Saturday, April 28, 2007

Longines 1930s Vintage Weems Wristwatch US Patent 2008730




Rare Longines Weems 17 jewel movement wristwatch in good running condition, Dial reads "Longines Weems U.S. pat. 2008730". The watch also has a name engraved on the case back. It has two crowns, both of which work well. It has an old, possibly the original, band...The Weems, along with the Lindbergh Hour Angle Watch, are arguably the two most famous watches produced by Longines.

Lt. Commander Philip Van Horn Weems, U.S. Navy, taught navigation at the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Working with Longines, he devised a wrist watch that could be adjusted for time error. (Correct time was critical to air travel at the time in calculating position, time to destination, full consumption, and so forth). The wearer would rotate the movable bezel, keeping the 60-second mark over the sweep seconds hand, until a minute tone was broadcast over the airplane’s radio (Greenwich Civil Time is broadcast by a radio signal every minute). At that point, the wearer stops turning the bezel (in sync with the seconds hand) and locks it into place with the crown at 2:00. Thus, any deviation from Greenwich Civil Time can be observed and compensated for when making any critical calculations.

Price $USD 425.00 plus shipping. PAYMENT: Bank transfer or by arrangement.

SOLD

1 comment:

Ted Cossins said...

Hello, I have linked to this nice explanation of the use of the Weems watch, so please don't delete the post ;-)

You might want to update the patent number in the title, 4 at the end in place of 0.

Great Blog,

T.C.