Two Basic Types of Pocket Watches You Should Know About

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Pocket watches are high fashion accessories. It is a sign of classy lifestyle that lets one enjoy the luxury of having enough time to pull up the strings, flip open the case and read time. It is a fashion statement and a strong status symbol. These intricate timepieces come in two basic types, based on appearance and case style. The open-face type does not have the outer cover leaving the dial exposed. Whereas, in Hunter-case type, the dial is always covered with a protective case.

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Open-faced pocket watches do not feature metal lid.

Open Face Pocket Watches

These watches dates back to 1876, when Franciszek Czapek first came up with his craftmanship. These watches are also known as Lepine. Here the pendent is located at 12:00 and the sub second dial is located at 6:00. The glass cover or the crystal is thick, which can go up to 2.5 mm and they have an outer edge. For style connoisseurs open faced pocket watches might not be the best choice. Open-faced watches with the winding stem at 3:00 and sub-second dial at 6:00 are known as “side-winder”. Most of the early pocket watches were open-faced.

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Hunter-case pocket watches were used by fox hunters in England.

Hunter-case Watches

Hunter-case Watches comes with a hinge, featuring primarily the protective case for the crystal dial. In this type, the crystal is generally made of thin glass which could be as thin as 0.4 mm to 0.5 mm. They are brittle and while closing the lid, one should be careful not to press the case in the middle. These watches look trendy as the glass is slightly convex or mostly flat.

These watches were designed for fox hunters of England. In French, this type of watch is also known as “savonnette”, as they resemble a round soap bars. In early hunter-case watches, the lid-hinge is placed at 9:00, which the stem is at 3:00. However, most modern watches have them on 12:00 and 6:00 like open case type.

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 Half-hunter case pocket watches lets to view time without opening the lid.

There are several types of hunter-case pocket watches depending on the type of case. One common variation is the half-hunter case watch is half-hunter or demi-hunter. In this variant, the center of the outer lid has a glass panel that let’s to view the hands. Also, the hours are marked in the outer lid, so that time can read without lifting the lid. Generally, blue color is used to mark the lid.