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To me the appeal of a fine wrist or pocket watch is the fact that it’s a crafted mechanism. A little, hand made machine that does one thing and does it well. As such it has a heart and soul that quartz movements simply don’t have. A battery watch, as beautiful as the case, hands and dial may be, simply isn’t alive with the human spirit in the way that a mechanical watch is. There’s an allure to the idea that someone designed each wheel, each pivot, each plate and so forth. They’re individual in a way that mass produced electronic watches aren’t. You can hear them beating out the time. They seem alive and vital. Add to this the rich history of mechanical watch making generally, company history, model history and individual watch history and you have an incredibly compelling device that’s far more nuanced than a piece of electronics.

And furthermore, one of the best things about a wind up watch movement is that you put the power into it yourself. When you wind it you give it the motive force. Each tick releases energy that you inserted. It can’t run without your power, yet it’s independent from the impersonal chemistry of a battery. A mechanical watch in good working order will beat out the time in any situation as long as you wind it up and set it, but a battery watch is a paperweight if the cell goes dead and you have no source for a new one, regardless of the condition of the movement itself. Imagine, for example, trying to find just the right battery for a 60s era electronic watch a hundred years from now. Not an issue with a mechanical watch, many of which are well over a hundred years old and work perfectly by simply winding up the mainspring. A mechanical watch enthusiast has a kind of symbiotic relationship with the device.

This is the exact reason that I collect vintage cameras too. Though I love my modern Nikon DSLRs, they don’t have the spirit of a fully mechanical Leica or Rolleiflex. A printed circuit doesn’t compare to the wheels and gears of a mechanical camera’s works.

The problem is that beyond the obvious candidates, there are many signs I forget about because I don’t see them very often or that I’m not aware even exist. That’s where YOU come in! I need your help in locating the best examples of vintage (and modern) neon signs so that I can add them to my list. If your suggestion makes it into the project, I’ll give you credit in the book!

Here’s the signs I’m already planning on shooting followed by examples of shots I’ve already taken.

The List So Far:

1. The Capitol Hill Motel

2. The 6th Avenue Motel

3. The Palms Motel

4. Portland Outdoor Store

5. Renner’s Bar and Grill

6. The Baghdad Theater

7. The Laurelhurst Theater

8. The Moreland Theater

9. The Academy Theater

10. The “Made in Oregon” sign (before and after the renovation?)

Examples:

The newly restored Hollywood Theater sign.

A detail view of the neon sign on the Capitol Hill Motel.

The sign at Renner's Bar & Grill in Multnomah Village.

An elaborate neon at Chin's Chinese in Portland.

Sort of an 'inverse neon' treatment at the FARM restaurant in Portland.

Broken but still beautiful - a detail of the neon sign on the Cameo Theater in Newberg.