404 Club

[Tudor]

Nice! I’d probably buy that lot for 20 bucks. 

[AndyHull]

A little bit of USSR era quartz magic.

 

A rather similar companion piece to the uncomplaining horse lineament and baby oil treated 19 jewel number I am currently experimenting on.

 

Almost certainly jewelled, and for a whopping 99p you can't complain really.

OK maybe you can... the strap is terrible, but cleaned up and placed on a simple brown leather one I think it will look pretty good.

[yankeedog]

This one came in the mail today. Judging from the amount of dirt  in it,and the tiny elastic diy strap it was  probably  worn by a child who played in the sandbox. I forsee  an adventure. 

[yankeedog]

  On 10/18/2020 at 8:00 PM, AndyHull said:

A little bit of USSR era quartz magic.

 

A rather similar companion piece to the uncomplaining horse lineament and baby oil treated 19 jewel number I am currently experimenting on.

 

Almost certainly jewelled, and for a whopping 99p you can't complain really.

OK maybe you can... the strap is terrible, but cleaned up and placed on a simple brown leather one I think it will look pretty good.

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Are you sure they didn't use udder  balm?

[AndyHull]

  On 10/19/2020 at 10:04 PM, yankeedog said:

  On 10/18/2020 at 8:00 PM, AndyHull said:

 

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Are you sure they didn't use udder  balm?

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bag_Balm

I might give that a try on the keyless works, or the case back seals.

[Tudor]

  On 10/19/2020 at 10:01 PM, yankeedog said:

This one came in the mail today. Judging from the amount of dirt  in it,and the tiny elastic diy strap it was  probably  worn by a child who played in the sandbox. I forsee  an adventure. 

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Perhaps from MN* training camp?

*(Marine Nationale) they made their Tudor diver straps out of parachute elastic.

 

[yankeedog]

I would hate to think a man could have wrists that small. He could never do pushups.

[AndyHull]

Here are the two 404 club watches I posted above, following a little TLC.

[AndyHull]

  On 10/20/2020 at 4:56 PM, yankeedog said:

I would hate to think a man could have wrists that small. He could never do pushups.

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Who says I can't do pushups?

Atom Ant appears courtesy of (c) Hanna-Barbera all rights reserved, pushups on demand (for a suitable performing rights fee of course). 

[AndyHull]

Another one for the club. A rhodium plated Montine of Switzerland gents dress watch, which other than the cracked crystal, looks to be brand new.

I had a crystal in my stash that was almost the correct size, and with a little careful filing and a quick polish in it popped.

Like a lot of these two hander gents dress watches it has a fairly run of the mill, but fully jewelled ladies size caliber in it, which got a partial strip down and a quick clean and lube, and which is now ticking away nicely.

I'll let it run for a bit to see if it now goes for more than the "hour or two" stated by the seller, but I suspect it will. If not a full strip down, inspection and service is in order.

Edited October 24, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

Today I finished cleaning up a rather tatty Sekonda branded 2nd Moscow Watch Factory 2360 Calibre Black Dial with  date.

The major issue with it was that the case back was effectively welded shut with gunk, so I eventually resorted to supergluing the case back to a small steel block that I use as a mini anvil on my work bench. Grabbing that with my vice, and pulling the watch upwards to remove the back.

All other methods had resulted in dismal failure, and I have to admit I came pretty close to me stabbing myself with the case back knife in several occasions. 

The dial and crystal were filthy and spotted with mould, which all cleaned up quite nicely, however the crystal still has a small crack in it, but this wouldn't be a 404 club watch without a few minor blemishes.

Here it is with the "lost Casio" and the rest of the recent club members.

[Pauly]

Ingenious cashback removal method!

[AndyHull]

  On 11/5/2020 at 8:14 AM, Pauly said:

cashback

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"Cash back"... Unfortunately cash removal is the main problem with the 404 club.

I'm slowly going bankrupt in £4.04 steps, although I am having a lot of fun in the process. As somebody here once said, there are worse addictions.

(*) I know.. you meant case back, but I couldn't resist.

[AshF]

My turn,

Bought for 99p but with shipping came to £3.99.  Close enough?

Before:

After:

[Pauly]

  On 11/5/2020 at 11:49 AM, AndyHull said:

"Cash back"... Unfortunately cash removal is the main problem with the 404 club.

I'm slowly going bankrupt in £4.04 steps, although I am having a lot of fun in the process. As somebody here once said, there are worse addictions.

(*) I know.. you meant case back, but I couldn't resist.

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Ah yes, the perils of autocorrect!

[spectre6000]

  On 11/5/2020 at 12:58 PM, AshF said:

Bought for 99p but with shipping came to £3.99.  Close enough?

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The "rule" for shipping is just "reasonable". Exclusive of purchase price. If you got that guy for $4 WITH shipping, you're deep in 404 territory. The "reasonable" is intended essentially as a catch against those eBay listings for a $1 watch with $300 shipping meant as a scammy tax/duty dodge. My metric is generally $10, but if I actually like the watch (and it's more than just cattle for slaughter on the altar of my watchmaking education) I'll stretch to $15. YMMV

[AndyHull]

  On 11/5/2020 at 12:58 PM, AshF said:

 

Bought for 99p but with shipping came to £3.99.  Close enough?

