404 Club

[RichardHarris123]

1 hour ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

The crown and stem missing

Got the stem. 

[gpraceman]

On 11/29/2023 at 5:19 AM, RichardHarris123 said:

One crown wheel screw corroded, a bit of surface rust but looking good. 

I have one of those movements in an Alben watch.  Such a thin movement.  Sadly it has a broken balance staff and case and dial are trash.

My pile of 404's is growing.  Another obscure brand, Ovivo.  Paid $4.40 for it.

Edited December 2, 2023 by gpraceman

[AndyHull]

A little bit of a novelty. A USSR era Quartz Sekonda pocket watch. These are not particularly common it appears. Nor was it particularly pricey at a mere 0.99p

It needs a stem which I probably have, and some suitable crown, which I also probably have.

 

[Razz]

Was a good day today. Got to golf and had a great round of 3 over par. It got to 64 F here in Tucson. Went to the local swap meet and picked up this lot of 4 watches for $20 US which just gets them in the £4.04 club. It rained last night and was sunny today and the Sheffield was in the sun so had condensation on the crystal, but really did not know if the inside would be rusted. It ran and the hands moved. Anyway has a very interesting double bezel.

Got it dried out and found the the hands are pretty easily moved when in setting mode and don't move when in winding mode so probably is a loose cannon pinion. The Rams (American football team) watch is a Bulova Sportstime by Prestige Time Co., Ltd. With an ISA 1198. Just needed a battery and it still had the plastic crystal protector on it. Had to ground the battery and give a quick zap with a blue demag to get it started.

The timex is a 02579 and i have an exact watch already. Wasnt working but opened it up and fiddled around and added some oils and got it going. The last one put a new battery in it but is pretty much just a crappy fashion watch.

[gpraceman]

On 11/25/2023 at 8:47 PM, gpraceman said:

Surprisingly, I got another 404 club entry on the way.  This one I paid $3.75 for, plus a minor shipping charge.  No info on the movement yet.  Seems that I find the obscure brands.

 

On 11/26/2023 at 8:53 AM, spectre6000 said:

That dial says the movement is jeweled. No count means one to meet the minimum definition, so it'll be the balance cap jewel opposite the dial, and may not actually interface with the balance staff. Pin lever.

Yep, you guessed it correctly.  One jewel.

The movement is swimming in oil and has lots of fibers in it.  I'm going to have to do a good job degreasing it before I put it in my watch cleaning machine.  Also has a rather bent hairspring.  I guess, It'll give me some practice on straightening a hairspring.

Glad that i didn't pay any more for this one. lol

[Nucejoe]

On 8/1/2021 at 1:22 PM, Plato said:

Don't think I've ever seen a garage sale in my part of the UK, only thing close is when people leave stuff at the end of their drive with a sign up saying to help yourself. Shame! 

Don't you guys have flea market in UK ? 

We got plenty of mosquitos here, all you can catch for free. lol.

 

 

[AndyHull]

2 hours ago, Nucejoe said:

Don't you guys have flea market in UK ? 

Not as many as there used to be. They all seem to have gone up market, and the prices reflect this. Phrases like "Upcycled" and "new to you" seem to add an extra zero on the price. 
There are car boot sales though, which often have some interesting stuff.

[Waggy]

Is there a place to look to find such markets and auctions etc in the UK that have watches. I'm planning a visit to the UK in the summer and hope to get the opportunity to pick up some non-eBay watches. I assume people directly posting locations etc would break the rules of the forum and open the door to spam, but maybe it would be ok to let us know an external web site where these locations are regularly posted and updated? Or maybe a better way to ask the question is, how/where do you find out about places to buy watches?

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, Waggy said:

Is there a place to look to find such markets and auctions etc in the UK that have watches. I'm planning a visit to the UK in the summer and hope to get the opportunity to pick up some non-eBay watches. I assume people directly posting locations etc would break the rules of the forum and open the door to spam, but maybe it would be ok to let us know an external web site where these locations are regularly posted and updated? Or maybe a better way to ask the question is, how/where do you find out about places to buy watches?

Depends where you are going waggy. Check for local carboots in the area you are visiting usually very busy in summer, tend to have more clocks than watches . Birmingham has a watch fair a few times a year and Yorkshire and Lincolnshire have plenty of antique fairs placed throughout the year. 

[Waggy]

22 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Depends where you are going waggy.

Doing the university tour with number 1 son, so will be hitting Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool and Leeds. Hope to do a Dell Boy and head home with a suitcase full of moody watches ha ha

[Neverenoughwatches]

2 hours ago, Waggy said:

Doing the university tour with number 1 son, so will be hitting Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool and Leeds. Hope to do a Dell Boy and head home with a suitcase full of moody watches ha ha

Haha Cor blimey Rodney you might even find Harrison's missing watch.

[AndyHull]

4 hours ago, Waggy said:

Is there a place to look to find such markets and auctions etc in the UK that have watches. I'm planning a visit to the UK in the summer and hope to get the opportunity to pick up some non-eBay watches. I assume people directly posting locations etc would break the rules of the forum and open the door to spam, but maybe it would be ok to let us know an external web site where these locations are regularly posted and updated? Or maybe a better way to ask the question is, how/where do you find out about places to buy watches?

https://carbootdirectory.co.uk/car-boot-sales-near-me/

http://www.carbootjunction.com/

Also look for "junk" shops, charity shops and local auction houses. You can find all manner of stuff at these places. 

