£10:10 Club

[Waggy]

This is a companion of the 404 club where watchmakers are encouraged to squeeze every bit of value from those 'less loved' watches they find for less than £10.10..... why £10.10, this was the value and currency voted on by the members who already submit to the existing 404 club, but are finding it more and more difficult to find watches at this price point due to inflation and also wish to open this bit of tun up to more participants. The inspiration for the value of £10.10 comes from the hand position of most of the watches you see in pictures:, example below

This is all meant to be a bit of fun and allow you to hone your skills and show off your talent on these watches to your peers here on this forum before attempting to use them on something that will cause tears!

So Here are the rules:

1. Watch purchase value to be less than or equal to £10.10 (or equivalent in your currency at the time of purchase)
2. Reasonable shipping and spares are excluded from the £10.10
3. Before and after pictures are required (if possible)
4. Lot purchases are allowed e.g. lot of 10 watches for £100 = £10 per watch
5. Have fun and don't take it too seriously

Over to you!

[AndyHull]

This certainly opens up a much larger field of options. I had been considering £8.08 as a possible ceiling for future "budget beauties", but £10.10 may be a more realistic figure. The 404 club is still welcoming new members though.

[Waggy]

Almost had my first entry, but discovered a broken pinion so need a new part.

[AndyHull]

Perhaps its time for me to set up a new search in ebay.. thus hastening bankruptcy, and more complaints about the number of watches in the house.

I'll keep you all posted if I pick up anything spectacular for membership of the new branch of the budget beauties club.

[RichardHarris123]

1 hour ago, Waggy said:

Almost had my first entry, but discovered a broken pinion so need a new part.

I thought spare parts didn't count?  

[Waggy]

Yes but it takes time to order them and get them delivered.... As soon as it arrives, I can install and post here  

[Razz]

I bought a lot of 6 watches in August 2023 from the Bay. It was a typical 1 nice watch and 5 fashion type quartzs. $72.96US so £9.66 each with the exchange rate. Not 404 but is a 10.10! The crystal was badly scratched and scuffed but the listing did have Tissot as one of the brands. As the photos were not good I remember thinking it might be a seastar and I sniped it. It ran out of the parcel! The gasket had turned to tar and I had a bit of date wheel learning curve as well as dial. But I really like the 2591 in house movement and think these early 70s seastar are great. The dial on this has applied badges as well. All in all just the new gold ring armored  crystal and I got to learn a bit about Tissot and this family of calibers that allowed me to pick up more expensive pieces and restore.

Edit for spelling and Grammer and to add a side shot. There is wear of the GP on the lug in the one spot but rubbed out a bit and doesn't jump out at you on the wrist.

Edited June 23 by Razz

[spectre6000]

So a few extra dollarbux, and you start seeing name brands? This 10.10 thing might have some legs!

[spectre6000]

I did a hunt one evening a week or two ago to test the 1010 waters. I ended up landing a 404 and this guy:

All stainless "Wadsworth" with a 17 jewel AS 1187. I especially like the blued H/M hands with the red S hand, which all look to be in excellent condition under the scratchy crystal. Runs a treat when wound, but I'm not even going to bother putting it on the timegrapher. I'm sure it needs plenty of attention. For now, it goes into the project box with the other degenerates!

[eccentric59]

Got this wonderful 1971 $8 eBay find running.

Other than a broken mainspring and a crack in the crystal, it just needed a good clean up.

It did have a beat error problem, but I got it adjusted to a 0.6ms BE, a 260° and positional error of +/-30s. Not bad for essentially a novelty watch probably not expected to make it much past the '70s. I think the hardest part was fitting the pallet fork without jewels. Those holes are TINY!

That brass plating was 10 kinds of awful so I just polished it off for now. I might nickel plate it. Or 24k rose gold, for such an elegant timepiece.  

 

Edited July 22 by eccentric59

[RichardHarris123]

Your hand is going to fall off due to lack of blood supply.  Hehe. 

[Geotex]

If you really like the '71 Charlie you can keep an eye out for the '86 Anniversary Quartz reissue for your other wrist! 

 

[eccentric59]

2 hours ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Your hand is going to fall off due to lack of blood supply.  Hehe. 

It was a new strap.  

25 minutes ago, Geotex said:

If you really like the '71 Charlie you can keep an eye out for the '86 Anniversary Quartz reissue for your other wrist! 

