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Horological Meandering

Is a big crown really a big Crown - or what to do with some spare time and some callipers

 

Hi All


I've had an Oris Big Crown for the best part of 20 years - I thought stuck me recently when saw the size of it compared against my Seiko Sarx029, is the crown really that big?



Urushi and Big Crown
Urushi and Big Crown



Essential kit
Essential kit



Better shot of the Big Crown
Better shot of the Big Crown


So with the help of hitting a well known auction site I managed to get some callipers nice and cheap - accurate to .1mm by all accounts smile


So I chose a few of my watches and measured both the crown and the thickness of the case, I'm sure I could have used case diameter or width between lugs too, but as we all know there are lies damned likes and watch statistics!

So a quick table below which notes the details above and the crown size as a proportion of case thickness.


Watch                     Crown Diameter           Case thickness        Proportion


Big Crown                     6.8                                   11.1                        75.5

Seiko 5                         4.0                                    11.2                        44.8

Bellmatic                       5.3                                   13.6                        39.0

Seiko Urushi                 6.6                                    12.2                       54.1

Master Moon                4.9                                     10.5                      51.5

EMAS Diver                  7.4                                    12.5                       59.2

Swatch Skin                  2.3                                     4.0                        57.5

Vulcain Cricket             5.8                                      12.1                       47.9

?                                   10.8                                    11.1                       97.3




So is the Big Crown still a big crown - or even the biggest?  Its terms of absolute size no, its the second largest (if you exclude the left field option at the end).  As a proportion yes it is again excluding the final option.  So yes for me it does still meet its description - and certainly with the set of watches that I own.  I'm well aware that that of this had been  assessed differently - case diameter then it may have been different, but also if I had a different group of watches to look at.  I think anything from Chronoswiss with an onion crown may well have been head and shoulders above everything else both in absolute terms and as the proportion used.

So whats the joker in the pack - its obvious really




The watch with no crown
The watch with no crown






Slide do not lift - the crown that's not a crown
Slide do not lift - the crown that's not a crown



A big fat close up of that Big Crown
A big fat close up of that Big Crown

So what else has a big crown? Which do prefer and do you have something that trumps the Oris?


Cheers

JML
This message has been edited by jml_watches on 2015-12-21 14:35:50 This message has been edited by jml_watches on 2015-12-21 15:01:35

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