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Rolex and Illinois watches.

mrcardigan

By mrcardigan
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mrcardigan New Member

mrcardigan

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Hi all,

Our two vintage watches - more will definitely follow...

1 - 1931/2 Rolex Silver Prince, identified for us at antiques roadshow UK, needs a bit of work, but family heirloom so probably leave as is for now and just love looking at it.

2 - loved look of Rolex so much that wanted vintage watch to wear every day, but don't have budget for another Rolex, so have found (from my amateur research) what I hope is a lovely 1934 Illinois Ensign. Again needs a bit of work i.e. second hand, new crown and stem, new crystal, but hopefully can all be done fairly cheaply so that I can start wearing it - no idea on value (seen prices from low to hundreds online) but not bothered...as I only paid £8.50 for it (about $10-12 dollars!)

I'm hoping that I'll be able to use this forum to help track down the parts that I need so can fix and start wearing this lovely watch. I normally work on bigger machines (gas/heating engineer by trade) so going on other advice on this forum, I'm planning on buying a few cheap pocket watches to have a go with first. And no, I'm not stupid, I won't be touching the Rolex! 

Andy.

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Geo Distinguished Member

Geo

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Personally I wouldn't have the dials restored, they might look newer, but would be worth less.

 I would just give them a very gentle clean with a cotton bud and very dilute washing up liquid or just leave well alone.  If you search the forum you'll find quite a few articles on cleaning watch dials.

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mrcardigan New Member

mrcardigan

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Thanks for comments everyone, appreciated. Yes, I think I will go for softly softly approach to dial, as want to retain patina if I can. first things first, need to check if it runs, and that means tracking down a stem and Crown. Anyone know how I can identify what stem goes with it? 607 movement. Anyone have any good contacts?

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