Dr. Octagon: 1960s Reid 30 Jewel Superautomatic Wrist Watch

My friend Rob also picked up two cool retro wristwatches, which he showed me whilst in town. One was a supercool 1970s Seiko Auto. Unfortunately I didn’t get a good image of it. He also picked up this 1960s Reid Superautomatic. With its eight sided bezel, arena-shaped numeral ring and mother of pearl dial, it’s trying too hard style-wise. In the 1960s, watchmakers were indulging in a “jewel war” — a market ploy to jam extra jewels into watch movements to make them sound fancier. A fully jewelled mechanical watch should have 17 to 23 jewels. Because it has the added rotor, an automatic watch could have 30 functional (although not necessary) jewels. After that it just get silly. In this case, the 7 extra rubies make it a “super” automatic.

(By the way, synthetic rubies or sapphires are used in watch movements to reduce friction — and therefore wear and tear — on the moving parts of the mechanism. The jewels themselves have no value as gems.)