Cufflink Craze - Watch Movement Collection

It started when I was working for The Royal Dutch Carrier KLM. Regular visits to Europe got me noticing cufflinks and the varied types available. My first pair was a quartz watch movement cufflink from Tateossian. Bought it from the inflight sales of KLM no less. That was the first pair of cufflinks and I never looked back since then.

Since I started collecting cufflinks in 1994, I have amassed more than 1,000 pairs of cufflinks. I house them in several cases - three custom made to house trays of cufflinks sorted by category. Among my favorites are mechanical watch movements and ceramic tiles. Some I made myself too. Today, I am featuring the first part of the mechanical watch movements.

Many of these cufflinks come elaborately engraved and some skeletonised. One of my favorite is this pair of skeletonised movement cufflinks. Wind the crown and the balance wheel will oscillate.

A close up of the movement.

This one is the automatic version. See how the rotors are engraved? Not exactly Swiss standard of engraving but then again you can't tell from a distance. These cufflinks are made with China movements - likely Seagull movements. Each cufflink is 2cm across.

A pair of steel and rose gold plated automatic cufflinks. The balance wheel oscillates when the rotor winds the main spring.

There are those which is octagon shaped - AP looking pieces. Similar ST6 movements mounted on the cufflinks. Comes in four variations - steel, black, yellow gold plated and rose gold plated. Shown here are the steel ones.

These are some of the earlier pieces - round cufflinks with mechanical movements. This one without rim.

And this one with the blue rim around the cufflink.

Then there are the smaller oval shaped ones - also with moving balance wheel when fully wound. This one steel.

And this one rose gold plated.

Then there are those with gears - non-moving though. But a nice addition to any collection. This one here is a square piece.

And the round equivalent.

These are the first of the watch movements type and will be posting more of them periodically.