When I was in Bangkok during
my weekend flea market visit, I was offered a Jardur chronograph at US$1400.
Honestly I know very little of the watch as my main focus has been with Rolex.
However, since the watch has an interesting black gilt dial and attractive
hands, I have decided to buy it.
Later when I start to find
out more information on the watch, I then realized that Jardur is a really
interesting brand and the brand is held high in many collectors dream. The Jardur Bezelmeter is one
of the most uniquely designed and magnificent watches that came out of the
1940’s.
The Jardur Company of 874
Broadway, New York was a manufacture of “Navigation Instruments” as well as an
importer of the Jardur Bezelmeter and Super FlightMaster aviation wristwatches
and chronographs. It is a company who ordered watches in Switzerland. Produced in extremely small quantities and intended for aviation, they were tool watches that were sold in the Post Exchanges (PX) of the American Army and Navy. While they were never officially issued to the military, many army aviators and personnel purchased and used these in action.
Described as a cockpit instrument for the wrist, there is a graduated countdown scale engraved into the rotatable bezel, where the user can align duration hours with the hour hand to keep track of flight time. Furthermore, there is a red degree meter scale on the dial, from 0 to 180 and alongside the chronograph function, the user is able to measure turns while flying. Standard turn rates were 3 degrees a second and this is very unique as most wrist watches did not feature these, even those that were made for aviation
As a result,
very few of these watches are available in the market thereby giving it a cult
status. Look an example here, the watch has a 38mm stainless steel case, black
glossy dial, multiple gilt scales, huge radium filled cathedral hands. It comes
with a Valjoux 72 movement. like what the article said, This is a fantastic
watch for both the horological and the aviation enthusiast.
De Niro wearing a vintage Jardur chronograph in this movie Ronin in 1998
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