 

 

Kewl.  

[AndyHull]

Ah! Charlie is a Tuna!! I like it. Not sure why, but it reminds me of my fly and cow.

 

[Neverenoughwatches]

Been a few weeks since anyone posted. Heres 25 candidates for the 10:10 club. 25 watches £203.00.  I have a few favourites. The Nivada on my wrist, bit small at 30mm but its a lovely little bumper automatic. The Doxa, cant wait to get to this, the Cyma is a nice size, Citizen Eagle 7, Leonidas GSTP. Mickey Mouse Timex.

[Razz]

Picked this up today for £7.59 or $10 if you are in the US (as I am). The seconds hand was off and wedged. Damage looks worse in pics as the scratches don't go to metal. The gasket is actually on the movement holder and did it's job and still had grease! The stem gasket also did it's job. Doesn't look like anyone has touched this movement (7005a). Reattached the seconds hand and gave the case and caseback an ultrasonic cleaning. Looks like a high dome gold armored crystal will work. Runs okay but needs a servicing as it is a 1974 model, I think.

[AndyGSi]

4 hours ago, Razz said:

Looks like a high dome gold armored crystal will work. Runs okay but needs a servicing as it is a 1974 model, I think.

Nice watch and yes it's October 1974.

[spectre6000]

I wonder what the deal with is with the arrow on the rotor. Knee jerk was that it winds only in one direction, but then I see the magic lever pawl there... Why did they spring for that extra detail in the stamping die?

Edit: And then I took another sip of coffee. And then I remembered there's something about aligning the arrow with the dot on the wheel in the automatic works to balance it all out somehow... I think... More coffee...

Edited September 2 by spectre6000

[AndyGSi]

12 minutes ago, spectre6000 said:

Edit: And then I took another sip of coffee. And then I remembered there's something about aligning the arrow with the dot on the wheel in the automatic works to balance it all out somehow... I think... More coffee...

Yes that's correct.

[Waggy]

I've had a rough time the past few months, I recently lost my job so lost my mojo in repairing watches for a few weeks, then I had a run of 4 or 5 watches that would just not work, and spare parts lost in the post etc.... anyway long story short, not a great watch repair time. However the watch below has broken my unlucky streak and I'm 'back on the horse' 

The watch is a Clinton and was won on eBay and was 1 in a lot of 2, so he price is $10.00 US each, so below the £10.10 threshold. It was quite beaten up and non-runner. Here are the before and after pictures:

Here is the front of the watch, the crystal was destroyed, and the case dirty and in need of some TLC:

Here is the back of the watch, complete with free arm cheese, there were no marks inside the caseback:

Here is the movement

I needed to replace the stem and crown due to rust, and the crystal (obviously), I also played around with straps, but all the ones I had were either too sporty or too formal, so in the end decided to splash out on a bracelet. I decided not to re-lume the hands as this would have contrasted with the look of the watch and the existing lume was stable (good call? - let me know!):

And here is the timegrapher result

let me know what you think

Edited September 3 by Waggy

[RichardHarris123]

Looks great to me, a vast improvement.  

How's the job hunting going?

[Waggy]

7 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

How's the job hunting going?

Not great - but hanging in there

[AndyHull]

I'm still on my low cost chronograph hunt. This time I've picked up a Black Dial Swatch Irony Chronograph "YCS1000 High Tail".

The crystal is a terrible mess, but the rest looks reasonable, and the price puts it easily into the 10:10 club.

Lets see if I can save the crystal. If so, at just shy of seven quit, its a bit of a steal.

[gpraceman]

I guess this qualifies, as I paid $80 for a lot of 8 watches.  While some will make good projects, the one that really caught my eye is the one with the scalloped case.  It's an Elgin with a Grade 524 movement from 1937.  I got the lot many months back and finally got around to working on it.  It turned out quite nice, I think.  Though, the balance gave me fits with several issues.  I got a donor movement and swapping out the balance didn't help much.  The donor itself ran better, so I did a movement swap until I can work through the issues with the original movement.

[Waggy]

7 hours ago, AndyHull said:

The crystal is a terrible mess,

looks like someone on a superbike used it to go around a corner 
Will look great once you work your magic on it

 

1 hour ago, gpraceman said:

Elgin with a Grade 524 movement from 1937

looks great, what did you use to polish up the case?