intime » 16 Mar 2016, 13:04
Hello
Thank you all for the kind reaction.
@khef, as per my own observation, each country has it own watch collectors community. Many of these communities have documented and categorized watches distributed for national use to a greater extent. I was wondering if Turkish community has done similar research ?
It goes without saying that former Ottoman Empire meant a vast territory therefore many "colonial" exports, as well many big or small and less important watch dealers, however they are all part of the watch "fauna" that left a bit of watch historical mark throughout history, so I suppose it's worth looking further into it. Through collectibles, one can always improve personal knowledge, even about national heritage.
@hozburun, thanks for the advise.
@cct, true enough. Last November, I have visited the Granz Bazaar vintage dealers, but I haven't really seen a good condition Omega pocket watch. I have seen though some nice Longines, including dual time zones, but I have less interest in the St. Imier's factory.
I have also checked the open fair near the Bazaar and the University, but besides some less important stuff, I haven't really seen anything nice. If there would be a specific vintage watch fair like in Barcelona, Paris, Parma, Munich, Koln, Budapest, Vienna, etc. it would probably be much easier, however I have no knowledge about such a fair in Istanbul.
@ankerhemmung, as far as I could translate your message, here are my thoughts:
Ottoman dialed watches, delivered to the Empire's small or important dealers, highly ranked officials, monarchs, etc. have been around from the early beginnings of watchmaking, to modern days, in all sort of forms and powered with all sorts of movements, from early fusee to cylinder, to table clocks with anker escapements and finally to lever escapements, some of them being crafted by brilliant minded masters of Europe. Most likely, this was the fashion to this part of the world, thus many have resisted to current day.
Among many others, Omega Watch Company was one of the manufacturers to deliver complete watches to the Ottoman Empire market.
Considering the various territorial changes within the Ottoman Empire and the decisional climate that ultimately led to Republic of Turkey, and it's introduced reforms, such as the Adoption of the new Turkish (Latin) Alphabet in 1929, would significantly reduce my research to a small period of time.
The Brandt company started to produce watches since 1894 with the Omega trademark. Thus my research for an Omega pocket watch with an Ottoman dial would be anywhere between 1895 to 1929.
Most of the watches at the end of 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, delivered to the Ottoman Empire market have been observed having key wind and setting mechanisms. Maybe a traditionalism in the market's request.
Although most of pocket watches delivered to European countries at the turn of the century had already migrated towards crown wind and pin (or lever) set, and even cylinder movements started to be left behind (for their inaccuracy), the fashion within the Ottoman Empire market would only change much later, after the Art Nouveau period.
The same trend has been observed to the British market, with the amendment that the UK manufacturers were still producing a large quantity of the ebauches that powered the pocket watches sold throughout the Kingdom.
This is yet another reason for which the Ottoman market is abundant in key wind watches like Bilodes (Zenith), Longines, Dent, Prior, etc. but is not so uncommon finding key wind Omega pocket watches either.
Omega has been present on the Ottoman market from their early beginnings, delivering watches in both types, either in key set and wind (up to possibly 1915) and crown wind and set up to 1929, so I would not say the deliveries were limited or that these are now rare, but maybe harder to find with a decent dial.
As it happens with the implementation of every new set of rules, the new alphabet may have not been approved by traditionalists, thus it may well be possible that Omega watches with Ottoman dials would have been delivered even after 1929.
It is also known that the Latin Alphabet was a matter discussed as well around 1923 so it was only a matter of time until the new regulation came in effect.
Another interesting fact is that the Omega became the Official Turkish railway watch in 1926 for the Smyrna (Izmir) gulf route. Thus this happened before the adoption of the new alphabet. I would be curious to see such a watch, and especially the dial of such a specimen.
However, I am not particularly looking for an official watch, as I have previously mentioned. I would be happy with any type of watch that would fall into the Ottoman dial theme.
So my quest continues!
/F