Vintage Vulcain Watch w/ AS 1686 movement

[AlexanderB]

I got myself a vintage Vulcain watch from ebay for 30 EUR incl. shipping. The owner stated that the watch stops from frequently. A good watch to test a few skills!

The movement seems to be an AS 1686 movement, which was built around 1960. This is how the watch looks like either.

What puzzles me is the caseback engraving

W.M.R WATCH CASE CORP
CASE MADE IN HONG KONG

Also the inner rim of the case itself has H.M.R. HONG KONG written on.

Any ideas and opinions regarding the watch highly appreciated.

 

[AlexanderB]

Here are a few more pictures.

 

[AlexanderB]

Here are a few questions I have regarding this watch:

The movement seems to be an AS 1686 movement, which was built around 1960. This is how the watch looks like either.

What puzzles me is the caseback engraving

W.M.R WATCH CASE CORP
CASE MADE IN HONG KONG

Also the inner rim of the case itself has H.M.R. HONG KONG written on.

Any ideas and opinions regarding the watch highly appreciated. Thank you!

[Watchtime]

W.M.R...W. M. R. WATCH CASE CORP. is an entity registered at NEW YORK county with company number 120695.  located at the address 11 W. 42Nd St. New York, New York, 10036. Company is incorporated on June 19, 1959. Current status of the company is inactive - dissolution (jun 24, 1993).

[Geo]

Ah, that explains why the movement has the code NOU for "Louvic, Hoda
Vulcain, Ditisheim & Co."on the balance cock.  Swiss movements cased in the USA had various codes representing the manufacturers.

[anilv]

From the 70s, the dark days of swiss horology.

Anil

[AlexanderB]

Thank you for your interesting information.

@Geo: Does that mean, the movement is made in USA or were they shipped to the US to be cased there?

@anilv: I thought the 1686 was built around 1960 and not in the 70ies.

Again thank you for your support!

Alexander

[anilv]

Origins probably in the 60s but production could have continued up to the 70s.

The swiss kind of lost the plot in the 70s...competition. was tough with the japs coming on very strong. This led to a lot of cheap swiss movement in poor cases. 

Vulcain was probably hit by the hard times and sourcing  cases from Hong Kong would be one way of lowering costs.

Not sure about the import mark NOU but they could have had an arrangement to buy in movements, source a case, put a nice name on the front ...make a quick buck..

I'm not usually a fan of AS movements but these are fairly robust...if a bit chunky!

Anilv

[AlexanderB]

Thank you @anilv for your insight. Very interesting. It is true that this is a quite cheap movement. You can tell if from the finish of the edges of the bridges. If you look closely, you can see that the bridges were not really finished after punching.

As I wrote earlier, this is a good exercise for servicing and cleaning a watch. Will be my next project.

[Geo]

The movement is definitely Swiss.  

This was a way of getting around importing Swiss watches in America I believe, there are a lot of Swiss movements with codes relevant to the company that produced the movement.

[anilv]

Hi Alexander, 

I wasn't trying to say that it was cheap ....just that they don't really appeal to me. 

They are decent enough, good design and quality materials/finishing.

Better than a lot of pin-levers from the seventies.

Anil

[AlexanderB]

@anilv No worries. All good. Didn't get you wrong. You are absolutely right. The AS / ST 1686 was a reliable workhorse at its time. But it certainly does not have the finish of an ETA movement from the same decade.

Cheers Alexander