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I’m a big fan of mechanical watches (because it’s a miniature machine on your wrist – how is that not cool?), but when you get into automatics, you invariably see case thickness increase (as compared to a hand-wound), due to the space needed for the rotor.  Well, all the way back in the 1950s, a company many of you have likely never heard of, Buren.

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What you have heard of, however, is the company that acquired Buren in the 1960’s – Hamilton.  This lead to the inclusion of the micro-rotor into their Thin-O-Matic line, even while they still kept the Buren name alive as a sort of budget alternative in their lineup (ala the Rolex – Tudor relationship).

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Aside from being a historical curiousity, I think these are interesting for the fact that it enables a much thinner watch (which is much appreciated by this writer).  Even past that, it allows you to see more of the movement, should you have a display caseback (or open the back of the watch) – which, while you may not know what all the parts do (if you want to learn, check this post), it is fun to see them in motion.

How did I come across this?  All courtesy of this article on Timezone by John Davis – definitely an interesting read as it gives you some sense of the development timeline of this style of movement, as well as walking you through an actual tear down.

Categorized in:

Historical Horology,

Last Update: March 28, 2013