1920’s Solid Yellow Gold Harwood Bumper Automatic

About the Item

Vintage Watch Corner I’d know for bringing pristine Art Deco time pieces. Well, this offering is a very hard to find piece. John Harwood had a special place in horological history. What you are looking at is on of the original 20-30 thousand original automatic wrist watches produced. It so special, I own three. I acquired this from a prominent watch collector in France. I have had it less than a year. It runs beautifully as of this listing. You have a golden opportunity to own watch history. Don’t wait. if you have been collecting watches, there is a good chance you don’t have this in your collection. I md3 the hard decision to just service the watch mechanically and not visually improve any other part of the watch. I wanted as authentic as possible. I will list this for sale for one month as of 3/30/24, if it has not sold by 4/30/24, it will go in my private collection. I have a sterling silver, I have a steel with chrome plating, I have a 14 karat green gold one, I have 9 carat solid pink gold one. This could round out my collection. This unique timepiece has had the following complete: Total mechanical teardown service The Solid Yelllow Gold Case has been hand cleaned and hand polished, no buffing machines were used I elected due the rarity of the watch not to have the dial refinished. it is untouched. it is remarkable for almost 100 years young. Please know that this watch is much smaller than traditional watches today. Please examine the pictures carefully. Know what 28MM is like. Watches were much smaller in the 1920’s. The watch case has fixed lugs, I have outfitted this treasured with a brand new opened ended black band with white top stitching, period correct look! If you are looking for a stem and crown, this watch designed not to have a traditional setting mechanism, it is one of the design hallmarks of the a Harwood Watch. Read the fabulous Harwood History below. What a watch own and pass down to another generation THE WORLD‘S FIRST MANUFACTURER OF AUTOMATIC WRIST WATCHES John Harwood Inventor of the first automatic wristwatch. Having obtained the Swiss patent in 1924, the watch did not go into production until 1928. This was due to perfecting the movement and selling the concept to Swiss manufacturers. The development and production was first by A.Schild and then by Blancpain and Fortis. The winding of the movement was by a centrally pivoted weight which would swing when the arm was moved. The hand setting was done by turning the knurled bezel, thus having no need for a stem or button. The watches were sold until 1931 when the company closed in the recession. Harwood: John Harwood, an English watchmaker, founded the Harwood watch company in the early 1920’s. Harwood had a vision of a new, more reliable wristwatch. Recognizing that dust and dampness were decisive factors leading to most wrist watches inaccuracy and functional problems, Harwood looked to develop a watch with a winding mechanism inside the watch. This would eliminate the need for an opening in the case for the winding shaft. A chance observation gave John Harwood a decisive idea. Children playing on a see-saw gave him the idea for his legendary “self-winding mechanism”. On 16th October 1923, John Harwood registered his invention at the Federal Office for Intellectual Property of the Swiss Confederation at Berne. He had travelled to Switzerland (watchmaking center of the globe) to locate the perfect “technical conditions” to help him realize his invention. On 1st September 1924, he was issued with patent No. 10 65 83 for this pioneering invention. At the 1926 Basle Trade Fair Harwood exhibited the world’s first automatic wristwatch in serial production. Based on his patent, the company produced watches through factories in Swizerland, London, France, and the US. For the most part, the Harwood watch was produced and marketed to the public mainly between 1929 and 1931. This innovative watch used a small weight iside the watch that would swing and bump back and forth racheting a small gear which wound the watch. The watch had no crown and was set by rotating the bezel. A special mechanism would disengage the watches automatic “bumper” movement, and engage the hands for setting. When setting the watch, a white dot in the dial opening above the “6” appears. Once set, the user would have to rotate bezel in the opposite direction, re-engaging the movement, and a red dot in the dial opening above the “6” appears, signalling the readiness of the movement. The Harwood Watch company failed in 1931 and the patent expired. The further development to this automatic watch can be attributed to this invention, and John Harwood has gone down in history as its pioneer. In the universe of wrist watches, The HARWOOD is an important historical piece, and extremely saught after by collectors. 1928 “Ladies and gentlemen, present and absent! When you listen to the radio, think also about how people have come to possess this wonderful tool of communication. The origin of all technical achievements is divine curiosity and the playful instinct of the tinkering and brooding researcher, and not least the constructive imagination of the technical inventor. And everybody should be ashamed who uses the wonders of science and engineering without thinking and having mentally realized not more of it than a cow realizes of the botany of the plants which it eats with pleasure.” Quote from the opening speech by Albert Einstein, broadcasted live on radio on the occasion of the 7th International Radio Show in Berlin. The fantastic opportunities provided by radio enabled a broader segment of the population to receive information and news in the future. The driving force behind the economic boom of the “golden” twenties was technological progress achieved since the turn of the century, which had produced a wide variety of new consumer products. Streamlined production processes, stagnating sales markets and generous lending practices by banks led to the global economic crisis of 1929, which was triggered by the stock market crash of October 14 when share prices collapsed on the New York Stock Exchange. The HARWOOD Watch Company lost its sponsor, and its burgeoning, international success came to an abrupt halt. In 1931 the HARWOOD Automatic with its hammer winding mechanism encountered competition with the invention of the “Rotor”, a patented new winding system, which wound the mechanism by rotating a weight through 360 degrees. During the promotion of the Rolex Oyster Perpetual, HARWOOD and Rolex exchanged correspondence about the identity of the inventor of the automatic winding system. An agreement was reached and Rolex changed its advertisement, as shown in the example below . A portrait of John Harwood was included in the Rolex advertisements. A sincere apology by Rolex in 1956 gave John Harwood full credit as the inventor of the world’s first automatic wristwatch.

Creator:

Autorist, John Harwood

Case Material:

9k Gold,Yellow Gold

Strap Material:

Leather

Case Shape:

Round

Movement:

Case Dimensions:

Height: 0.4 in (10 mm)Width: 1.11 in (28 mm)Diameter: 1.11 in (28 mm)

Style: