No Bones About It
A trip to an antique book store led us to find one of the earliest designs of the sought
after skeleton timepiece. With a 227-year-old design, Stauer has brought back the past in
the intriguing old world geometry of the Stauer 1779 Skeleton. See right through to the
precision parts and hand assembled movement and into the heart of the unique timepiece. It's
like seeing an X-Ray inside the handsome gold filled case. Beauty is only skin deep but the
Engineering Goes Right to the Bone. Intelligent Collectors of vintage mechanical watches have
grown bored with mass produced quartz movements. Like fine antique car collectors, they look
for authenticity, but they also want practicality from their tiny machines. Inspired by a
rare museum piece dating to 1779, we engineered this classic with $31,000,000 worth of
precise Swiss built machinery to create the intricate gears and levers. So the historians
are thrilled with the authenticity and the demanding engineers are quite impressed with
the technical performance.See All the Way Through. The crystal on the front and the see
through exhibition back allow you to observe the gold-fused mainspring, escapement, balance
wheel and many of the 17 rubies work in harmony. The balance wheel oscillates at 21,600
times per hour for superb accuracy. The crocodile embossed leather strap adjusts from 6 1/2"
to 9" so it will fit practically any wrist. So give it a little wind and the gears roar to life.
We took the timepiece to George Thomas, a noted historian and watch restorer for major
museums, and he dissected the 110 parts of the vintage movement. He gave the "1779" top
reviews. "It is possible to build it better than the original, and your new skeleton requires
so little maintenance." When we shared the price with him, George was stunned. He said that
no other luxury skeleton can be had for under $1000. But we pour our money into the watch
construction, not into sponsoring yacht races and polo matches. So you can
wear a piece of watch making history and still keep most of your money in your pocket, not
on your wrist.
