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Read more articles on Science and Technology and The Thoughts Of A Writer In New York City.

December 27, 2006

Posted by neillevine

About This Editor: I am a writer. Have been writing for other sites, but expect to do most of my future work HERE! My expertise extends from the esoteric such as burning hydrogen to the unpredictability of the stock market and my writing makes me a jack of all trades and exasperated master of none. I have had some influence over national wildfire and water policy and there are hints of a change in energy policy, BUT as Samuel Goldwyn once said, "A verbal promise is not worth the paper it is written on."

         

One summer a number of years ago, I had time on my hands and the good fortune to know a gentleman who had retired after spending most of his career at a family owned watch band and case supplier, founded by his father, but now owned by outsiders who took it out of bankruptcy caused by unprofitable Vietnam War fixed cost bomb timer contracts.

History has it that while watches were manufactured prior to 1900, they became popular in the form of wrist watches during and after World War I. The father of this gentleman, whose name was Hyman Dintsman and who is now deceased, founded the watch band company in the 1930s and it reached its peak in the 1950s and 1960s when Timex parlayed commercials featuring John Cameron Swayze announcing to the public that Timex watches “take a licking but keep on ticking” to a significant sales volume. At its peak, the family company supplied about half the bands and cases Timex needed, but that business dwindled when Timex made the decision to manufacture its own bands and cases.

I learned that Tourneau is the world’s largest watch seller even though it has only twenty-five stores and offers more than one hundred different brands. Of course, other stores sell watches including William Barthman in New York’s Financial District as well as Cartier and Tiffany, both of which also sell their own distinctive watch lines, Cartier’s being distinguished by a gem called a cabuchon that has a very noticeable place in the stem.

I learned that most luxury watches are made in Switzerland and that while bands and cases are important, a high end watch can have a leather or stainless steel band. It is the workmanship and precision manufacturing that distinguish watches.

I spent a lot of time sending away for watch catalogues and checking out ads and so on.  Since watch making is not a fast changing business, I still retain my interest and expertise to this day and am interested in following up on what I consider a fascinating subject.  I am thinking of adding my expertise to www.jewelryforums.org.  Watch out!