It seems with the advent of online shopping, and post covid that in some areas there are as many charity shops as genuine retailers. 

Edited December 5, 2023 by AndyHull

[spectre6000]

So, I realized a while ago that car boot sales are to the UK as garage sales are to the US. We don't have have the former, you don't have the latter. I got curious and did an image search for car boot sale though, and we DO have them, and I've been to several! I've even participated as a seller! Car show swap meets. 100% one for one analog with the sole exception that swap meets are obviously very focused on car parts and automobilia, and I guess the cars associated with the boots are typically less pedestrian. The only time you'll see a Volvo wagon is at a Volvo oriented car show.

[Neverenoughwatches]

3 minutes ago, spectre6000 said:

So, I realized a while ago that car boot sales are to the UK as garage sales are to the US. We don't have have the former, you don't have the latter. I got curious and did an image search for car boot sale though, and we DO have them, and I've been to several! I've even participated as a seller! Car show swap meets. 100% one for one analog with the sole exception that swap meets are obviously very focused on car parts and automobilia, and I guess the cars associated with the boots are typically less pedestrian. The only time you'll see a Volvo wagon is at a Volvo oriented car show.

Have you not bought yourself that field yet Spectre ? . 

[gpraceman]

Not sure why all of a sudden I am winning a bunch of 404's, but I'm up to my 4th one recently.

Diamond tooled?

Tropicalized?  I assume that means water resistant.  The scuba diver would allude to that.

This one at least has 17 jewels to it.  Non-runner though.  From a bit of info I found online, it may have a Soviet movement.

[RichardHarris123]

9 hours ago, Waggy said:

Doing the university tour with number 1 son, so will be hitting Newcastle, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool and Leeds.

Leeds is my alma mater, which subject is he considering.  Depending on what day you are visiting Leeds, we may be able to meet for a pint. 

[spectre6000]

9 hours ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

Have you not bought yourself that field yet Spectre ? . 

The fields around me tend to be somewhat... vertical.

[Neverenoughwatches]

18 minutes ago, spectre6000 said:

The fields around me tend to be somewhat... vertical.

Thats fine, just make sure everyone pulls their handbrakes on tight.

[Waggy]

9 hours ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Leeds is my alma mater, which subject is he considering.  Depending on what day you are visiting Leeds, we may be able to meet for a pint. 

He's planning on following in my footsteps and doing Mechanical Engineering - pint sounds good! 

[Waggy]

4 hours ago, Waggy said:

Leeds is my alma mater

We may need you as a reference then, it's now harder to get into Engineering (A*AA) than Medicine (AAA), luckily not the case when I did Engineering

[RichardHarris123]

28 minutes ago, Waggy said:

may need you as a reference then

Unfortunately it wouldn't do you any good.  I  was studying for an MSc in fire engineering, passed all my exams, completed the research project, only the design project left.  Then a perfect storm of illness and a difficult work / personal life got in the way, I  never finished.  I  don't think about it because if I do , I  kick myself. 

[gpraceman]

Looks like I will be adding an Indian watch to my 404 collection.  Paid $5.02 for it.  Looks to have a HMT 2301 movement with 17 jewels which I found a photo of.  Rather nice looking overall, at least from the photos.

[spectre6000]

The issue with the Indian watches is always that they've taken serious abuse, then got a spit polish, and are sold as freshly serviced or something. That one looks close to new. Score!

[gpraceman]

3 hours ago, spectre6000 said:

The issue with the Indian watches is always that they've taken serious abuse, then got a spit polish, and are sold as freshly serviced or something. That one looks close to new. Score!

HMT is an Indian company that seems to sell budget watches primarily to the Indian market.  I guess that Citizen makes (or just designs) some of their movements.  I don't think this is the usual "Mombai Special" that one would get from India.  It is shipping from California, not India, but that doesn't mean much.

This one does look to be in good condition, with little wear.  It has a 17 jewel movement that should be pretty easy to service.  Hopefully, a good score.  It is said to be in "working condition", so that's a plus.

Edited December 21, 2023 by gpraceman

[AndyHull]

HMT watches were made entirely in India. The movements were produced under license from Citizen Japan and the one you have is an HMT 02X movement, a licensed copy of the Citizen 0201 series of movements.

Parts movements are easy to come by, and they also seem to be interchangeable with their Citizen equivalents.

HMT 6906 Automatic, "as purchased" and  in need of some TLC including a stem and crown.

HMT also produced a number of automatic watches based on the HMT 6906 which is a licensed copy of the Citizen 650x series.

By and large, original condition watches are well made, but due to the large numbers produced, there are quite a number of bodged together bitsa-this and bitsa-that watches with weird "reconditioned" outlandish dials, which are the so called "Mumbai specials", some of which are quite amusing. Others are frighteningly badly put together, and at least one of the ones I encountered had half a sack of potatoes worth of dirt in it, despite being described by the seller as "recently serviced".

Interesting watches, with an easily serviced movement, with a relatively large balance. The movements are almost indestructible, and, if serviced and cleaned correctly they can perform very well.

I've included a couple of the "several" that I have collected over the years. I have a bit of a soft spot for them.

Edited December 22, 2023 by AndyHull