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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Watch family · Style & purpose

Cushion-Case Watches

Partially verified

Wristwatches with a case shaped as a rounded square or rectangle with softly convex, cushion-like sides, one of the first case forms designed specifically for the wrist rather than adapted from a round pocket-watch case.

Movement & mechanism

  • Movement typically round, fitted within a square or rectangular outer case, requiring a shaped movement ring or spacer
  • Case band curved outward on all sides ('cushion' profile) rather than flat
  • Integral or wire lugs depending on date, with integral lugs becoming standard as the form matured

Identification

  • Square or rectangular case outline with distinctly rounded, bulging sides rather than sharp corners
  • Often a round dial within the cushion-shaped case, showing the transition from round movement to shaped case
  • Common on both men's and women's watches of the 1910s–1920s

Terminology

  • Cushion case — a case shape between round and rectangular, with convex sides, named for its resemblance to a cushion

Known variations

  • Plain cushion case
  • Cushion case with stepped bezel
  • Cushion case with engraved lugs

Pocket-watch ancestry

The cushion case represents one of the earliest departures from the round pocket-watch case toward a form conceived for the wrist, though it still generally housed an essentially round, pocket-watch-derived movement inside its shaped outer case.

Collecting notes

An early and historically significant case shape collected both for its role in the development of purpose-built wristwatch cases and for its association with early trench-era and Art Deco-period pieces; condition of the case edges, which wear and polish down readily, is a key grading point.

Related photographs

Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 1
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 1 — Kozuch, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 2
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 2 — Kozuch, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Mechanical wristwatch
Mechanical wristwatch — Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. Cutmore, M., Watches 1850–1980
  2. General design-history literature on early 20th-century wristwatch case shapes.

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.