I looked back at my never-ending wish list and picked out a few watches that resonated with me. From one of the best MIMO dating watches I’ve ever seen on Juvenia arithmo, there’s a different reason why I’ve never added them. Was it too late or hesitant?
…Not found. That’s exactly what happens with the rare MIMO date pointer watch. I first saw it three years ago in a collection of fellow Garrett enthusiasts. He has a very wonderful taste for watches from the 1930s to 1950s. Most impressive is the condition of his watch. They all look like they’re from the Watch Store.
Image: Jack Tan (@horo.my)
Mimi Date Pointer
Jack’s Mimodate Pointer is one of the hells of the clock. Everything about it is so clear that it is impossible to overlook this watch. I thought it was about 32mm, but I would say the jack is probably even smaller, about 30mm. The full steel case stepped around the dial suggests that the steel case is not the daily chrome mimo that has returned.
What captivates me the most is the grandeur of the date track that crushes all the stereotypes. Date clock dials of this era were stacked, and the time tracks attracted premium attention, and the date was pushed into a second plan. Mimo wants to confuse traditional hierarchies, expand the date to a very unusual size and eat time. The space between numbers is very small and blends into one infinite number. But there’s not much spacing needed for another detail of the year, namely the date pointer. Instead of the traditional half-moon shape, there is a full ring. Please look at the whole package with hands and fully aged radium and tell us you don’t want it in your collection.
Image: pushers.io
Zodiac Hermetic Aerospace Jet
There’s something attractive about a 24-hour watch. Perhaps it’s the idea itself. It is very rare to read the time, not just one time, but the time around the dial in the day. Needless to say, the 24-slot time track offers creative design opportunities.
Image: Analog: Shift
The Zodiac Hermetic Aerospace Jet is one of the most interesting and impressive 24-hour time only watches. Still, it’s still simple and clean. There are no redundant boxes or elements. Most of the charm is hidden by the thin, tall font chosen for numbers and the thin red exponent that replaces odd numbers. The font style is timeless and quite sporty. It is beautiful with the winding “hermetic” and “aerospace jet” texts that look torn from an old handwritten book. The dots in the sandy yellow room sitting at the boundary between the hour and minute track are like cherry on a cake.
Image: Time Curator
Juvenia arithmo
Juvenia Arithmo, faithful to that name, was able to perform a variety of calculations by its owners skillfully using logarithmic tables. It was introduced in 1945 and competed with the Mimo Loga and Breitling Chronomat, but both used the slide rule. Many other manufacturers, such as Ollech & Wajs, Heuer, Seiko, my favourite brand, Gallet, have since recreated this idea, including my favorite brands, including Excel-o-graph.
Image: Vintage
Inventor
According to a research article by Heinz Joss, the man behind the idea was Gerald Francis Wittgenstein (1898-1974), an electrical engineer in Switzerland. He later moved to Belgium, but returned to Switzerland during World War II. Having struggled to find a job, he focused on developing a new system of circular slide rules. His designs were licensed to manufacturers who produce both watches using the sliding rules and the circular slide rules themselves, based on all patent systems. He then became director of a Lausanne-based company specializing in railroad maintenance equipment.
Image: Vintage
Juvenia Crystal
A distinctive feature of Juvenia Arithmo is its unique crystallization. Unlike traditional watch glasses, Alicemo crystals have an additional ring-shaped safe above the sliding rules, providing better visibility into the scale and its numbers. Collectors call Alismo crystals “doughnut shape” because the main dial is more covered with individual pieces of the crystal system than the slide rule bezel. This unique double sphere structure not only expands, but also illuminates the details. This is Juvenia, advertised as “Rexscope.” As a result, it is almost impossible to take photos of dead skin cells without distortion or reflection. Also note that it will return to the inside and outside of the case.
Image: Vintage
There are multiple dial and case runs for Juvenia arithmo. Although one example of MIMO date pointer has not resurfaced in the last three years, Alicemo pops up quite regularly. The watch continues to fascinate me, so I can’t say why I’ve never pulled the trigger on it.
Have you ever bought a eavesdropping on you? Feel free to share in the comments.
Header Image: Analog: Shift
