These Should Keep Me Happy For A Week Or So

[Cad101]

So while doing my usual nightly bay rounds looking for the odd bargain. I found these two unloved by someone but not by me. The Lucerne I just liked the look of and being one jewel and still ticks for a second or two just needs a good service and new strap and will live again. The Helvetica cal 836 is a different matter the watch does run if a little pressure is applied to the barrel but the rotor is loose and if it needs a new one is going to be a swine to find I'm sure. I can't find much information on the movement so any info you have would be appreciated it also needs a new glass and a nice strap if i can get it running again. It was listed as being a men's watch but the size looks more like a boys or women's but doesn't have the look of a women's watch if there is such a thing. I plan to do a photo breakdown of this movement so check back for any problems I encounter.

Mick

[ausimax]

Can't find the 836 but thr 837 looks much the same.

 

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?11&ranfft&0&2uswk&Helvetia_837

 

Your second movement is a Baumgartner 866, I have about 4 watches of different makes on the go at present using this movement or the 866CLD which has the date complication.

 

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?11&ranfft&0&2uswk&Baumgartner_866

 

I checked on Cousins site for a data sheet for the Helvetica but they had none listed.

 

Max

[Cad101]

Thanks Max for your reply I also found the 837 they looked very similar but the 837 is 21 jewel but could give me an idea.

Also thanks for the Baumgartner I was just going to clean and oil/grease it.

 

Mick

[stroppy]

Can't find the 836 but thr 837 looks much the same.

 

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?11&ranfft&0&2uswk&Helvetia_837

 

Your second movement is a Baumgartner 866, I have about 4 watches of different makes on the go at present using this movement or the 866CLD which has the date complication.

 

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?11&ranfft&0&2uswk&Baumgartner_866

 

I checked on Cousins site for a data sheet for the Helvetica but they had none listed.

 

Max

Hey Max...you're an Aussie.  Remember in the 70s when you went to any "trash and treasure" market or flea market down here you'd see folks selling the cheap Hong Kong watches with brands like "Genoa", "Geneve", "Lucerne", "Citron"...etc...etc..?

 

My recollection is that most of them had the Baumgartner one jewel movement.  My dad used to call them "two bob watches" and if you got one home and it ran longer than a week you were happy and lucky!

[Cad101]

I like the look of 2 Bob watches probably because its what my grandad would let and take to bits clean and reassemble in the 70's when I was but a nipper. Was your dad english or do you have Bob's ( a shilling or 5 decimal pence ) in the grand old land of Oz.

[antonyh]

I have a very similar Lucerne watch, I used to see a lot of them when woolworths were selling them.

Great fun.

[ausimax]

Hey Max...you're an Aussie.  Remember in the 70s when you went to any "trash and treasure" market or flea market down here you'd see folks selling the cheap Hong Kong watches with brands like "Genoa", "Geneve", "Lucerne", "Citron"...etc...etc..?

 

My recollection is that most of them had the Baumgartner one jewel movement.  My dad used to call them "two bob watches" and if you got one home and it ran longer than a week you were happy and lucky!

Yes stroppy, they had reputation as cheap and nasty, but some of them just kept on going, funny thing I recently bought a batch of 8 watches because it contained 3 with quality Swiss movements of the other 5 two had Baumgartner 866's, two had MAM 3467 movements, all four of them are up and running - the three "quality" movements are all in the parts bin as all had broken parts, too expensive to justify fixing in relation to end value.

 

I am constantly surprised by cheap movements, even quartz, always seem to get stuck with a heap of quartz when you buy bulk lots, mostly cheap Chinese/Hong Kong make with Seiko PC21 ot the equivalent cheap Citizen movements, pull out the old battery clean out the crud and install a new battery and they fire up, the good quality movements when the battery leak it seem to invade all the electronics and destroy the circuit.

Before I will buy any quality brand quartz watch that "just needs a new battery" I check to see if a replacement movement or equivalent is available, been burnt a couple of times, unfortunately even good brand quartz watches don't seem to hold their value well enough to justify spending $100 + on a replacement movement to restore them.

 

Max

[Cad101]

Yep got a Koyo LCD with same batch as above cleaned out crud around battery put new one in fired up straight away. Gave it to a friend he uses it for his daily watch now.

[stroppy]

I like the look of 2 Bob watches probably because its what my grandad would let and take to bits clean and reassemble in the 70's when I was but a nipper. Was your dad english or do you have Bob's ( a shilling or 5 decimal pence ) in the grand old land of Oz.

We had pounds, shillings and pence just like "Old Blighty" until 1966 when sanity prevailed and we switched over to Aussie dollars and cents.  Problem with the using the pound denominations was having to remember how many shillings were in a "guinea" and the fact that the coins were not in denominations of ten.  I can remember feeling rich because I had five pennies with which I could buy a bottle of "Tarax" lemonade and a bag of "broken biscuits" (broken cookies) because biscuits were sold by weight out of huge tin tubs at the local milk bar (convenience corner store).

 

Yes stroppy, they had reputation as cheap and nasty, but some of them just kept on going, funny thing I recently bought a batch of 8 watches because it contained 3 with quality Swiss movements of the other 5 two had Baumgartner 866's, two had MAM 3467 movements, all four of them are up and running - the three "quality" movements are all in the parts bin as all had broken parts, too expensive to justify fixing in relation to end value.

 

I am constantly surprised by cheap movements, even quartz, always seem to get stuck with a heap of quartz when you buy bulk lots, mostly cheap Chinese/Hong Kong make with Seiko PC21 ot the equivalent cheap Citizen movements, pull out the old battery clean out the crud and install a new battery and they fire up, the good quality movements when the battery leak it seem to invade all the electronics and destroy the circuit.

Before I will buy any quality brand quartz watch that "just needs a new battery" I check to see if a replacement movement or equivalent is available, been burnt a couple of times, unfortunately even good brand quartz watches don't seem to hold their value well enough to justify spending $100 + on a replacement movement to restore them.

 

Max

I remember going to the "Trash & Treasure" fleamarket in Dandenong (Melbourne eastern suburb) back in the late 60s and early 70s.  There were piles of unusual transistor radios (all imported illegally to circumvent import tariffs) and watches of all shapes and sizes.  Some of them had really great cases with unusual colouring on the faces and faceting on the watch glass.  From memory the cheapest (in 1970) were four bucks and the better ones (usually with a real 17 or 21 jewel movement...probably pin levers) were ten to fifteen bucks.  

 

I used to laugh my head off at the way the Hong Kong makers tried to fool western customers.  They'd print "21 Jewwls" or suchlike on the dials and "Swiss Mvt" or "Swiss Style" or "Swizz"...stuff like that...on the bottom of the dials.