03 Oct 2016, 22:51
Hi all,
It is a very rare occasion when a watch (hi)story like the following one may be told to the collectors ring - The rarest Yema's "Northern Star" Worldtime Quartz story and also my latest acquisition: :)
Note:this is not a photo of my watch - it is from the only private auction site that have sold such a watch in the last years! I will post real photos as soon as posible...
"1. Everything has started in 1876 when the Legend told us that Sir Sandford Fleming after missing a train in Ireland began to look for a way to standardize time. Speaking before the Royal Canadian Institute in Toronto in 1879, he proposed to divide the Earth into 24 time zones of 15° one hour apart with a universal time for each individual zone.
2. Fleming’s contribution to the creation of the World Time watch does not stop with the creation of the world’s first system of standardized time. Sir Sandford Fleming went further than that. In 1880, Fleming commissioned a watch manufacturer in London to construct a unique pocket watch that would accurately reflect his proposal, and so was born the “Cosmic Time” pocket watch.
3.World Time watches were invented, as is the case with most innovation, out of necessity. With the advent of the industrial age came the means necessary to facilitate global trade and travel and, as a direct result, there was a need for timekeeping devices capable of tracking time in multiple locations."
4. Vacheron Constantin and Louis Cottier
The history between Vacheron Constantin and the Cottier family is a long one. The father Emmanuel, also a watchmaker, had set up his workshop in Carouge just outside of Geneva and had been creating automatons and clocks for Vacheron Constantin since the early 20th Century and upon his passing his son Louis continued his work.
The relationship between the Cottier family and Vacheron Constantin was so strong that in a letter dated March 3, 1930 Louis Cottier wrote to Charles Constantin “I would like to enter your manufacture before undertaking other steps elsewhere…” The world was in the midst of the 1929 crash and business was not good, Vacheron Constantin could not hire Cottier but this did not stop the two parties from working together closely.
It is around that period in 1930/1931 that Cottier designed a movement featuring a local time with hour and minute hands at center, linked to a rotating 24hour ring, and bordered by a fixed outer dial ring with the names of different cities inscribed on it. The city of choice (local time zone) was placed at the 12 o'clock position with the hours/minutes hand set at local time, the watch would then display the correct time in both hours and minutes, night and day, for every time zone in the world simultaneously, all the while allowing easy and accurate reading of local time, and all on a single dial."
One may read more - beyond the above excerpt - on this fascinating history of early Worldtime watches on:
http://www.thehourlounge.com/en/vachero ... rld-timers[/color][/b]
5.The Agassiz - Louis Cottier 1946 Worldtime- the first Wristwatch with World time in history:
"Louis Cottier, the celebrated watchmaker from Geneva, invented and patented this design. He made world time watches for Geneva's most famous firms including Patek Philippe, Rolex, Vacheron & Constantin, and Agassiz. His production totaled only 455 movements for world time pocket watches, wristwatches, and clocks, produced at an average rate of 13 pieces per year. His work is easily recognizable by the distinctive shape of the hour hand.
At the request of a group of citizens of Geneva who wanted to express their thanks to the Allies at the end of the Second World War, Louis Cottier produced four world time dress watches for Agassiz in 1946 with gold and enamel-decorated cases.They were presented to Winston Churcill, President Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and General De Gaulle"
Please read more at:
http://www.bogoff.com/wrist/6238.html
6. After this Agassiz -the first wristwatch with WorldTime in the world :), designed by Louis Cottier, a man which was a bold designer of other also unique watches
http://www.chronomania.net/forum/forum_ ... _KzeMkpoht
some other big watchmakers produced in early 50's, limited numbers of Worldtime wristwaches: e.g Breitling Unitime, Tissot Navigator World Time etc etc
http://www.matthewbaininc.com/watch-details/1424
http://hodinkee.squarespace.com/blog/20 ... world.html
In the 1960-1970, some other watchmakers - and this time not only the most expensive ones - produced similar watches: e.g Edox Geoscope, Enicar Sherpa 600 etc etc
http://largevintagewatches.blogspot.ro/ ... timer.html
7. In 1969, the Yema watch company, produced an outstanding piece of watchmaking, the Yema WorldGraf (Patent Pend), with a design somehow different from all other Worldtime watches:
https://sites.google.com/site/yemaniase ... annee-1969
8. Some years after the Yema Worldgraf, the rarest Yema "Northern Star" Quartz appeared as an unique (anniversary?) Yema's tribute to the early Worldtime Agassiz (e.g. please see a comparison from the above photos between the Agassiz and Yema day-night inner disk and the external world towns dial), Breitling Unitime etc and early Yema WORLDGRAF watches, but for the first time with a quartz movement!
One of the the main Yema experts from Yema saga blog online claimed that this Yema Worldtime Quartz watch is from 1973 - a year that I really doubt to be accurate, but for sure it is the first Quartz watch with Hands, having also a World Time Dial!.
Its chronology, according to the Yema Saga blog may be seen on the below URL:
"1973 A l'occasion de son 25ème anniversaire, Yema produit la Worldtime à quartz. Elle est dotée d'un disque pour les fuseaux horaires et les grandes villes du monde."
https://sites.google.com/site/yemaniach ... -horlogere
Best regards,
It is a very rare occasion when a watch (hi)story like the following one may be told to the collectors ring - The rarest Yema's "Northern Star" Worldtime Quartz story and also my latest acquisition: :)
Note:this is not a photo of my watch - it is from the only private auction site that have sold such a watch in the last years! I will post real photos as soon as posible...
