Which Watch Have You Got Coming In The Mail ? Show Us !!!

[AndyHull]

Despite the fact that Solvil Et Titis are arguably no longer the brand they once were, I must admit there is something about this little dress watch that hits the spot.

It is (perhaps obviously) a 404 club candidate, however I was surprised to find that if purchased new, a very similar watch from their "Classicist" range on their Singapore site comes in around the $300 SGD (£180 GBP) mark, so hopefully the are still producing watches of reasonable quality.

Edited October 25, 2023 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

Something a little more traditional this time. A "Hinds Magpie" nickel cased pocket watch.

Not sure of the age, possibly late 1920s or later.

I might be able to be a little more precise once I know what is inside it. A non runner, but the listing was a little vague, so I have no idea what ails it. Needs a crystal too, but other than that it looks to be in good cosmetic condition.

[rehajm]

nice apostrophe ‘

[AndyHull]

... and we do like a nice apostrophe round here. I hadn't actually spotted that little detail.

[RichardHarris123]

I'm waiting to find out what a magpie lever is.  Swiss lever, English lever etc, no problems but magpie level?  

Edited October 26, 2023 by RichardHarris123
Typo again.

[ManSkirtBrew]

1 hour ago, AndyHull said:

... and we do like a nice apostrophe round here. I hadn't actually spotted that little detail.

Are you a member of the Apostrophe Protection Society?

[AndyHull]

10 minutes ago, ManSkirtBrew said:

Are you a member of the Apostrophe Protection Society?

I'm not sure I could deal with adrenaline rush of their hedonistic life styles.

[AndyHull]

Another trinket for the 404 club. This time in the form of a Texas Instruments LED watch from the mid 1970s

This one is a less common ladies model, and looks to be in pristine cosmetic condition.

The module looks to be relatively corrosion free, so there is a reasonable chance that I can get it working without having to resort to too much brain surgery.

At 0.99p its no great loss if it does prove unfixable.

If you are interested in the IC that drives these little horological curiosities you might like this.
 

 

[rehajm]

...the original and the Chinese chip were identical - haha- there'd be a lot of that later ...

...the TI LED 'font' is so iconic for anyone living through that era. Dad worked for General Electric and was always bringing home clock prototypes and unique models from the company store. We had this amazing gold clock with a blue/green LED readout that sat on a foyer table. It was before I could read an analog clock so I'd run in to see it to know the time...

...these IC became so cheap and throw away- it always bring a smile to my face to see those fancy gold cased watches with the red LED readout. 

...and after watching this video I'm afraid I have another rabbit hole to explore- off to find my plaid Toughskins!

Edited October 27, 2023 by rehajm

[AndyHull]

On 10/22/2023 at 5:28 AM, AndyHull said:

A Molnija (Молния) 15 jewel October Revolution (Октябрьская революция) USSR era pocket watch is on its way to the 404 club.

The Molnija 36xx movements are basically a copy of a Cortébert movement used in Swiss watches from around 1940.

In a working condition, these are fairly popular, but this one appears to be missing the top balance jewel, as well as the bow. It was described as "Balance is not working", so the price was a bargain bin £1.99

Almost certainly needs the balance jewel, and may need a balance staff too. I think I have a scrap movement with the jewel, but it too needs the balance staff, so I may have to go hunting for some of those.  

I found a complete movement for this project. The seller claims it is working, and as you can see it has a higher standard of finish, so hopefully the finished article will be presentable. It even appears to have a bow which may work to replace the one that is missing. If not, I do have quite a good stash of bows so I should be able to come up with something. I can always fabricate one if necessary.
One final bonus was that it was cheaper than a balance staff, and saves me the chore of replacing that.

 

[AndyHull]

Another USSR era 404 club piece. This time a 0.99 pence Chaika R2356 7 jewel quartz.

There are a number of versions of this particular model...

...including a very interesting "Medical" pulse meter dial version, shown below.

Edited October 29, 2023 by AndyHull

[rehajm]

Another fun one Andy…

[AndyHull]

Another 0.99 pence unwisely spent on a Soviet era basket case. This time a Poljot cal 2614.2H based Sekonda with signs of having endured a hard life. There appears to be rust on the hands, and some flaking of the dial. I am quietly confident that if the rust is superficial, then there is a pretty good chance of this running without too much effort.

Here are a couple of  much nicer examples, without the optional crusties.

