Let's See Your Watches! The Vintage Watch Thread.

[Mark G]

I understand the work involved - I have had many units completely redone. Perhaps my guy is just giving me good rates.

Took me a while and a lot of money to eventually find my repairer. He will also manufacture parts for discontinued and hard to get lines like Universal and Landeron chrono movements.

Universal Geneve. Scratched case polished to like new, dial refinished, new crown, new crystal and movement serviced. Change out of AUD$250. Thats 120 of Her Majesty's folding. Perhaps its just an exchange rate thing

Most places these days think 'Ka Ching!' when you walk in with a mechanical watch, let a lone a fob. I have also noticed the price goes way up for even trvial work if its a premium manufacture such as Omega, Brietling or LeCoultre. Don't even mention Rolex.

That's great you found a good repairman, and I hope I didn't come off as rude. I agree that the high end watches are charged a premium and I can sort of understand Rolex, and LeCoultre because they manufacture their own movements, but modern Omegas and Breitlings (as well as Tag Heuer, etc) use pretty pedestrian ETA movements. Even though most Omegas like the Planet Ocean have the Co-Axial escapement it's still a ETA 2892 A2 movement.

It's a shame that the quartz watch craze of the 70's killed off a large percentage of in house movements.

 

[Carlisle Blues]

 

[David Conwill]

Got a reply regarding my Helios.

Per a suggestion here, I wrote to the modern Helios company regarding my grandfather’s watch. I got back what I suspect is a cut-and-paste response regarding black faced watches. I say this because I didn’t include a picture of the caseback, yet he references it. So unless Mr. Chan broke into my house and studied my watch, I don’t know how he’d know what the back looks like.

Dear William,

My apology for the late reply. Here's the information you need:

Vintage German Military Helios watch, Second World War issued
A vintage issued military watch, dating to the Second World War. This Helios Swiss watch was one of the few brands issued to the German Army during the war. The issue markings on the back have been ground down to near obscurity in an attempt to conceal the origins of this rugged timepiece. The all-original black dial is properly signed Helios and features a railroad type minute track with luminous Arabic numerals and large sub-seconds chapter. In the large photo of the caseback of the watch, please note the issue markings are barely visible begining with the D a series of numbers and ending with an H symbolizing the designation Deutsches Heers or German Army. The watch is fitted with a 15 jewel manual wind Helios movement which was just serviced by my watchmaker and working properly. The case is a chromed top with solid stainless steel caseback. There is some minor aging to the sides of the case but the original fixed lugs bars are still installed. The watch measures 34 mm wide by 42 mm long and is supplied on your choice of a canvas NATO strap of a brown or black leather strap


best regards,
Lucas Chan
Decorus Pte Ltd
391B Orchard Road #13-09
Ngee Ann City Tower B
Singapore 238874

Still, it confirms that my watch does strongly resemble the German military-issue pieces. My grandfather did operate out of a lot of old Luftwaffe bases, so I guess it’s possible, but he must have replaced the caseback, which says “stainless steel” in English and hasn’t been ground down at all.

-Dave

 

[JEEP]

I got a nice 40s Omega two tone in the mail today. Nothing special, except from the fact that it is a very early automatic:

Sellers pics

My pic


The dial has some patina; the logo is not very clear and there is some damage around the hole for the hands, but all in all it is rather nice.

The hands and crown are not original and has to be replaced, the original hands can be seen here; http://62.73.172.171/eMuseumPlus?se...simpleList&sp=0&sp=X&sp=X&sp=X&sp=F&sp=F&sp=4

This watch fills a gap in my collection nicely.


Regards.

Jakob

 

["Skeet" McD]

My Father's WWII USAAF watch...private purchase

Hoping someone here can give me some information on this...poking around the web has, so far, turned up nothing similar/useful.