"1. Everything has started in 1876 when the Legend told us that Sir Sandford Fleming after missing a train in Ireland began to look for a way to standardize time. Speaking before the Royal Canadian Institute in Toronto in 1879, he proposed to divide the Earth into 24 time zones of 15° one hour apart with a universal time for each individual zone.
2. Fleming’s contribution to the creation of the World Time watch does not stop with the creation of the world’s first system of standardized time. Sir Sandford Fleming went further than that. In 1880, Fleming commissioned a watch manufacturer in London to construct a unique pocket watch that would accurately reflect his proposal, and so was born the “Cosmic Time” pocket watch.
3.World Time watches were invented, as is the case with most innovation, out of necessity. With the advent of the industrial age came the means necessary to facilitate global trade and travel and, as a direct result, there was a need for timekeeping devices capable of tracking time in multiple locations."
4. Vacheron Constantin and Louis Cottier
The history between Vacheron Constantin and the Cottier family is a long one. The father Emmanuel, also a watchmaker, had set up his workshop in Carouge just outside of Geneva and had been creating automatons and clocks for Vacheron Constantin since the early 20th Century and upon his passing his son Louis continued his work.
The relationship between the Cottier family and Vacheron Constantin was so strong that in a letter dated March 3, 1930 Louis Cottier wrote to Charles Constantin “I would like to enter your manufacture before undertaking other steps elsewhere…” The world was in the midst of the 1929 crash and business was not good, Vacheron Constantin could not hire Cottier but this did not stop the two parties from working together closely.
It is around that period in 1930/1931 that Cottier designed a movement featuring a local time with hour and minute hands at center, linked to a rotating 24hour ring, and bordered by a fixed outer dial ring with the names of different cities inscribed on it. The city of choice (local time zone) was placed at the 12 o'clock position with the hours/minutes hand set at local time, the watch would then display the correct time in both hours and minutes, night and day, for every time zone in the world simultaneously, all the while allowing easy and accurate reading of local time, and all on a single dial."
One may read more - beyond the above excerpt - on this fascinating history of early Worldtime watches on:
http://www.thehourlounge.com/en/vachero ... rld-timers[/color][/b]
5.The Agassiz - Louis Cottier 1946 Worldtime- the first Wristwatch with World time in history:
"Louis Cottier, the celebrated watchmaker from Geneva, invented and patented this design. He made world time watches for Geneva's most famous firms including Patek Philippe, Rolex, Vacheron & Constantin, and Agassiz. His production totaled only 455 movements for world time pocket watches, wristwatches, and clocks, produced at an average rate of 13 pieces per year. His work is easily recognizable by the distinctive shape of the hour hand.
At the request of a group of citizens of Geneva who wanted to express their thanks to the Allies at the end of the Second World War, Louis Cottier produced four world time dress watches for Agassiz in 1946 with gold and enamel-decorated cases.They were presented to Winston Churcill, President Harry Truman, Joseph Stalin and General De Gaulle"
Please read more at:
http://www.bogoff.com/wrist/6238.html
6. After this Agassiz -the first wristwatch with WorldTime in the world :), designed by Louis Cottier, a man which was a bold designer of other also unique watches
http://www.chronomania.net/forum/forum_ ... _KzeMkpoht
some other big watchmakers produced in early 50's, limited numbers of Worldtime wristwaches: e.g Breitling Unitime, Tissot Navigator World Time etc etc
http://www.matthewbaininc.com/watch-details/1424
http://hodinkee.squarespace.com/blog/20 ... world.html
In the 1960-1970, some other watchmakers - and this time not only the most expensive ones - produced similar watches: e.g Edox Geoscope, Enicar Sherpa 600 etc etc
http://largevintagewatches.blogspot.ro/ ... timer.html
7. In 1969, the Yema watch company, produced an outstanding piece of watchmaking, the Yema WorldGraf (Patent Pend), with a design somehow different from all other Worldtime watches:
https://sites.google.com/site/yemaniase ... annee-1969
8. Some years after the Yema Worldgraf, the rarest Yema "Northern Star" Quartz appeared as an unique (anniversary?) Yema's tribute to the early Worldtime Agassiz (e.g. please see a comparison from the above photos between the Agassiz and Yema day-night inner disk and the external world towns dial), Breitling Unitime etc and early Yema WORLDGRAF watches, but for the first time with a quartz movement!
One of the the main Yema experts from Yema saga blog online claimed that this Yema Worldtime Quartz watch is from 1973 - a year that I really doubt to be accurate, but for sure it is the first Quartz watch with Hands, having also a World Time Dial!.
Its chronology, according to the Yema Saga blog may be seen on the below URL:
"1973 A l'occasion de son 25ème anniversaire, Yema produit la Worldtime à quartz. Elle est dotée d'un disque pour les fuseaux horaires et les grandes villes du monde."
https://sites.google.com/site/yemaniach ... -horlogere
Best regards,
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Every watch should have its own story...consequently, a watch collector has to be a good storyteller :)
) movement 
