Vintage Watches A 1930s Omega 'Trident,' A 1950s Vulcain Cricket, And A 1950s Girard-Perregaux Gyromatic

To view the entire current selection of vintage watches available in the HODINKEE Shop, click here.

Added to an already excellent page of offerings in the Vintage Watches section of the HODINKEE Shop are three simple-yet-interesting examples from Omega, Vulcain, and Girard-Perregaux. While these are not the heavy hitters, with our primary focus on Rolex sport watches last week, it was time for a curveball in the weekly vintage drop. Consider this our best off-speed to keep everyone on their toes.

The Vintage Team takes their picks below with Saori giving us the rundown on an Omega with all the details collectors love to see, Sean expressing a found love of Vulcain's flagship Cricket, and Rich detailing what makes this Gyromatic so special. Check out the slideshow, above, for a selection of vintage watches still available in the Shop, or read on for the full story on these three surprise examples.

It's inevitable that we often feature the classic vintage sports Rolex pieces. Love it or hate it, people want to see our vintage Submariners, GMT-Masters, and Explorers and talk about them, and the proof is in the pudding with over 50 comments from last week. We like to hear from our readers and also enjoy the equally engaging banter that happens now and then, so please keep it coming! But sometimes, we like to do a 180 and go for an unexpected vintage piece like this funky Trident. You didn't see this Omega coming a week after featuring "Submariner vs. GMT-Master," did you? 

I'm the first one to admit, it feels refreshing to have a nice, unmistakably vintage piece with patina on the dial and all. It's not perfect in the way we want our vintage pieces to be these days, and that's what I find attractive about this piece. I always look at the proportions of the layout. The case is a modest 29mm diameter, but the extended lugs and the stepped bezel give an illusion of a wider impression. I know there will be two camps on the patina on the dial. But I'd say it is an honest patina that adds character to the watch. But what I particularly like are the charming trident-shaped hour hand and the hour markers. To me, as subtle as it may seem, the lightly faded applied Roman hour markers bring elegance to the intensity of the overall patina on the dial. I think vintage enthusiasts can attest to this feeling, but to have the vintage accessories together with the watch is such a nice treat as well, and this one comes with a grey vintage strap and a little presentation box which are welcomed surprises.

On a technical front, this Trident model follows a very similar aesthetic to the Medicus model line introduced in 1937 which was Omega's first watch to feature a center seconds. It was an inventive feature as the Medicus design allowed for better legibility with a larger seconds hand than a more common subsidiary seconds hand at 6 o'clock, which assisted doctors and nurses to more accurately measure pulses during World War II. That's the beauty of watchmaking, how many of the functions we take for granted today were developed for solving practical problems at hand. Sometimes, I like going back to the basics and rediscovering the little details we were fond of that we forgot along the way. And this neat vintage Trident reminded me of why I fell in love with vintage watches in the first place and still love them to this day.

I can't think of a better example of value proposition in vintage watches than a Cricket. Not only do you get a very useable (if slightly annoying) complication, as well as some real heavy-hitting history. This particular example from the '50s uses the original Cricket case as it debuted in 1947 and has a beautifully simple dial for the amount of instrumentation that's been added. In addition to the rather 1016-esque 3, 6, and 9 dial, this watch adds a black minutes track and at its outermost a blue scale that breaks each hour into ten-minute portions so that the user can more accurately set the alarm. All this, wrapped up in a remarkably sharp case, makes a powerful argument for itself.

I would also like to point out that I'm not the only one who has a strong affinity for this buzziest of watches. Of course, we should all know about the presidential connection – every president since Truman has been gifted one by the brand, well, except George W. Bush. Not his fault: The brand was not operating at the time. Movie star Randall Park has this stunning example in rose gold with a two-tone dial (the same case as we have presented today, I might add). Charlie Dunn of Strictly Vintage Watches picked a luminous example of this most punctual of watches for his Watch of the Week. Lastly and most certainly not least gentleman dealer Eric Wind has this '60s (and many more, as I understand it) grey dial example in his collection. With all of these endorsements, I recommend you quickly head over to the Shop and check out this piece that all the in-the-know folks own.

GP's Gyromatic line debuted in 1957 marketing themselves off of a simple and reliable self-winding system added to ébauche movements. The example we have here utilizes a Girard-Perregaux-signed-and-finished ETA caliber 1256. For me, what first stood out here was the overall look of the piece. It certainly packs a serious punch in a modest 33.5mm case diameter. On the wrist, the presence is much more substantial thanks to a wide-set bezel and a really gorgeous dial tone that sits somewhere between light gold and salmon.

Taking a peek under the hood (or caseback), I was further sold by a nicely finished movement with a cool GP signature in cursive across the winding rotor and a "GXM" import code indicating the watch was originally destined to be sold right here in the US. While this is certainly taking things a bit too far, a US import code will always strike a chord with me similar to the way that Ben Clymer has spoken about Tiffany & Co.-signed dials on vintage Patek. Both, while very different in terms of rarity, ground a vintage watch in the market that I call home, which certainly means something to me. Did I just compare a US import code on a Girard-Perregaux to a Tiffany-stamped Patek? Yes, yes I did.

It's a simple, solid watch that is clearly well-built when handling and wearing. The dial has been particularly well-preserved, perhaps helped by the original lack of lume on the dial and hands – a feature I always look for in dress watches from this era. Get all of the photos and details right here in the HODINKEE Shop.

Questions? Send us a note, or let us know in the comments. Want to sell your vintage watch through the HODINKEE Shop? Email us at vintage@hodinkee.com with some photos. Want to sell your pre-owned watch? Click here.