My father (now 90) served in the USAAF; he was a pilot but spent his war stationed as Air Traffic Controller at Bradley Field in Windsor Locks, CT. This was his watch, a Bulova, with the band he wore it on:

http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100014/DSCF2002&bgcolor=black

The watch was not issued to him, but was presented by a man in town; the most likely date of the gift would be 1942 or 1943...so it must predate that; I imagine non-military watch manufacture would have ended by then anyway. It still runs, by the way, and keeps good time.

Thanks in advance,
"Skeet"

 

[feltfan]

My three watches

From left to right:
Vulcain Cricket manual alarm watch (1940s?)
Omega Seamaster automatic (late 1950s to early 1960s?)
Lord Elgin manual "digital", 1950s.

The Vulcain Cricket is a very handy watch.
It's the ultimate travel alarm. Plus it is a mechanical
alarm, so even at a loud concert you can feel it hammering
away at the bell. A friend used a lab geiger counter on it
once and told me she'd have to keep it behind a shield if
it were in a lab.

The Omega Seamaster was my father's watch, though truth
to tell he eventually switched to a modern electric.

The Lord Elgin, I am told, was a style favored by Elvis
(but I bet he had a lot of watches). There is another, in
stainless steel, with golf ball divots. But I like this gold
filled design. Honestly, I rarely wear it, but it's a great piece
of design.

 

[Talbot]

Those manual alarms...

I have a LeCoultre alarm watch.

I learned the hard way that you can not turn the alarm off untill it runs down.

I was presenting at a conference at the time.

Yes, they are loud

Nice items by the way!

 

[JEEP]

http://gallery.me.com/finiancircle#100014/DSCF2002&bgcolor=black[/URL]

The watch was not issued to him, but was presented by a man in town; the most likely date of the gift would be 1942 or 1943...so it must predate that; I imagine non-military watch manufacture would have ended by then anyway. It still runs, by the way, and keeps good time.

Thanks in advance,
"Skeet"

That is one well loved watch and a great story :eusa_clap


Regards.

Jakob

 

[samson44]

 

[Shangas]

This is my...so far...favourite, pocket watch. My daily timekeeper:

The details in a nutshell:

Watchmaker: Waltham Watch Co., Waltham, Massachusetts, USA.
Date of Manufacture: 1899 (110 years old).
Model: Model 1895.
Movement: 7-jewel crown-wind, crown-set 'Bond Street' movement.
Case: 5-year gold-filled case.
Size: 14.
Used: Daily.
Last serviced: August, 2008.
Timekeeping: Accurate.

 

[feltfan]

I have a LeCoultre alarm watch.

I learned the hard way that you can not turn the alarm off untill it runs down.

I was presenting at a conference at the time.

Yes, they are loud

Nice items by the way!

Ouch. The Vulcain Cricket has a button next
to the main winder (you can see it in the picture)
you can use to turn off the alarm. It's not so useful
for turning off the alarm before it sounds because it's
easy to reset the button inadvertently when your wrist
is bent. But once it sounds you can turn off the alarm
immediately by pressing the button.

I like clicking the button for my mechanical alarm
when everyone else turns off their electronic watch
alarms or cell phones in movie or at the symphony/opera.

 

[JEEP]

Beautiful pic. Shangas :eusa_clap


Regards.

Jakob

 

[Shangas]

Thanks Jeepkob

Admittedly, I'm not a great photographer...I'm amazed the photo turned out as good as it did.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

From around 1930:

 

[JEEP]

Very interesting design. Quite nice actually.


Regards.

Jakob

 

[Talbot]

I'm liking the heck out of that Waltham, but that Elgin says 'America!' to me.

:eusa_clap

 

[Talbot]

Two thumbs up! I have been after one of these for a while.

 

[scotrace]

From around 1930:

Holy Smoke!

 

[Feraud]

From around 1930:

At the sight of this watch I can easily post a reply filled with envy laden curse words..

Let me simply say this is one of the nicest pocketwatches I've seen in a long while. :eusa_clap

 

[Hawk_Eye]

My recently aquired 1944 Bulova A-11. Its my first vintage watch and I was surprised to see how small it was compared to my modern watches. but I love it.