# Cleveland Indians or New York Yankees?



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

*Cleveland Indians*:










*New York Yankees:*


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## Rotundus (May 7, 2012)

drinking before lunch even on a sunday is a bad idea :wacko:


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## martinus_scriblerus (Sep 29, 2008)

I know where this is going. Stay tuned for a pretty interesting thread.


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## PDXWatchCollector (Nov 15, 2013)

I'm assuming you finally got a set of the Electro Chrons with the team logos on the dial, Paul? Either that, or you're going to be showing us more of Dave's collection?

Either way, I can't wait to see more!! :thumbsup:

Oh, and for me? Cleveland Indians, all day long! The Yankees are the evil empire! :bash:


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Van, you're right, I'm going to be showing you two of Dave's Wittnauer Electro-Chrons....which I'm just about to return to him. As I'm not a US citizen, nor a baseball fan, I'm going to go with the New York Yankees version as my favourite, purely because the quality of the dial transfer is so much better than the Cleveland Indians one.

Both watches contain the first Swiss electric movement, the Landeron 4750.

First up, the *Cleveland Indians Wittnauer Electric*. Presented to Bob Lemon on the 23rd June 1963 as part of the 1943 Anniversary Game.




























Now the *New York Yankees Wittnauer Electro-Chron*. Presented to Bucky Walters on the 28th July 1962 as part of the Old Timers Day:




























Now here is the interesting bit....Joe DiMaggio, from the New York Yankees, was also presented with one of these Wittnauer Electro-Chrons on exactly the same day and the same event as Bucky Walters. Sadly, Dave does not own the Joe DiMaggio version, but it did come up for auction with Christie's on 24 April 2008 in New York with an estimate of between $2000 and $3000.....it fetched $13,750.

From the Christie's website:

"The present watch was presented to Joe DiMaggio on July 28, 1962 at Old Timers' Day. This long-standing Major League Baseball tradition, most commonly associated with the New York Yankees, was initially conceived in the late 1930s as a day to celebrate the lives and accomplishments of baseball greats, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. However the first official New York York Yankees Old Timers' Day was not held until 1946 and has continued each year since. Given the enduring greatness of his career, it is only fitting that Joe DiMaggio was recognized with this accolade."










Besides being a great baseball player, here is Joe's other claim to fame....he was married to Marilyn Monroe for a while:










Last of all, a question for all you Electro-Chron nerds (that will be just me and Dave then  ), why did Bucky receive an EC with the full case back (i.e. it took the larger WD-5 battery), while Joe received one with a battery hatch case back (i.e. it took the smaller WD-4 battery)? Very strange since they both received their watches on the same day..... :wacko:


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## PDXWatchCollector (Nov 15, 2013)

"Last of all, a question for all you Electro-Chron nerds (that will be just me and Dave then  )"

<Ahem!> :tongue: If I may posit some speculation, Ohio and New York are far enough apart geographically that it's quite feasible (likely even) that they were sourced from different, regional suppliers of the watches for each team. Assuming that to be the case, it's more curious that the two types of case backs were in distributors/retailers "live stock" concurrently. Maybe it tells us that late 62/63 was a transition time for Wittnauer in terms of which back they preferred to use ... perhaps tied to which battery (WD-4 or WD-5) was being accepted as more "standard"? Clearly, a number of angles for further investigation just in that line of reasoning ...

As to the players that these particular watches were presented to, while not globally iconic like DiMaggio, to a baseball fan, both Bob Lemon and Bucky Walters are relative giants in the pantheon of greats that have played the game. Very cool to see these in some detail. Thanks to both of you for sharing ... every little bit adds to the collective knowledge!


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

OK Van....you are now a member of the EC Nerd club. :tongue:

But are you getting confused? I was comparing the two New York Yankees ECs : Joe DiMaggio's and Bucky Walters's. One has a battery hatch back and the other has a solid back...but both were presented on the same day...and, I assume, supplied by the same source (factory, local jeweller, who knows...).


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## martinus_scriblerus (Sep 29, 2008)

I have a few more of these Baseball Electro-Chrons and I know of others elsewhere. I will post pictures soon. Can't remember about the battery hatch issue.


