Figgins2
Despite worldwide political problems Racine’s production in 1914 increased due to the successful export to Russia and because of their first important customer, the Japanese merchant Tenshodo-san. Tenshodo founded his business in 1879 in Tokyo; he imported Swiss watches since 1889; in 1913 he was already the sole agent for Narudan, Tissot and Zenith watches……
Feb 14th 2017
sorry for the slight color mix in the black
the white will be af luminova
i have not placed yet
it took a while to restore by hand no plates
case was the hardest they used a aluminum finish
rather than pure aluminum
THIS BABY CAME OUT GREAT WE SIMPLY HAVE NOT HAD OUR NEW LIGHTS COME IN YET —READ BELOW
THIS BABY IS GOING BACK OVER SEAS
CAUSE IT BELONGS TO ONE OF MY BESTEST PATRONS
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JAS STOLE MY TWO HIGH INTENSITY PHOTO LIGHTS FOR HER TANK I HAVE NOT REPLACED YET SO PICS ARE NOT AS GREAT BUT THIS WAS A NEAR 1000 HOUR RESTORE ALL BY HAND HAD AN ALUMINUM COATING FINISH THAT TOOK MONTHS TO REMOVE AND MONTHS TO REBUILD WITH NICKEL |
DIAL IS HAND RESTORE WITH TWO TYPES OF GOLD NO PLATES ALL BY HAND ROCK BLACK CENTER WAS IN TERRIBLE SHAPE ADDED AF LUMINOVA DOTS |
WHAT IS AMAZING IS THE CASE. AFTER REMOVING ALUMINUM COATING THE CASE WAS SO THIN YOU COULD BEND IT WITH YOUR PINKY . SLOW PLATTING FOR OVER TWO MONTHS AND THEN USING A AIR HAMMER BENCH PIECE THEN plating THEN HAMMERING THEN PLATING |
THE MARKERS ARE ORIGINAL REPLATED WITH HI COLOR 24 K GOLD THE TEXTURED AREA THEY SIT ON IS A PASTE GOLD USED IN THE ARTS TO RESTORE GOLD FINISHES IT WILL ALLOW THE TEXTURE TO COME THROUGH THOUGH IT WAS DIFFICULT TO COMPLETE BUT EXPERIENCE THAT ROCK HAD IN THE PAST BUILDING AND CREATING PLACES LIKE COME VISIT ROME AND OTHER GREAT WOOD WORKS WHERE HE HAND CARVED RELIEF’S AND PERFORMED THE FINISHES LIKE IN THE SHOP HE BUILT CAN BE USED IN MINIATURE ..
THE CENTER BLACK AREA WAS MASKED AND BRUSHED IN RELIEF HIGH AND LOW –THE SUB SECONDS WAS ALSO TAKEN COMPLETELY OFF AS TO THE BASE AND MASKED AND SHOT WITH MINIATURE SPRAY GUN TO HAVE THE SWIRL RELIEF SHOW AND THE MARKERS RE PAINTED THEN THE SECONDS HAND PAINTED RED. THE GREATEST DIFFICULTY WAS THE HOLES FOR THE SPRING BARS. ONCE THAT THICK WORN LAYER OF ALUMINUM WAS DISSOLVED OFF –MONTHS!– THE HOLES WERE NEAR GONE, RE-DRILLING AND BUILD UP WORKED BUT IF THEY DO EVER “GO” ROCK CAN WED SOLID WWI WWII STYLE STRAIGHT BARS …. |
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NOTE THAT THE CROWN AND STEM HAD TO HAVE AN OLDER STYLE CUT OUT PLACED TO ALLOW THE MOVEMENT TO SLIP UP AND INTO CARE LIKE POLDER STYLE RATHER THAN PLACED THROUGH THE CASE…. |
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mmmm: many passive hrs spent slowly removing case [non removable] finishes & restoring/building case.with layers. CNC would have been faster but would not have been original.
dial –note this was a 19 stage process. Having plates made faster but 125.00 cost. vs 29.00 paint cost. And my patron just had two expensive restores completed.
bottom line it looks like a original find and clean vs a restore.
here are details on the Duralumin,,, but the case was coated or plated with the product which turned out to be a nightmare because it could not be restored, replated and could not be buffed or cleaned or improved. Rock ha to literally dissolve it completely w/o losing the case itself which nearly occurred. he actually looked through over 300 cases attempting to locate a case . but kept the original and would rebuild it….
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duralumin
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ENICAR S.A. registers the following trademarks: Enicar, Longeau, Etsira, Savillon and Alprosa.
