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

[splatt]

Just recently a gentleman put his collection up for auction. He had amassed over 700 watches in the last decade.:eusa_doh:

WOW...Lot 74 and Lot 75 went for 415,000 Swiss Francs each and Lot 705 went for 509,400 Swiss Francs

 

[Talbot]

Thanks Jeep

Thats high praise indeed.

I bought the black face Omega at a garage sale for $2. I had the dial done, and voila'!

Bulova director

My ETA 'daily beater'

Gruen

Universal Geneve

I have more, but haven't kept up with the photo cataloging. I'll try and get on it and post a few more. I'm strictly low dollars these days, and its still surprising (and a lot of fun) to see how much style you can put on your wrist for under $100.

Talbot

 

[Dr Doran]

Interesting piece.

Could you might be persuaded into posting a photo of the dial?


/Jakob

I spent so many hours today trying to get my photos up on photobucket, which is having a senior moment. I almost lost my mind. So I cannot guarantee that I will do that soon. At some point, yes. Any help determining its actual provenance will be greatly appreciated.

You find the best things in the Vilnius flea market ... but if you don't speak Lithuanian or Polish, you'll spend 4 times what I did. Luckily, my wife was translating.

 

[WH1]

Those are great watches. The luminous dials are so potent they are rumored to the watch most likely to give you wrist cancer. Seriously, the Seiko 200 meter divers are THE watch to get if night time legibility is a concern. Very handsome watches while very rugged.....amazing value for the price.

They are one of the best values on the market. For the last 20 years I have used one as my daily watch. I bought the first when I deployed to Desert Storm, wore it for 13 years, then my wife decided to buy me a new watch for christmas because mine was so beat up. First she got me a fancy pilots watch, but it had too many bells and whistles for this dumb grunt (do I really need to known what time it is on all the continents and the dew point in Timbuktu at any given time) so I got another Seiko automatic. Nice and simple, looks good and very dependable. The luminous dial is bright, the bezel is solid and clicks distinctly and the rubber wrist strap is long enough to go around a heavy, heavy wetsuit or assault glove. For the money one of the best.

For my dream watch, it would have to be the Seamaster or perhaps a Doxa dive watch, don't know the model but I have always coveted the orange faced model. For a dress watch a Patek Phillipe, very slim, classic and elegant the Calatrava model in white gold.

 

[Darhling]

I have allways been into mens watches, when I was a teen, my dream watch was Tag Heuer Monaco watch with a black alligator strap, for years now I have been lusting after a Cartier Santos 100 in gold with a dark brown alligator strap. I prefer men's watch sizes. My current watch isn't something I would post pics of though.

 

[Talbot]

Couple more

Excuse the blurry pics. I blame the martini's

Hamilton

I need to do the dial on this one

Ralco date pointer

Gruen

 

[Talbot]

These are my modern timepieces

I'll quit hogging the thread after this post

Repro of sorts of the early bumper auto. Good value and handy for travelling

Nomos Glashutte

I wanted a Breguet Transatlantique, but couldn't justify the expense! These are extremely affordable given they have the same Valjoux 7750 movement as the Brietling and Omega Chrono's

I'm wearing this one now - blurry pic makes it look like a Bangkok special!

 

[Talbot]

Duplicate thread?

All, some beautifull timepieces here. I have just recently posted some of mine in the general accoutrements forum.Here are a few more

Apols if this is against the rules, and delete if neccessary

 

[Talbot]

Couple more

 

[SPRFINO]

I say wear your vintage timepiece with pride, just be more careful with it. My fav. is 14k Hamilton tank from the 50's that I bought about 10 years ago. The only problem with the modern cheap look alikes is they are just that. You will be noticed with a solid gold vintage tank on your wrist and probably by the people who you want to notice. Take a close look at presidential candidates before and after getting elected. I am thinking of Bill Clinton with his clunky divers watch but after taking office it was replaced with a wafer thin gold number, probably not vintage but you get the idea. Just my 2c worth, alas my current profession is not condusive to wearing any type of jewelry.