Edited October 30, 2023 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

For not a lot more, I picked up a second one of these. This time a "gold" version. This may, or may not be gold plated. 

[oldhippy]

Russian Sekonda gold plated 

[AndyHull]

On 11/2/2023 at 5:59 PM, oldhippy said:

Russian Sekonda gold plated 

I'm a bit cynical about how much gold there might be, but some of the USSR era watches are stamped Au10

Whether they *actually* are plated with 10 microns of gold, or perhaps someone just had a handy Au10 stamper is another matter, however since these watches were probably conceived for the communist elite and the export market, they may well have a snifter of gold on them. 10 micron plating is such an insignificant amount that it probably adds less than £4.04 to their value. A micron is 0.001 of a millimetre.

EDIT: Just for the record, anything plated with less than a micron of plating is considered "flashed" with gold, and this typically is done on items where there will be very little wear. On the other hand anything with one micron or more is considered to be plated. The thicker the plating, the longer it will typically last.

Watches, since they experience high wear should be plated with 10 microns or more (40 microns or more for a quality piece). Obviously this does not translate to very much gold by weight, so a gold plated watch is not really worth significantly more than an equivalent un-plated item, except of course for the aesthetic value of the gold.

A 9ct or more  gold watch is worth at least its weight in gold at the percentage rate for the particular carat value, or to be more accurate,  worth the weight of those parts of the watch that are actually made of gold.

Unfortunately this of course means that a lot of historically interesting watches have been destroyed to recover the gold from their cases. In summary, a USSR era Raketa, Pljot etc. with Au10 plating is not going to contribute significantly to your pension fund, unless it is a particularly rare or interesting watch, and I don't think our 404 club candidates quite fall into that category unfortunately.

Edited November 4, 2023 by AndyHull

[RichardHarris123]

This, guess what I paid. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 hour ago, RichardHarris123 said:

This, guess what I paid. 

If working  50 -100 depending on  day

[RichardHarris123]

I spoke too soon, the seller made a mistake and cancelled the sale.  £20. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

3 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

I spoke too soon, the seller made a mistake and cancelled the sale.  £20. 

What mistake ?

[RichardHarris123]

Meant to put the starting bid at £20 not buy it now. 

[rehajm]

2 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

What mistake ?

The watch did not sell for what the seller wanted. It’s happened to me a high percentage of the few times I’ve used fleabay. Meant another item, I made a mistake, ‘ already ‘sold’ (then listed again later). Gaming the rules…

Edited November 3, 2023 by rehajm

[AndyHull]

That is quite a common trick. Ebay listing cancelled "There was a mistake in the listing".. really?!  .

Edited November 4, 2023 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

 

Early no name Swiss quartz blue dialled "Pilot".

I have no idea what potential horrors are lurking in side. Hopefully it will contain some interesting early quartz mechanism and not be too crusty. What more can I say about it.. .did I mention it has a blue dial.. Oh.. yes I do believe I did.

Edited November 5, 2023 by AndyHull

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 11/5/2023 at 10:32 AM, AndyHull said:

 

Early no name Swiss quartz blue dialled "Pilot".

I have no idea what potential horrors are lurking in side. Hopefully it will contain some interesting early quartz mechanism and not be too crusty. What more can I say about it.. .did I mention it has a blue dial.. Oh.. yes I do believe I did.

Haven't posted a 404 for a while, but i snatched these up last week for a measly £6.50 for 5 watches. Technically £1.30 each, i feel like a cheat as 3 of them are garbage, well 4 really but i need at least 2 to get within the specified.  So i would have to pick the Limit and the Michael Kors ( yes shock horror a fashion watch ). The Limit visually case and dial is in perfect condition,  inside i suspect a broken click spring as the click isn't engaging the ratchet also the timesetting is extremely sensitive so possibly the cannon pinion needs a little tighten. The MK i thought might just have been a fake but it is actually genuine, inside is quite wet , not totally sure if its water or battery leakage, seems too much for acid but there is no rust either. New movement is around 12 quid, not bad for a 150 quid watch . The mineral glass is scratched up and the bevel edge is chipped in places, so that also needs changing, but i fancy a go at dressing out the scratches and re-shaping the bevel if anyone has an idea. Not sure how i managed to post this in the wrong thread but I'm not writing all that again

Edited November 6, 2023 by Neverenoughwatches