A Vintage Watch Face For President's Day

Wasn't it just Christmas? And not just any Christmas, but Christmas of 2013? Although it feels like the last Ripples With Time blog post was just yesterday, it turns out that it was actually three years ago. Time certainly flies when all of your watches are non-working vintage clock faces mounted on bottle caps! Lost years aside, it is three days until President's Day and time to discover whether there is a watch to properly capture this distinguished event.

President's Day is a holiday originally established in 1885 to celebrate President George Washington. Although the day that awards us a three day weekend in February is still officially called "Washington's Birthday", it's popularly seen as a celebration of all presidents past and current. 1885 was even further in the past than our last blog post and throughout all of those years presidents have been wearing or carrying some incredible wrist and pocket watches. Who wouldn't love to be able to reach into their pocket and pull out the Zizlavsky Pocket Watch owned by President Woodrow Wilson?

This intriguing time piece is probably in a museum somewhere next to other rare antiques we wish we stumbled upon in a garage sale. In fact any of the watches worn by our former leaders would have been a great find! President Eisenhower was the first president to wear a Rolex, but Harry Truman owned a Vacheron Constantin so it's not like other presidents were skimping on the watch bling. Apparently President Clinton caused quite a fuss in the fashion world by dialing back the fancy and wearing a Timex Ironman Digital Watch.

Sure it's a little geeky, ugly and not something anyone would ever want to turn into a necklace, but did the Washington Post style section really need to describe it as a "wrist gargoyle'?
​This actual gargoyle is not amused!

But this one is...

Of course President Clinton is a watch collector these days and has been spotted wearing everything from Jaeger-LeCoultre to Audemars Piguet so this jolly Hunchback of Notre Dame watch is extremely unlikely to be in his daily rotation.

It's become clear that beautiful vintage presidential watches abound, but does that make George Washington's antique Jean-Antoine Lepine pocket watch the perfect pairing for President's Day? Not at all! Ease your vintage urges with this noble watch necklace,

and then get yourself a watch that allows you to gaze upon the face of your favorite president every time you feel bored in a meeting.

Happily, that dull, watch-staring-inducing meeting won't be this coming Monday because we will all be lounging at home in our PJs and vintage necklaces loving the heck out of our presidential day off.
(For an extremely thorough look at the time pieces  from every single President since George Washington check out this amazing article by Eric Wind at Hodinkee.com)