Men's Watch

Classic Men’s Watches – Making a Comeback
By Suzann Kale

Zenith Defy Classic Open El Primero

The main differences between the original Classic Men’s Watch of the early 1900s and today’s replicas is that today’s watches are more dependable and less expensive. As with the originals, they never need winding. Created with Class

Created in 1923 by Swiss watchmaker Ulrich Van-Heusen, this gold toned Steinhausen Classic has a leather wrist band, Roman numerals, and is marked off to the tenth of a second. Today’s version is an exact replica. With the creation of this watch, Van-Heusen founded the now famous Steinhausen brand, named after his father’s home land. At the time, few had heard of wrist watches with such displays. Most still used pocket watches.
But men of wealth and power began wearing the Steinhausen Classic – kings, princes, and emperors from around the world. Soon, those who could afford them, bought the Steinhausen watches and left their pocket watches behind.

Van-Heusen’s Legacy
Not only was Ulrich Van-Heusen a master craftsman, he was also an architect, an inventor and a lover of fine things and distinguished lifestyles.

One of his next watches was the Steinhausen Baron – which Van-Heusen designed exclusively for an Austrian Baron in 1930. This square watch face with its art deco hands, is decorated with a ruby on the main button (where a wind button would be). A red pointer with a moon-shaped tip shows the date in an inner circle of numbers that go from 1 to 31. And a 24-hour dial on the watch face displays day and night with an art deco moon design. Today’s exact replica is in the $250 USD range.

When Van-Heusen’s two sons eventually took over the Steinhausen house, they began selling the watches to distinguished jewelry boutiques and high-end retailers – thus making the watches available on a wider scale.

Today’s Steinhausen Watches
Today Steinhausen watches are noted for their accuracy and high manufacturing standards. They make a perfect gift for the man who wants an impressive but unique watch; a watch with history; a conversation piece as well as a time piece. Photos of some of these distinctive watches are available at the Treasure Rocket Watch Shoppe.

Although Steinhausen watches are still handcrafted, and made only with quality components, their $200 to $300 prices are surprisingly low. Comparable contemporary watches – some with sleek, chrome, futuristic designs; some with chronograph functions, bi-retrograde perpetual calendars, and moon phase indicators – sell for thousands of dollars, with $5,000 considered by Forbes to be just an average watch. Patek Philippe and Girard-Perregaux pieces can cost up to $200,000. Still at modest prices, Steinhausen watches come with all kinds of what watch aficionados call complications. Look for the Steinhausen Aerostat Classic, the Steinhausen Leonardo Swiss with its stainless steel case and see-through face, and one of the most accurate watches in the world, the Steinhausen Open Heart, with a window on part of the face showing the heart of the watch’s movements.

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