New Venture

[steveorval]

hi guys, just rented a cabinet at the local antiques hall for £10 a week so thought i would give that a whirl to see if i could get better than on the bay, as most of my collection hasn't been run for a while i'll wear each one for a day to make sure they are ticking over ok before putting them in and will post them on this thread each day for any one interested, theres not anything of great value here but most i have saved from the jaws of death, pity i didn't take before pics. i usually pick up the large lots 50 or more and hope to pay 50p to £1 max each item so you can imagine the condition of some. any comments and info would be most welcome. the first is yesterdays number a hmt pilot, i bought this because i liked it and it came in almost mint condition but the price £7 inc. p&p from india was a snip i think and keeps perfect timetoday we have a helbros which by its size 32mm and design i would think was 1950s or 60s, it runs really well the only prob is the dial i did lightly dust it but as can be seen it is stained, my experience of cleaning dials isn't good, i am on a project on refinishing these all bad news at the mo. but i am hopeful, keep you posted  

[bobm12]

Nice watches steve, I've heard about baby oil for dials...I used it once and it enhanced it a little but wasn't that satisfied...

[WillFly]

I think you'll have more chance of selling the HMT Pilot at the village hall than on eBay - where there are lots of them priced at £0.99p and not selling!

 

The HMT manufactury was recently closed by the Indian government after running at a loss for many years, and there lots and lots of them, particularly with the Parashock mechanism,  around the place. I was recently given three of them, for nothing - not even postage costs - by a member on another forum who was clearing out a load from his collection. They're actually not bad movements, and there are some quite pleasing dials in their range so, once you're away from the mass of eBay sales - in a village hall - for example - you may well get a sale and turn a small profit.

 

The Helbros is a decent make but condition for these is everything. The dial - like so many watches in the 50s/60s period - has a "military" style to it. There's one for auction on eBay at the moment - just about an hour to go, and currently asking for £0.99p...

Edited January 23, 2015 by WillFly

[bobm12]

Hi Will, isn't parashock a Citizen thing? Are those HMT's packing a Japanese movement? I don't have one and this is an interesting issue.

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

 

PS, It might even be an option to repair/restore old 8200 et al Citizen movements (spare parts...) since they are so affordable.

Edited January 23, 2015 by bobm12

[Marc]

Bob,

 

I believe that HMT made movements based on Citizen calibres under licence.

All of the HMT movements that I have worked on looked pretty much identical to those from Citizen, and I believe that I have used a Citizen pallet fork and cock in a HMT (memory a little cloudy on this) but how far the parts inter-changeability goes I wouldn't like to say.

[steveorval]

i did read on another site that hmt bought the tools from citizen to make the movement so poss parts could be good

[steveorval]

todays gem is this little beauty, woldman if you think timex are cheap this takes the biscuit, they must have dropped off the planet can't find anything official about them, perhaps i have the only one in existence collectors banging on my door soon with wads of dough. the thing is it keeps perfect time  

[steveorval]

hi guys been testing this caravelle 1977 vintage today one of my better projects