I'm sort of partial to the Waltham model 1888

Another

And a final model 1888

Kevin those watches have been recalled as unsafe by the U. S. Department of disinformation. You should pack them up and mail them to me for proper disposal! Absolutely beautiful and the tadpole regulator is a gem on a par with my Hampden golf club stuff. Thanks for showing them.

Thus far I would award first prize to Buster, second to Eric. Honorable mentions to several others. Stumbled onto this at 5 am and woke up pretty quick!

kh

Here is one of my personal favorites. It is an 18 size Hamilton Special.

Yes, with a very nice ray pattern and gold screws, that's beautiful.

kh

For elegance of design, the finest hand work and outright technical excellence, it's hard to beat the simplistic beauty of the high grade Swiss movement.

William

Another. These images were lifted from Steve G's website: http://ninanet.net/watches/launchpad.html
I trust he won't mind as they are for educational purposes.

Personally I can not make a choice. Everyone here has shown you examples of beautiful watches. I agree with each and every one of them. One of my least favorite types of movements are the guilt but even those can be stunning. If the guilt is bright and shiny and it has dark blue screws as some of the Hampden's do they can be gorgeous. I even have a 7 jewel size 18 Elgin I purchased for the hunter case but the movement looked brand new so I never separated them. So each watch has something special about them to me.

This is my favorite American movement...from my own very small collection: A top grade 23 jewel Bunn Special from 1923. Accurate, rugged, reliable, ornate and beautiful!

William

got this one today

As much as I like damaskeening a Keystone Howard can make me forget it was ever used.

The Waltham Model 1888 is also one of my personal favorites for countless reasons. This Two-Tone Riverside (movement close up and a somewhat clumsy collage) passed through my collection a few years ago . . .

I love the frosted movements!!
Roger

I love the simple elegance and spectacular quality of the Ulysse Nardin HS2 Chronometer grade watch from WW2 ,and although I have the brass cradle thereof it mounts in,I am still missing the deck watch box to hold it. Many's the young sailor in wartime who owed their lives and the safety of their ships to beauties like this,as well as the Hamilton Model 22.Remarkably both my Nardin and my 22 Hamilton keep time with my computer almost to the second even after all these years

Most beautiful? I can't answer that, but I will show five candidates.

The first is this lovely JJ Badollet.

The second is this very pretty Touchon.

The third is C.H. Meylan SS#37.

I don't want to leave the British/Northern Irish out. So, another nominee is this Sharman D. Neill karussel (the escapement rotates -- same concept as a tourbillon, but different mechanism).

And not to leave low-end U.S. watches out, my last candidate is likely the highest grade watch New York Standard ever made, its scarce 15 jewel convertible.

I personalty like the Rockford's and it's not because I am from Rockford or because my family sold watches I just think Rockford's have a unique design that they always took to the next level. My uncle Stan was a Elgin educated, Rockford employee and I can remember some of the fantastic, beautiful masterpieces he would bring home too work on.

Here is my favorite American movement

[not mine]

Here is another 1892

Just one more
[I got these pics off the ihc, but I cant remember who's watches they are]