Flea Market hunting..

[anilv]

Spent a few hours at a flea-market in Seremban, a town in Malaysia about 50kms or so south of Kuala Lumpur. A lot of junk but that's sometimes good as you may get some bargains here. There is another bigger (better?) flea-market in Kuala Lumpur (in Amcorp Mall) but here the stuff is more 'antique' and priced accordingly.

Anyway first one up is an Orient Racer, pretty much the bottom of the barrel when it comes to condition but through the badly scratched crystal I had a hunch that the dial was OK as the dial paint didn't have any visible patches.

Back home I got it opened up I was happy to see that the dial was in pretty good shape with just some dust on the surface.

The missing minute hand was also in there but the seconds hand was AWOL.

ack

The caseback is not correct, its too small and won't screw in..damn.

On the inside I'm pleased to find an Orient 1942 movement.. nice as this has a full balance bridge as opposed to a balance cock. However the autowind stuff is all gone, since this watch cannot be hand-wound this watch will end up being a donor unless I can find another one with a good case and autowind  mechanism. This was a better movement in its day, the escape wheel is capped on the main-bridge. The similarities with Seiko movements can be seen by the balance shock protection and it also has the typical seiko click which is just a piece of stamped steel which functions as the click and spring. The escape wheel cap jewel is also restrained by a typical Seiko spring.

 

The second watch is an Urika. I was inspired by Mick's (Cad101) post and have been on the lookout for one and this was sitting in the same box as the Orient above. 

Pretty pristine..

In fact not much wear.. original, facetted around the edge, crystal has normal drawer rash,, nothing that can't be polished out,,...

Caseback pretty unworn and the bracelet has the full lenght.

The remnants of the price tag on the bracelet clasp leads me to think that this was probably unsold stock.

Didn't get a picture of the movement but it has the same upside down balance as Mick's watch. Hopefully a clean and service will get this running... will post a write-up when I get round to it.

Both of these cost me MYR40... less than USD10. .. simple pleasures..!

 

Anilv

[Watchtime]

very nice finds mr A...I love fleamarkets, visiting these almost every weekend.

[Cad101]

I'm pleased you managed to find one @anilv and I inspired you to find something out of the ordinary I still have both mine and wear them often. That crystal is great although i wouldn't like to try and find a replacement if it had been cracked.

[anilv]

14 hours ago, Cad101 said:

I'm pleased you managed to find one @anilv and I inspired you to find something out of the ordinary I still have both mine and wear them often. That crystal is great although i wouldn't like to try and find a replacement if it had been cracked.

yeah.. anything other than a round crystal is a pain to source!