On October 1, 1913 Ariste Racine (1889 – 1958) and his wife Emma Blatt started a ‘Manufacture d’Horlogerie’ (brand name ‘AR’) in the Rue du Crêt 24 in La Chaux-de-Fonds** (Jura Mountains, Canton Neuchâtel, Switzerland). AR employed 1 watch maker and two external technicians. Ariste’s father was a well-known architect and his great grandfather a well-known watch face painter/designer. More members of the Racine family and in-laws in Switzerland and the USA were active in the watch industry . The economic situation in Switzerland during the W.W. I is hard. There are many bankruptcies and export is hampering. As the name ‘Racine’ was already a registered trademark since 1870 (by Jules Racine Sr.), they used the anagram of the family name. Ariste Racine registered his factory and the brand name ‘ENICAR’ on January 6, 1914.Although that brand name is used as his telegram address, only. In his first ad (see above) in November 1914 “Horlogerie Ariste Racine” is the common name. Ariste and Emma used the sun lounge of their home as their factory. They produced a great variety of lever watches with movements ranging from 4 – 17 Lignes*.
One of their first exceptional products was a pocket watch with the possibility to integrate a compass or picture behind a second and smaller door . He registered 5 models of this design officially on February 3, 1915.
La-Chaux-de-Fonds (aka ‘Watch Valley’) is a famous watchmaker’s center for centuries. Many companies, like Girard-Perregaux, Rolex, Omega, TAG-Heuer, Breitling, Invicta, Gallet, etc. started their life and some are still located in this town. It is also the birth place of e.g. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (1887-1965), better known as Le Corbusier, the famous architect. His family was involved in the watch industry as well. And of Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (1878-1941), who emigrated to the USA and started (with two others) the Chevrolet Motor Car Company; in 1915 he sold his shares to William Durant, the founder of General Motors.
Despite worldwide political problems Racine’s production in 1914 increased due to the successful export to Russia and because of their first important customer, the Japanese merchant Tenshodo-san. Tenshodo founded his business in 1879 in Tokyo; he imported Swiss watches since 1889; in 1913 he was already the sole agent for Narudan, Tissot and Zenith watches.
Racine opened in 1914 a radium lab as well. Radium was used on the hands of the (alarm) clocks and watches, making them readable in the dark. Soon their home became too small as business was booming. La Chaux-de-Fonds was the center of Swiss watch makers, resulting in a shortage of good and free technicians. Racine rented a part of the house of his mother in Longeau/Lengnau (northeast of Biel, Canton Bern) in 1916. He named that branch of their business ‘Longeau Watch Co.’
Despite the W.W. I and frequent strike actions in Switzerland sales are flourishing. In 1918 Ariste and his wife Emma bought his mother’s house and land next to it; Longeau became the official seat of the new company. Oskar Racine, Ariste Racine’s brother, is joining the company – still named Longeau Watch Co. – in that same year. Oscar’s own business – a shaft factory in Biel – was closed in May 1930. From 1920 the company started to make its own movements. Until then they used mainly movements of Adolphe Schild (AS).
On April 11, 1932 the company becomes ENICAR Société Anonyme (equiv. to Ltd.), with a nominal capital of 50,000 Swiss Francs. In January 1931 the branch at the Plainpalais in Geneva is closed. In 1934, after securing Military Contracts with the Germans for Longeau Watches, Ariste Racine Jr., son of Ariste and Emma, enters the company and as by October 30, 1939, becomes general director
keeping great time
CLICK ABOVE QUICK CANON 1000 VID
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ROCK RESTORED INCL STRAP & IMPROVED BY ROCK 1700.00 APPRAISAL
D SERIAL G U
German Service Codes
Navy (KM, M or Anchor) Luftwaffe ‘FI’ (Flight) ‘RLM’ (Reich Air Ministry)
Branch Codes
DH: Dienstuhr Heer D: Dienstuhr Luftwaffe DRGM: Deutsches Reich
Gebrauchsmuster
RLM: Reichsluftfahrtministerium KM: Kriegsmarine DU: Dienstuhr (Verwaltung)
Dienstuhr Luftwaffe Dienstuhr Heer Dienstuhr (Verwaltung) Deutsches Reich
GP HERE FOR GERMAN MILITARY WATCHES FREE PDF BY ROCK & ROLL
http://goldsmithtraining.com/?wpfb_dl=348
VINTAGE WWII LONGEAU DH SCREW DOWN CASE BACK GERMAN MILITARY CONVERSION WRIST WATCH WITH 15 JEWEL FHF 2144 MANUAL WIND MILITARY MOVEMENT. AND SIGNED LONGEAU TASCHENUHR LONGEAU FHF 2144 D 1148 G H CASE BACK. THIS LONGEAU HAS A SUB-SECONDS REGISTER DIAL WITH LUMED NUMERAL DOT HOUR MARKERS AND HANDS. THE 1/10TH OFF SET DIAL & ONION CROWN CASE IS BRASS WITH COPPER THEN NICKEL PLATE WITH A THREE NOTCH MILITARY SCREW DOWN CASE BACK. THE ORIGINAL MATTE BLACK PAINTED DIAL HAS SILVER-WHITE WHITE, BOLD, CLEAR PAINTED NUMERALS & 24 HR MILITARY TIME.WITH LUMED HOUR AND MINUTE HAND AND A 10-60 SUB-SECOND REGISTER. THE ORIGINAL GLASS CRYSTAL HAS SOME MINOR SCRATCHES. ATTACHED IS A SCREW DOWN WIRE LUG LEATHER STRAP. THE MINERAL GLASS IS 42mm, THE CASE IS 51mm, THE CASE CASE WITH CROWN IS 57mm. LUG TO LUG IS 61mm. SCREW DOWN CASE BACK IS SIGNED SIGNED D 1148 G H. THE 1937 THROUGH 1942 FHF 2144 MOVEMENT HAS BRIDGE WORK MADE SPECIFICALLY FOR THE GERMAN MILITARY. THIS CONVERSION WATCH HAS A SCREW BACK STYLE WATCH RETAINER RING. MOVEMENT FEATURES: stem wind and set, sub second, Data 18.5”’, Dm= 41.25mm H= 5.0mm 15 jewels f = 18000 A/h power reserve 41h. CONDITION FINE.
