It’s been a busy week. After finishing a 4,000 word article on the history of the Museum Watch, I’ve been catching up on the latest news and thinking about my next vintage story. But slowly, comments have started to come in on our site and in messages on Instagram. One notable comment came from the family of Nathan George Horwitt, who mentioned information about the third prototype of the Museum Watch. We are excited to share what we believe to be the first public look at this watch.
Last week, I wrote an article about the history of the vintage Movado Museum Watch. It was a lot of fun to write. I hope it helped shed some light on the story behind designer Nathan George Horwitt and the early production run of these watches, and perhaps evoked some memories for those of me and my generation who grew up seeing these watches everywhere. At the beginning of the article, I mentioned the prototype models of the Museum Watch; Horwitt made three, donating two of them to the New York City museum. I’d like to briefly revisit those before moving on to the big news.
1947 Museum Watch Prototype by Nathan George Horwitt at the Museum of Modern Art, New York — Image: http://www.moma.org
Museum Watch Prototype 1 — MoMA
The first Museum Watch prototype is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It has a date of creation of 1947. It was accepted by the museum in 1960 as a gift from Nathan George Horwitt. Unfortunately, the watch is no longer on display and only one photo remains on the MoMA website. It is described as being made of white gold with an enameled dial. It was manufactured by Vacheron & Constantin-Le Coultre Watches, Inc. in Switzerland. While the movement was indeed manufactured in Switzerland, Vacheron & Constantin-Le Coultre Watches, Inc. was actually the name of the US distributor. This semantic point will become important in a moment.
1955 Museum Watch Prototype by Nathan George Horwitt at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City — Image: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org
Museum Watch Prototype 2 — Brooklyn Museum
On December 18, 1985, Horwitt donated the second Museum Watch prototype to the Brooklyn Museum in New York City. Interestingly, this watch dates to 1955. Are there any differences between this watch and the MoMA watch? Indeed, the hands of this watch appear to be much longer. Also, we do not know the diameter of either one.
1955 Museum Watch Prototype by Nathan George Horwitt at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City — Image: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org
According to the Brooklyn Museum, the large “2” refers to the second piece. We also see a U.S. design patent number engraved on the case back. This is obviously a later addition, as the patent was issued in 1958. Finally, the case back states “14K Gold D&A” and “Vacheron & Constantin-Le Coultre Watches, Inc.” In my original post, I stated that the prototype was in 18K white gold. I have updated the post with the correct information. What is D&A? It stands for DiVincenzo & Arienti, a watch case manufacturer based in Brooklyn, New York. The company made cases for Omega, LeCoultre, Longines, Vacheron, and others.
1955 Museum Watch Prototype by Nathan George Horwitt at the Brooklyn Museum in New York City — Image: http://www.brooklynmuseum.org
Finally, a side-on shot of the second Museum Watch prototype reveals something odd: this watch, despite its Vacheron roots, features a later Movado crown and “fedora” logo. Perhaps Movado used the watch in a promotional display in the ’60s and decided to add the logo to it. Or perhaps the crown needed to be replaced at some point.
The “missing” museum watch prototype 3
The day after the original article was published, I received a comment from one of Nathan Horwitt’s relatives. I was pleased that the article was received with the respect I intended. But that’s not all. The family mentioned that the third prototype of the Museum Watch is still in the family. They offered to send me a photo and gave me permission to use it in a follow-up article. The photo arrived the next day. It is from the early 2000s, and the watch has passed through another family member’s hands, but it is still running strong.
Nathan George Horwitt’s personal museum watch prototype
To my knowledge, this is the first time this watch has been on public display, having tucked away in obscurity since it was supposedly made in 1947. I don’t know if this is the first model Horwitt made, but it is one of the original three. It’s a watch that Nathan George Horwitt kept for himself, and he appears to have worn it regularly. The 14K white gold case still looks great, but the enameled dial shows traces of the brass base material, and the minute hand appears to have been changed to a more modern one.
Nathan George Horwitt’s personal museum watch prototype case back
The caseback is also consistent with the other watches, showing its 14K gold composition and the D&A case manufacturer’s markings. Finally, the “Vacheron & Constantin-Le Coultre Watches, Inc.” lettering matches the first two prototypes.
lastly
Will the news of the third Museum Watch prototype have the same impact as finding John Lennon’s Patek? Maybe not, but it’s nice to know the watch still exists and is owned by the Horwitt family. As I said in my first article, this was an impactful watch. It’s a design that Movado still produces today and is one of the most famous modern watch designs in history. I hope you enjoyed this announcement!
Thanks again to the Horwitt family for contacting me and kindly sending me photos of the original prototype watch.
