Rolex and Illinois watches.

[mrcardigan]

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.

[Cad101]

Bit more information about your watch for you.

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/illinois/5519010/movement

[clockboy]

Lovely watches if you can restore them. If so they will also need the dials restored. There is one of the companies that do this specialist work in our resources section.

[Geo]

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.

[Cad101]

I agree I would leave the dial alone and that glass may need a specialist to make one too.

[mrcardigan]

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?