1934, after securing Military Contracts with the Germany for Longeau Watches, Ariste Racine Jr., son of Ariste and Emma, enters the company and as by October 30, 1939, becomes general director
AWESOME LATE 1940 TO EARLY 1950 ENICAR. ‘ENICAR IS THE REVERSE OF RACINE. RACINE WAS GALLET WATCH CO MAIN EXPORTER OF GALLET WATCHES AND HAD MANY SIGNED BY HIS COMP. GALLET & RACINE WERE RELATED TO GALLET. GALLE IS THE OLDEST COMPANY WHICH HAD A GALLET FAMILY MEMBER AS CHIEF TOP DOG FROM 1400 TO 2009
NOTE THE SUB-SECONDS REGISTER?? INSTEAD OF HAVING A CENTER SWEEP SECONDS. THIS MODEL HEARKENED TO THE OLD WORLD STYLE.
NOTE THE PINNED DIAL? ……
CASE BACK IS STAINLESS STEEL. THE CASE ITSELF IS DURALUMINUM COATED
Duralumin (also called duraluminum, duraluminium, duralum, duralium or dural) is the trade name of one of the earliest types of age-hardenable aluminium alloys. Its use as a trade name is obsolete, and today the term is mainly used to describe aluminium–copper alloys, designated as the 2000 series by the International Alloy Designation System
Aluminium-90% Copper-4% Magnesium-0.5% Manganese-0.5%
Duralumin first use was in rigid airship frames eventually including all those of the “Great Airship” era of the 1920s and 1930s: the German passenger Zeppelins LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin, LZ 129 Hindenburg, LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II, and U.S. Navy airships USS Los Angeles (ZR-3, ex-LZ 126), USS Akron (ZRS-4) and USS Macon (ZRS-5).[2][3] Its composition and heat treatment were a wartime secret. With this new rip-resistant mixture, duralumin quickly spread throughout the aircraft industry in the early 1930s, where it was well suited to the new monocoque construction techniques that were being introduced at the same time. Duralumin also is popular for use in precision tools such as levels because of its light weight and strength.
Duralumin, its composition and heat treatment, was openly published in the German scientific literature before World War I. Despite this, it was not adopted beyond Germany until after World War I. Reports of German use during World War I, even in such erudite technical journals as Flight, could still mis-identify its key alloying component as magnesium rather than copper.[4] Only after the war did interest begin in its use in the UK.
The earliest known attempt to use duralumin for a heavier-than-air aircraft structure occurred in 1916, when Hugo Junkers first introduced its use in the creation of the Junkers J 3’s airframe, a single-engined monoplane “technology demonstrator” that marked the first use of the Junkers trademark duralumin corrugated skinning. Only the covered wings and tubular fuselage framework of the J 3 were ever completed, before the project was abandoned. The slightly later Junkers J.I armoured sesquiplane had its all-metal wings and horizontal stabilizer made in the same manner as the J 3’s wings had been, along with the experimental and airworthy all-duralumin Junkers J 7 single-seat fighter design, which led to the Junkers D.I low-wing monoplane fighter, introducing all-duralumin aircraft structural technology to German military aviation in 1918.
THE MAIN SITUATION ON THESE AWESOME TIMES PIECES WAS THE FACT THAT CHROME AND OTHER COATINGS WORE OUT OVER TIME. HERE WE WITNESS MOISTURE DAMAGE BUT NOT TO MOVEMENT…..
STAY TUNED…..