Watch of Today

[AndyHull]

1 hour ago, m1ks said:

Huuuuge fan of HMT (and Allwyn).

Always worth saving.

Not all heroes wear capes.

I'm afraid the donor is going to be a bit more difficult to save. So far it has donated its barrel bridge, barrel and the associated screws and click, and pretty much everything under the main bridge.

In fairness though it was a frankendialed monstrosity so it wasn't going back on anybodies wrist any day soon. Pro tip. If you are looking for HMT spares, the worst of the worst frankendialed monstrosity do occasionally sell for 0.99p with free shipping from India. You may have to bid on quite a few before you get one at that price, but eventually you may be in luck. Don't forget to put on your peril sensitive sunglasses before looking at the dial though, and be prepared to remove a few potatoes from the works. The worlds cheapest source of watch spares, 'aint always the cleanest.
On the plus side, I now have a couple of hideous HMT dials to play with, so I no longer have any excuses for not trying my hand at dial fabrication. Anything I produce would be hard pressed to be worse than what was there to start with.

Edited September 26, 2019 by AndyHull

[m1ks]

Indeed yes, had a few cheap Indian redials.

As you say, a great source of spares. Got 2 to service and 2 to rebuild/repair with bits when I get round to it.

[yankeedog]

2 hours ago, m1ks said:

Huuuuge fan of HMT (and Allwyn).

Always worth saving.

Not all heroes wear capes.

I think the hmts are very well  cased. It's  part of what makes them so survivable. 

[m1ks]

1 hour ago, yankeedog said:

I think the hmts are very well  cased. It's  part of what makes them so survivable. 

That and that they're a good solid movement, I always recommend them as an ideal first practise piece, they're so cheap and readily available they're perfect to cut your teeth on.

Edited September 26, 2019 by m1ks

[balaton]

Likely to have been from the Mondaine-owned Constructa  pin lever outfit, this is an ever so 'umble affair. And whilst these things are often found with a 1j Baumgartner 866 inside, this one sports a 21j Ebosa 65 hoping to be just a little more posh. Fail, I'm afraid.

Pics from a couple of days ago.

Regards.

[AndyHull]

An Ronda 1217-21 (pin lever version) Ingersol with a very attractive sunburst grey dial got a clean and service today.

Its a pretty good looking watch, up close, almost perfect. If only they had pushed the boat out a bit more on the mechanism.  

Its running well now, with a good solid swing, and a steady rate.

It arrived DOA. Old oil, filth, a cracked crystal and a deformed hairspring all had to be attended to.

 

[94marconi]

My new Seiko Prospex PADI Solar. Could not believe it was at the local Hudson's Bay Department store on sale for 40% off. They usually just keep dress watches. Love the blue dial and bezel with the red highlights. Unfortunately It would not hold a charge and back to Seiko it went. But now it's back and looking sharp on a blue black silicone strap. Now if only I knew how to scuba dive...                                             

Ron

[Nucejoe]

13 minutes ago, 94marconi said:

My new Seiko Prospex PADI Solar. Could not believe it was at the local Hudson's Bay Department store on sale for 40% off. They usually just keep dress watches. Love the blue dial and bezel with the red highlights. Unfortunately It would not hold a charge and back to Seiko it went. But now it's back and looking sharp on a blue black silicone strap. Now if only I knew how to scuba dive...                                             

Ron

It wouldn,t have been put on sale, had it held charge. There are online articles on life expectancy of solar sell and rechargable capacitors if you care to know.. Best wishes.

 

[balaton]

A little oddity today, this 33mm Vidar from the 1950s. Just for a bit of fun, I've refrained from naming the calibre in case any movement buffs would care to have a guess what it is. I certainly needed help with it from an expert. As a clue, it is not Roamer -associated.

Regards.

 

[AndyHull]

Russian?

[JerseyMo]

my watch of today ... actually tomorrow will be this 1968 Timex 200ft diver I just restored.

cracked crystal, missing stem tube, missing crown, no strap and of course not running.

Cleaned , polished, oiled, greased and happy!  before and after

 

[94marconi]

On 9/29/2019 at 4:34 PM, Nucejoe said:

It wouldn,t have been put on sale, had it held charge. There are online articles on life expectancy of solar sell and rechargable capacitors if you care to know.. Best wishes.

 

Thank you Nucejoe for the input. I highly doubt the young ladies in the jewelry department even know what a Seiko is let alone the differences between kinetic,spring drive, or solar let alone automatic, hacking, or non hacking lol. No disrespect for the ladies...I've met them...The watch works fine when in the well lit display case, it was only when I put it away the problem showed up. They were more than happy to issue a full refund, and still are. Either way Seiko has replaced the charge capacitor no charge under warranty and the watch seems to be doing fine. But I will certainly be reading up on the matter...

Ron

[Nucejoe]

36 minutes ago, 94marconi said:

Thank you Nucejoe for the input. I highly doubt the young ladies in the jewelry department even know what a Seiko is let alone the differences between kinetic,spring drive, or solar let alone automatic, hacking, or non hacking lol. No disrespect for the ladies...I've met them...The watch works fine when in the well lit display case, it was only when I put it away the problem showed up. They were more than happy to issue a full refund, and still are. Either way Seiko has replaced the charge capacitor no charge under warranty and the watch seems to be doing fine. But I will certainly be reading up on the matter...

