Looking for a comprehensive guide/book to put a date on watch movements

[Max50916]

Hello! I've started a hobby of buying old watches in need of repair and overhauling them for my personal collection and to resell. I'm having a hard time determining the exact years and sometimes decades that a lot of my watches were made and I was wondering if anyone knew of any good books or links to help nail the production dates of a wide variety of brands and movements. For example I'd like to nail 100% if a chronograph I've just restored is from the 50's or 60's (landeron 48 movement, the brand is "Canoe") but I'm having a hard time determining for sure the exact decade. Same with some of my military style watches, I know they're from either the 40s or 50s but would like a resource to know for sure. Does such a resource exist?

[Graziano]

Hi there, Ranfit website is a good resource for movement date of manufacture and other information such as mainspring, stem etc sizing, check it out http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&2&2uswk

And to determine what decade the case style comes from, this is an interesting read https://vintagedancer.com/vintage/history-mens-watches/

This is a good book as well expensive but a lifetime of knowledge in a book.... https://www.boffinsbooks.com.au/books/9783791385068/watch-a-twentieth-century-style-history

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Graziano

[Max50916]

On 2/10/2021 at 1:45 AM, Graziano said:

Hi there, Ranfit website is a good resource for movement date of manufacture and other information such as mainspring, stem etc sizing, check it out http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&2&2uswk

And to determine what decade the case style comes from, this is an interesting read https://vintagedancer.com/vintage/history-mens-watches/

This is a good book as well expensive but a lifetime of knowledge in a book.... https://www.boffinsbooks.com.au/books/9783791385068/watch-a-twentieth-century-style-history

 

Thanks so much! This is really helpful information!