Two from the 'bat.. part 2. Enicar Star Jewels

[anilv]

The second watch is from India.

Buying watches from Indian sellers is a gamble as there are some real horrors out there. You need to be a bit alert and watch out for frankenwatches made out of bits of other watches.

First up.. the ebay ad.

Typical of Indian sellers, a lot of information is posted..they are usually truthful and if the dial is refinished they will say so.

 

I was attracted to this watch because of it unusual shape, most from this period are round.. this is a bit tonneau shaped. The dial is also original with mile and even patina.

Indian sellers often sell watches with refinished dials. Look out for painted dial in garish colours, generic markings (waterproof, automatic). Large 'Swiss made' at the bottom of the dial. Also if the dial has a raised logo (like the 'Saturn' in this watch) you may find the dial has been painted and the logo polished to bring it up.. the paint will be thick around the logo. Also Indian dial refinishers do not do the minute indices on the dial well, sometimes they leave this out altogether.  Pay attention to the hands as well, they sometimes replace them with locally produced items which are basically stamped pieces of metal, the lengths of the hands also give a clue to their originality. Below 'seem' ok but  who knows?

Something which was only apparent when the watch was in my hand was that someone had done a good job polishing the case, with radial brushing done so fine it could pass for original.

If I were to find a fault, I would say the transition from brushed top to polished sides was not as sharp as it would be from the factory.

The polisher had popped the caseback on a lathe and left a rough grain, leaving the centre graphic polished. This was probably an attempt to disguise some caseback damage, these Enicars are difficult to open as they required a custom wrench.  Personally I think its too rough and I may try try to polish it in order to tone it down a bit.

A pic of the inside of the caseback.

and the crown

 

 

Finally, heres a picture of the movement. This is definitely an original Enicar, an AR1140 as the seller indicated. Quite a nice movement, there are some markings on the ratchet wheel where I imagine sandpaper has been used to get rid of some rust, also it seems that one of the bridge screws is not original (the lower one on the barrel bridge) otherwise all seems ok.

 One thing to stay away from are watches which have no markings on the movement except for 17 jewels etc. If there's no manufacturers markings then its a 'bitsa'. Running a bit slow so it'll get a service soon.

There is some corrosion around the trough where the o-ring would go, this shows that the watch is really old and has seen some abuse in the past but the case polisher has done a decent job to get it back in good condition.

Apart from a service, I may try to source an Enicar crown as the one currently fitted is an unsigned generic one.

All in all a good buy for less tha USD40 all told.

 

cheers

Anilv

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[clockboy]

Buying watches from India is a bit of a gamble BUT it is often the cheapest way to purchase spares. 

[oldhippy]

I don't know if its the photo but it looks like the tension ring is made up around the 2 and 3 batons. If you have the correct case opener and vice any watch case is easy to open.