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Not just close, but perfect!

Maybe we should give bonus points if you get the thing for ninety nine pence/cents  or less.

As spectre6000 says, shipping is not included in the price, but can be whatever you consider to be reasonable.

Reasonable is whatever you think fair shipping would be, and that may depend on the source of the item.

I have gone a little bit higher for shipping, so long as I think it is worth it, so for example I picked up an item from Ukraine where the shipping costs where more than double the cost of the item, but the item was <£4.04 and I considered the slightly higher shipping to be worth it.
 

I object to paying excessive rates for items shipped in the UK, as there is no excuse for charging whopping shipping on such low cost, low weight items.

Also I rarely consider purchasing items from the US as shipping is almost invariably eye wateringly high.  There is no fun in buying something for $4.04 only to then have to pay $40.40 in shipping.

Of course if I spotted a Junghans Max Bill or a gold Harwood Self Winder in a junk lot in the USA, and I got the lot for $4.04 then I would naturally bend the rules and pay the $40.40 - reasonable is entirely up to you.

Edited November 8, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

  On 10/24/2020 at 1:55 PM, AndyHull said:

Another one for the club. A rhodium plated Montine of Switzerland gents dress watch, which other than the cracked crystal, looks to be brand new.

I had a crystal in my stash that was almost the correct size, and with a little careful filing and a quick polish in it popped.

Like a lot of these two hander gents dress watches it has a fairly run of the mill, but fully jewelled ladies size caliber in it, which got a partial strip down and a quick clean and lube, and which is now ticking away nicely.

I'll let it run for a bit to see if it now goes for more than the "hour or two" stated by the seller, but I suspect it will. If not a full strip down, inspection and service is in order.

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Naturally the Montine runs just fine, and has done so ever since it got serviced. Another win for the "witches watch brew" lubrication I think.

Here is today's trace. Ignore the lift angle, that is just a guess, as I still haven't taken the time to figure out what the movement is.

The lift angle will be in the right ball park, but the swing may be a little higher or lower than what is indicated. This shouldn't have any bearing on the rest of the trace though.

Edited November 5, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

Granted, it isn't an Omega LCD Speedmaster, but you can't argue about the price, and it does show some signs of life.

Then again, if it was an original authentic ST 186.0004 Omega Speedmaster Professional Quartz we would be looking at something like $3,000 to $4,000

Two Alaska IV Prototypes (sold as a pair) went under the hammer for $47,500 in December 2015. This is an eye watering amount for an LCD watch produced in 1978 or thereabouts.

So keep an eye on those junk lots, you just never know what you might spot.

 

Edited November 7, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

I also picked this up. New condition, still in its original packaging for a quid.

 

Looks ideal for "winding up" the Brexiteers.

The listing stated “Unused but the battery has run out some time ago”.. I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere.

Edited November 7, 2020 by AndyHull

[Tudor]

Somewhere?!? Where do we begin with the jokes?

[AndyHull]

Based on this rather fuzzy image, I decided to take a punt, mainly to find out what the pocket watch was.

So I picked up all five for the heady sum of six and a half quid (plus 2nd class postage).

The fuzzy blob in the bottom left turned out to be this rather attractive little watch. The biggest surprise was what was stamped on the inside.

Perhaps today is the day for me to go out and buy a lottery ticket.
I also think this makes it the president of the 404 club, for the time being at least.

[Tudor]

Silver?

[Marc]

  On 11/9/2020 at 5:22 PM, Tudor said:

Silver?

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More like 9ct gold.

Very nice score indeed!!!!!

[AndyHull]

As I said, the little pocket watch was what caught my eye. It is obviously far from perfect, but it does have a complete balance (with a slight hairspring issue) and it does actually run.. for a short while, so It has potential.

It was filthy, gummed up with old oil and dirt, the hands were bent and the dial has a tiny barely visible crack, but following a deep clean of the case and dial, a partial straightening of the hands, which I'm still not satisfied with, and a quick clean of the mechanism, it is starting to look like it may have some life left in it.

 

It is stamped inside the lid with K14, so there is a chance that it might  have a 14K gold case.

The inner mechanism protector cover is stamped Cuivre (copper/brass), and the outer does have the appearance of gold (which doesn't show up so well on the camera).

Plated or rolled gold almost invariably ends up with obvious spots where wear causes the base metal to show through, and this has none of those. It does have some obvious hairline scratches inside, to the metal is presumably relatively soft.

I have no idea what the caliber is (can anybody identify it?), nor do I know where I'm going to find a crown and stem for it, but I'll have a root through my extensive junk pile stock of spares for the stem, and if I find something suitable, I'll see if I can get it going, and then track down a crown.

Presumably if the case really is 14K then I'll need to at least find a matching plated one.

If nothing else, it does add a bit of late Victorian or Georgian bling to the 404 club.

Edited November 9, 2020 by AndyHull