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.