just as much as any b-uhr design would?

 

[Janne]

With mediocre I mean ekvivalent to lower to lower-mid Swiss.

Standard 3 hand time keepers.

 

[city-dweller]

Today finally I found some time to have a look into my copy of the Knirim book.

Here it is what I found there:

1. First of all, in the whole thick brick of a book, Laco is mentioned just two (2) times --
and both occasions are related to the B-Uhr.
Quite disappointing, right?
Especially when you compare the number of mentionings
of Lange (33), Wempe (15), IWC (10), and Stowa (7).

2. Some info regarding the W-SS whatch:
-- the "M-B" mark on the dial shoud indeed be interpreted as "Messbatterie".
In fact, the watch is described as
"Beobachtungsuhr fuer Messbatterie mit Anhaltevorrichtung fuer die Unruh"
-- Supposedy it was produced by Wempe and Laco for the missile test facility at Peenemuende
(where at that time Sturmbannführer SS Werner von Braun was developing
the missiles known as V-1 and V-2).
-- Interestingly, the watch has the specification number (Anforderungs Nr.) Fl. 23883
identical to that of the B-Uhr of the Luftwaffe.

Other interesting features include:
- giant size of 65 mm
- 1/5 second marks on the dial
- mirrored numerals for minutes

[edit: typo corrected]

 

[Janne]

Thanks for that info.
I need to get Mr Knirims book, it must be full of info!

 

[city-dweller]

[continued from my previous post]

3. It was interesting to find out that an interpretation of this W-SS watch
has been already made by Aristo, who placed their advertisement at the end of the Knirim book
with a reference to a particular page of the book where this watch is presented.

Hence the question:
Do we want to repeat Aristo????

 

[Janne]

With that article, it means it was NOT primary Artillery watch, assuming mr Knirim knows what he is talking about.

But it is still a time keeping watch. Strange, as a `standard stop watch (maybe with mirrored numbers for photo purposes) would be much easier to read?

 

[Janne]

It is not Poll-Time yet, but i can tell you that I will vote for the Torpedo timer.
Such a tricky task it could be to make a readable and visually correct dial.......

 

[city-dweller]

With that article, it means it was NOT primary Artillery watch, assuming mr Knirim knows what he is talking about.

But it is still a time keeping watch. Strange, as a `standard stop watch (maybe with mirrored numbers for photo purposes) would be much easier to read?

apparently, it was an attempt at a better readable very special purpose tool watch: huge size and different arrangement of numerals.

 

[city-dweller]

one more photo from the Knirim book:

 

[Janne]

I find it weird because of this:
It is easier to place a PW with this dial under the mirror arrangement before taking the photo, than having to place your hand/wrist there.
65mm = very uncomfortable to wear

They must have been very expensive to manufacture. Very, very low numbers in the production run.

But I guess the boss of A.Lange & S. lacked the guts to tell the SS that..... I would!

 

[city-dweller]

a few reamrks regarding the design based on the W-SS watch layout:

one could think about simplifying the dial layout in the following way:
1) remove the writings on the dial;
2) remove the mirrored numerals;
3) remove the 1/5 s markings

this would considerably unload the dial and make it much more readable
(which is important, since we are not going to make a watch in the original size of 65 mm)