Ron

Good to hear you feel happy with the piece.I worked as salesman, at three high fashion major dept stores in the US, . Should you care to understand my previous comment, , PM me for details. Regards

[yankeedog]

On 9/29/2019 at 6:08 PM, 94marconi said:

My new Seiko Prospex PADI Solar. Could not believe it was at the local Hudson's Bay Department store on sale for 40% off. They usually just keep dress watches. Love the blue dial and bezel with the red highlights. Unfortunately It would not hold a charge and back to Seiko it went. But now it's back and looking sharp on a blue black silicone strap. Now if only I knew how to scuba dive...                                             

Ron

No telling  how  long that  watch was kept in the dark! From what  I have seen once a capacitor goes dead..it's  DEAD MUERTO KAPUT ! If kept charged however they last for decades.I have an eco drive  that is from about 96. I keep  it on the window  sill..it has  been  running without  interruption  since then

[yankeedog]

1 hour ago, JerseyMo said:

my watch of today ... actually tomorrow will be this 1968 Timex 200ft diver I just restored.

cracked crystal, missing stem tube, missing crown, no strap and of course not running.

Cleaned , polished, oiled, greased and happy!  before and after

 

Aye. The good doctor is at it again.He takes these Lazarusian things and does his magic.Hats off to you.

[yankeedog]

3 hours ago, AndyHull said:

Russian?

Don't  think so. Shock  protection  looks wrong for one thing.not Swiss..German most likely.not enough Swiss cross pollination  to be French 

[balaton]

9 hours ago, AndyHull said:

Russian?

Nope. Sorry, Andy, not Russian.

[AndyHull]

1 hour ago, balaton said:

Nope. Sorry, Andy, not Russian.

I also thought it might be a UMF, but I can't see anything that matches from them either. The shock protector looks very familiar.
 

[Marc]

12 hours ago, balaton said:

A little oddity today, this 33mm Vidar from the 1950s. Just for a bit of fun, I've refrained from naming the calibre in case any movement buffs would care to have a guess what it is. I certainly needed help with it from an expert. As a clue, it is not Roamer -associated.

Regards.

 

To me that has a somewhat Kienzle look about it. Everybody always seems to think that Kienzle only made pin levers with low jewel counts but I have come acros a number of fully jewelled examples.

[AndyHull]

The reason I thought it might be Russian is because the shock protection looks similar to this little Sekonda ladies movement that I serviced a while back.

Kienzle is also a good guess. They did some fairly sophisticated stuff as well as the pin levers. I have a Kienzle automatic movement sitting in the todo pile at the moment (with a pretty spectacular hairspring salad as I recall).

Edited October 1, 2019 by AndyHull

[balaton]

Sorry Andy and Marc. It's neither a UMF nor a Kienzle pallet lever job. The anti-shock does have an echo of the Russian SU system, but I've never been able to positively ID it.

You should (hopefully) be able to expand the images for better detail. 

Regards.

[Marc]

I think that it's actually a Guba 1100SC.

[balaton]

54 minutes ago, Marc said:

I think that it's actually a Guba 1100SC.

.....and from where, dear Marc, did you get that from, pray tell?

B.

[Marc]

13 minutes ago, balaton said:

.....and from where, dear Marc, did you get that from, pray tell?

B.

Much as I would love to be able to say that I managed to rake it out of the extensive archives stored away in my own memory banks......  I have to confess I kind of cheated

I took your advice and expanded the image for a better look. Sadly the image itself offered no further obvious clues, but I did notice the image file name was "VidarGuba1100SC", so I googled images for Guba 1100SC and found a match. I'd have gotten no further than my original Kienzle guess otherwise as it does seem to be a rather obscure maker, not one that I have encountered myself.

Incidentally my original thoughts regarding Kienzle were down to the use of a single large bridge for the barrel and going train instead of two separate bridges, and the slotted barrel arbor, both features that I have seen on the fully jewelled Kienzles that I have worked on in the past. I wonder if there was any collaboration between the two makers.

[balaton]

16 minutes ago, Marc said:

Much as I would love to be able to say that I managed to rake it out of the extensive archives stored away in my own memory banks......  I have to confess I kind of cheated

I took your advice and expanded the image for a better look. Sadly the image itself offered no further obvious clues, but I did notice the image file name was "VidarGuba1100SC", so I googled images for Guba 1100SC and found a match. I'd have gotten no further than my original Kienzle guess otherwise as it does seem to be a rather obscure maker, not one that I have encountered myself.

Incidentally my original thoughts regarding Kienzle were down to the use of a single large bridge for the barrel and going train instead of two separate bridges, and the slotted barrel arbor, both features that I have seen on the fully jewelled Kienzles that I have worked on in the past. I wonder if there was any collaboration between the two makers.

Ha!  -  I wondered if my images named the subject matter which, of course, now precludes me from offering up any more of my little mysteries! Anyway, well done that man.

I'm a member of another watch site forum and had sought help with ID-ing the Guba (Gustav Bauer, as I'm sure you know). A fellow-member who also maintains an archive of movements not represented in Ranfft, Lorenz or Watch-Wiki found the attached image in a 1957 Flume but it was so rare that not even he'd ever seen one before. I was more that happy for him to include my movement and dial side images in his database.

I get what you mean about the Kienzle's configuration. Here's an image of my 17j 058b25 pallet lever job by way of comparison.

Cheers,

Bryan