American Heritage
American Heritage Digital | Acrylic Case
A 1970s Swiss mechanical jumping hour in an unusual transparent acrylic case.
- Year
- c. 1970s
- Case
- Clear acrylic
- Condition
- Excellent
- Gender
- Men / Unisex
Condition
Very clean example with a black dial and transparent acrylic case. The unusual clear case appears well preserved, with the mechanical digital display clearly legible.
Why I bought it
The transparent acrylic case is what attracted me to this one. I have many 1970s jumping-hour watches with unconventional cases, but this takes the idea in a completely different direction. It almost looks like the movement and dial are suspended inside a block of clear material.
This American Heritage is another example of how freely manufacturers experimented with mechanical digital watches during the 1970s. The time display itself follows a familiar arrangement, with a separate hour aperture and a rotating minute disc, but the case makes this watch quite different from most of its contemporaries.
Instead of the large steel cases commonly associated with the period, the black rectangular dial is surrounded by a thick transparent acrylic case with faceted edges. The result is an interesting contrast between the very simple black dial and the substantial clear structure around it.
The dial is signed American Heritage, Digital and Swiss. I have not confirmed the caliber, so I prefer to leave the movement identification open rather than attribute one based only on the appearance of the display.
For me, this is one of those watches where the case is as important as the jumping-hour mechanism. It reflects the experimentation of the period and shows how the same basic mechanical digital concept could be packaged in very different ways.