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## PDXWatchCollector (Nov 15, 2013)

> OK Van....you are now a member of the EC Nerd club. :tongue:
> 
> But are you getting confused? I was comparing the two New York Yankees ECs : Joe DiMaggio's and Bucky Walters's. One has a battery hatch back and the other has a solid back...but both were presented on the same day...and, I assume, supplied by the same source (factory, local jeweller, who knows...).


Ah, you're right ... I thought you were comparing the Lemon and the Walters ...

I formally withdraw my otherwise genius supposition! artytime: (Of course, there may still be something to the mix marking a time when Wittnauer was adopting a new battery standard ...)



> I have a few more of these Baseball Electro-Chrons and I know of others elsewhere. I will post pictures soon. Can't remember about the battery hatch issue.


One sold a couple of weeks ago on e-bay ... I was surprised to see it eventually go for only three-hundred something ... wasn't in too shabby shape, either, although the Yankees logo on that one was somewhat faded. Of course, it wasn't issued to as significant a player as the ones we're talking about either ...


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## stromspeicher (May 28, 2015)

Silver Hawk said:


> Last of all, a question for all you Electro-Chron nerds (that will be just me and Dave then  ), why did Bucky receive an EC with the full case back (i.e. it took the larger WD-5 battery), while Joe received one with a battery hatch case back (i.e. it took the smaller WD-4 battery)? Very strange since they both received their watches on the same day..... :wacko:


The Bucky back cover has apparently smaller letters but more spaced out (they occupy 5 of the screw-back-facets) and on a wider arc - they overlap the case edge on the first and last letters of '*O*LD TIMERS' DA*Y*'

The DiMaggio back cover has embossed letters that are set on a narrower arc but only occupy 4.5 of the screw-back-facets - more tightly spaced.

So, perhaps these two back covers weren't embossed/engraved by the same person on the same day...


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## martinus_scriblerus (Sep 29, 2008)

> One sold a couple of weeks ago on e-bay ... I was surprised to see it eventually go for only three-hundred something ... wasn't in too shabby shape, either, although the Yankees logo on that one was somewhat faded. Of course, it wasn't issued to as significant a player as the ones we're talking about either ...


That one was bought by Harleymanstan, an occasional contributor here. It was a nice one, and I would have bought it had he not asked me to leave it for him.


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

martinus_scriblerus said:


> I have a few more of these Baseball Electro-Chrons and I know of others elsewhere. I will post pictures soon. Can't remember about the battery hatch issue.


Dave, I hadn't appreciated that one of the other ECs I have here is another New York Yankees one...same date as the others; this one is to "Beau" Bell.

Plus, I found this photo on my hard drive; one of yours from 2009:


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

stromspeicher said:


> The Bucky back cover has apparently smaller letters but more spaced out (they occupy 5 of the screw-back-facets) and on a wider arc - they overlap the case edge on the first and last letters of '*O*LD TIMERS' DA*Y*'
> 
> The DiMaggio back cover has embossed letters that are set on a narrower arc but only occupy 4.5 of the screw-back-facets - more tightly spaced.
> 
> So, perhaps these two back covers weren't embossed/engraved by the same person on the same day...


OK, you also quality for EC Nerd status. :biggrin:

The Beau Bell Yankees EC that I've just located has the same battery hatch back (WD-4) as the DiMaggio one, so I'll get some photos of this one and we can compare. I think the engraving is a little more sophisticated on the Beau Bell watch compared to the Bucky Walters one.

It's a shame there are not better photos of the DiMaggio one....


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## PDXWatchCollector (Nov 15, 2013)

> > One sold a couple of weeks ago on e-bay ... I was surprised to see it eventually go for only three-hundred something ... wasn't in too shabby shape, either, although the Yankees logo on that one was somewhat faded. Of course, it wasn't issued to as significant a player as the ones we're talking about either ...
> 
> 
> That one was bought by Harleymanstan, an occasional contributor here. It was a nice one, and I would have bought it had he not asked me to leave it for him.


I've purchased watches from him before ... glad to hear it went to someone we know!


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