Something a little different

[Variomatic]

Long before the current fad for "make it big", watchmakers spent an awful lot of energy and ingenuity trying to make it small. This one's been on my bench the past couple of days, and for a long time was the pinnacle of smallness, at least as far as thickness is concerned:



It's a Bueche Girod branded Frederic Piguet cal 21, with a total height (exluding hand shafts) of just 1.75mm:



This particular one is in a ladies 18k case with a dail that claims Cartier, but I'm not 100% convinced by the printing.



Nevertheless, whatever the watch really is, it's a stunning piece of watchmaking that, imho, puts the current "big is better" fad firmly in its place.

Not least when you consider that movement was introduced in 1925 - long before modern manufacturing techniques were even science fiction - and held the record for the thinnest production movement all the way to the mid 80s or so, when it was finally beaten by just .07mm!

[toohuge]

That's astonishing....

Thank you for sharing.

[Variomatic]

Yes, got the hairspring trued ok. Whoever kinked it had thankfully left it flat but off centre, which is a much easier correction to make - especially with the clearances on this!

As for the "bigger" fad (which you may have gathered I'm not a fan of), I'm willing to put my prejudice aside for this 47mm example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIXPplShtg0

If someone would like to send me one for Christmas......

[ecain63]

I thought it was odd that the customers Omega (not pictured) had a matching dial to that of the possibly faux Cartier. Fashion at the time maybe?