Watches & Cufflinks - Tourbillon Movement

When you like watches and cufflinks, it makes sense to enjoy them together. So I started hunting for cufflinks with watch movements and managed quite a collection. Here I feature some cufflinks with tourbillon movements.

These cufflinks are Made in China, as with may things but I must say that they are finished pretty well. Coming in three color tones, steel, yellow gold and rose gold, the cufflink balance wheel will oscillate when turned. Pictured here with my Movas Tourbillon Limited Edition.

The cufflinks are around the size of a ten cent coin around 19mm across. Just the right size for a cufflink.

The blued screws and the jewels really stand out and enhances the movement.

As a pair, they look like an alien craft.

Compare the two tourbillon. Both Made in China movements.

Here's the yellow plated version.

And the rose gold version.

And the search continues for more of such cufflinks. Let me know if you find them. Here is the link to my other blog on cufflinks.

Watch Movement Cufflinks - Part 2

These cufflinks give me a sense of pride. A pride knowing that I probably have the most extensive collection of watch movement cufflinks.

Call me obsessed but when I embark on a collection, I embark on a collection… I take time and pains to search and suss out the different kinds of watch movement cufflinks. Here is part 2 of the coverage. You can find part 1 here.

This Seiko movement cufflink is mounted onto a cufflink blank but unfortunately, one was badly scratched. I guess I have to find a way to polish that off.

A pair of Gruen minus the barrels.

A non matching pair of Wyler and Bulova movements mounted on a special plate.

A P43 Belmar Calibre plus a Camy movement.

A pair of matching Macy movements mounted on a rectangular plate.

A matching pair of Benrus movements with the attached crown.

Did you know Sears made mechanical watches? Look at the cufflink on the left. It says Sears Roebuck & Co.

Couldn't figure out this one… but unusual nonetheless.

And a Miyota quartz movement.

And finally a pair of non-matching Olympic Watch Co., and Allemann & Gisiger. Never heard of either watch companies but they use similar movements.

The next thing I need to be doing is to find ways to polish and restore some of these back to its old glory. Have to figure a way to do that.

Watch Movement Cufflinks - Part 1

I started with collecting cufflinks and gradually started to appreciate watches. So I thought it made sense to collect watch movement cufflinks. And the journey began...

Up until 5 years ago, such watch movement cufflinks were hard to come by. Today with the proliferation of social media, blog shops and Amazon, there are many such cufflinks to be found - some pretty good. Some of these are my earlier year collection which is housed in a red leather box. This is the first part of a two part report on some of the cufflinks in this collection.

As you can see, many of these are old vintage movements, stripped and cleaned before being mounted onto a cufflink blanks. Some of these come with matching movements while some are not. But what is interesting is that many brands use similar watch movements.

This Berthoud movement cufflink is mounted onto a cufflink blank that is also a small locket.

A rectangular Elgin movement - each finished differently. The one on the right is ribbed while the one on the left is unfinished. But both similar movements.

A pair of identical Gruen movement mounted on a flower cufflink blank.

A pair of identical Bulova movement. Many of these movements come with balance wheel and all the barrels and wheels intact.

And a pair of identical Hamilton movement - presumably calibre 757.

A pair of identical movements but from different brands - heard of Imperial or Royce watch company? Unfortunately, the movements are not well kept. I should find time to polish them and try to restore them to their old glory.

A well mounted rectangular movement for watch company Berman. A Swiss movement for an American watch brand.

A mechanical Timex movement - for a ladies timepiece I guess.

An un-named movement - rather pretty though.

And a well decorated Bulova movement - perlage. Rather flat movement which I can imagine was housed in a flat case - flat for those days...

In all, I supposed I have about 200 pairs of watch movement cufflinks of all kinds. I have also started making some on my own - buying movements off eBay, cleaning them and mounting them. I had posted an earlier post - check out the report. Stay tuned for more to come.

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.