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Summary
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The Vulcain Cricket alarm watch is known for its loud distinctive alarm, excellent design, and reliability. Vulcain has historically given a Vulcain watch to every U.S. President. Lyndon B. Johnson received one very much like the one we have here. This watch is extremely rare because it contains the Vulcain Calibre 402. The Vulcain Calibre 402 is essentially a Calibre 401 with the date added. Vulcain is still in business today and the 402 is closer in design to their newer models. Waltham contracted with Vulcain for this watch, putting their name on it. This is a Vulcain cricket alarm you will not come across too often. It has a very unique winding and setting mechanism. We wrote instructions on how to use it, see below. The watch is classic 1960’s LBJ era design.
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Brand
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Waltham, Vulcain
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Type
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Manual Wind, Alarm
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Calibre
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Vulcain Calibre 402
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Case Material
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Yellow gold plated
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Size
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34mm
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Strap
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Lightly used Hirsch strap with deployant size long. If you prefer a regular length strap, let us know and we will replace the strap with a new ZRC leather strap made in France.
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Age
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We estimate the watch was manufactured in the 1960’s
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Service History
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Service history not known. We performed comprehensive testing and performance measurement.
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Condition
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Case has the typical scratches and dings that are common to watches of this age and add to its character. The dial shows some discoloration.
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| Quality Control |
Comprehensive ClockSavant Testing. Performance measurement results for this watch are provided below. |
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Returns
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14-day return period provided that watch is returned in condition received.
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Warranty
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2 month warranty-- customer misuse, neglect, accidental, intentional, or unintentional damage are excluded from the warranty. See the Support page of our website for detailed warranty terms and conditions. For non-warranty damage, please contact us to obtain an estimate for servicing, repair, and restoration services.
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| Care and Use |
All mechanical watches, and especially vintage watches, require special consideration in handling, care, and use. In order to obtain warranty support or to return an item, it is necessary that the customer did not cause damage to the watch. See the Support page to learn more about how to protect and care for your investment. |
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Sales Tax
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North Carolina residents will pay sales tax
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Unique Guidance on the Operation of this Watch
Wind the crown at 2:30 for about 40 winds. This is an unusual manual winding watch— though manual wind, you never feel a “stop.” Instead, by winding continuously you wind both the time and the alarm. After both are wound, the crown will continue to wind, similar to an automatic watch movement.
To set the time, pull-out the button at 3:30 and then pull-out the the crown at 2:30 and move the crown forwards to the desired time.
To set the alarm, depress the button at 3:30 towards the case and pull-out the crown at 2:30 and move the hands backwards to move the alarm pointer to the desired time.
To arm the alarm, pull-out the button at 3:30. To silence the alarm, push-in the button at 3:30.
To set the date, set the alarm to 6pm. Then advance the time past midnight and observe the date incrementing. Now move the hands backwards to 9pm and then forward again past midnight again to advance the date. Continue doing this as-required. This is a semi-quickset design. It is imperative that you set the alarm to 6pm as previously noted so that you are not activating the alarm and fouling the alarm setting hand when you move the hands back/forth betweeen 9pm and past midnight.
ClockSavant Watchmaker Testing, Certification, and Performance Measurement
All the watches we sell go through a comprehensive series of ClockSavant-developed functional, stability, and performance tests and are only approved for sale if they meet or exceed the criteria we have established. Performance measurements for this watch are provided below. See the Support page of our website for an explanation of watch performance measurements and guidance on interpretation. The watch performance values provided do not necessarily reflect the accuracy you will experience based on your unique watch wearing habits. You may experience a gain or loss by as much as approximately 1 minute per day with vintage watches.
Legend: Rate, Amplitude (Amp), and Beat Error (BE) are provided for Dial-Up (CH) and Dial-Down (FH) positions. Averages (Avg) are also provided. These represent the average performance of the watch across all 6 traditionally measured watch positions which, in addition to dial-up and dial-down, are the vertical positions of Crown-Up, Crown-Down, Crown-Left, and Crown-Right. Rate is expressed in seconds gained or lost during a 24 hour period. Amplitude is in degrees. Beat Error is in milliseconds. Lift Angle used in measurement is unique to the particular watch calibre.
| Calibre |
Vulcain Calibre 402 |
| Lift Angle |
52 |
| CH Rate |
33 |
| Amp |
270 |
| BE |
0.4 |
| FH Rate |
31 |
| Amp |
251 |
| BE |
0.7 |
| Avg Rate |
29.83 |
| Avg Amp |
263.5 |
| Avg BE |
0.48 |