 

[Talbot]

I'm sure there has been plenty of quartz bashing over the years, so I'm not going to go there - they have their place and I have seen some nice ones.

I have been wearing vintage and modern mechanical watches in office and on site environments for over 20 years without problem.

Recently a colleague was comparing his flashy quartz watch to my vintage Omega. He was showing me all its different functions, tide timers, compass, altitude, you name it. I told him my vintage watch would do two things his watch could never do:

1. Be stylish
2. Appreciate in value.

 

[Dr Doran]

I'm sure there has been plenty of quartz bashing over the years, so I'm not going to go there - they have their place and I have seen some nice ones.

I have been wearing vintage and modern mechanical watches in office and on site environments for over 20 years without problem.

Recently a colleague was comparing his flashy quartz watch to my vintage Omega. He was showing me all its different functions, tide timers, compass, altitude, you name it. I told him my vintage watch would do two things his watch could never do:

1. Be stylish
2. Appreciate in value.

lol

All fair, but I still dig my Stauer Dashtronic.

 

[Talbot]

Well, I might recant on point 1. Getting a shave at my barber this ayem, he had a tank watch by Tiffany. White gold, guilloche dial, blue steel hands, sub dial and quartz. Who'd a thought! There is something about blue steel. Maybe there's room in my chilly old heart for a quartz watch after all....

 

[InspectorMorse]

Darn! After reading these posts & going to those links now I want a vintage watch!

 

[Rittmeister]

For a vintage looking military style check out Aeromatic watches. There are usually quite a few listed on ebay. I have two automatic ones and they run beautifully.

 

[Highlander]

Circa Watches

Well, a less than enjoyable experience with my Circa watch. After owning it for a couple of weeks, I ran from my office to the car, probably 50' last week. When I got to the restaurant for lunch, I noticed the Crystal was fogged over. Disappointing. I wrote the retailer that sold me the watch, they wrote Circa, and got a quick response that the watch was "Water Resistant", and not "Water Proof". I knew that from all of the information on the watch. But getting a little wet in the rain????

Anyway, they wrote that the internal workings were "stainless" and it wouldn't cause any damage. Still...

I told them I had first read about their watchs here, and would let everyone know this might be an issue.

My thought would be if you can't wear this to your car in the rain??? How water resistant is water resistant?

Steve

 

[Mark G]

I had a similar experience with a watch (cheap Timex dive wannabe)that said it was water resistant to 30 meters. Went swimming and the watch fogged over and stopped working.

My conclusion was that it was water resistant right at 30 meters, anything above or below voided the claim.

Highlander, I agree, if you can't wear wear your "water resistant" watch in the rain to your car, what's the point.

 

[Spitfire]

Take a look at the JUNKERS watches. They are reliable, solid and in the economical end of the scale. And great looking too.

http://www.junkers-uhren.com/english/

 

[Spitfire]

...or you might go for the Russian watches.
Even the new ones look vintage
And they are cheap!
http://www.russia2all.com/

 

[Talbot]

Well, a less than enjoyable experience with my Circa watch. After owning it for a couple of weeks, I ran from my office to the car, probably 50' last week. When I got to the restaurant for lunch, I noticed the Crystal was fogged over. Disappointing. I wrote the retailer that sold me the watch, they wrote Circa, and got a quick response that the watch was "Water Resistant", and not "Water Proof". I knew that from all of the information on the watch. But getting a little wet in the rain????

Anyway, they wrote that the internal workings were "stainless" and it wouldn't cause any damage. Still...

I told them I had first read about their watchs here, and would let everyone know this might be an issue.

My thought would be if you can't wear this to your car in the rain??? How water resistant is water resistant?

Steve

Uhhh, not sure that the "stainless" claim is accurate. Fog inside means moisture inside. Even when its not fogging the moisture is still there. There might be some stainess components inside, but its a quartz watch, and there are integrated circuits inside that will corrode.

Last I had this problem my watchmaker told me to take the back off and place the watch over a heating vent for a day. Open side to the vent. Got rid of the moisture.