I had never previously spent any significant amount of time with a pocket watch, but over the past few months, I've kept both timepieces on my desk as I've worked from home, and part of my daily routine has involved winding and interacting with them. That's when, during a Thanksgiving visit with my grandparents, I received a pair of pocket watches – one lever-set Hamilton, one South Bend – that were originally owned by my great-grandfather. Pocket watches are often overlooked among contemporary watch collectors, and I was guilty of doing as much for years, until around this time in 2019. In addition to the two chronographs I've detailed above, I would also like to briefly direct your attention to a Longines pocket watch from the 1920s that's just landed in the HODINKEE Shop.

Oh, and it's also delivered on its original Bund strap. Make the whole package yours right now in the HODINKEE Shop. With an authentic military heritage (as indicated by the caseback engraving), a unique aesthetic, and an attractive, interesting movement beating inside, this Junghans chronograph would make an excellent addition to the collection of anyone interested in how military history connects to watchmaking. So you can imagine my surprise when I first saw the J88 caliber used inside today's watch, as highlighted in the lower right image – it's quite the looker, right? This gold-plated, manually wound movement was designed to be exceptionally shockproof for its era, runs in 19 jewels, and features a Breguet hairspring and a column wheel for clean, crisp actuation of the piston pushers. Now, to be completely honest, I'm far better acquainted with Junghans' Max Bill series of design-minded and MoMA-approved dress watches – which, coincidentally, started production a few years prior to this watch's release – than the company's history of chronograph production for the West German military.

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