Watch of Today

[FLwatchguy73 526]

2 hours ago, vinn3 said:

good show !   there is a site here for military watches.  vin

Yes, It is very helpful in determining authentic GI issue watches. There seems to be a cottage industry of fake military watches. Mine is 100% authentic thankfully. I do wish I had the original carboard box it came in. I nearly manufactured one from scratch, but I gave up when I saw the work involved, lol.

BTW... The photo I posted of the dial looks awful... Specs of dust on the Crystal

 

That's better!

Edited May 27, 2020 by FLwatchguy73

[JohnD 333]

My Montine Electronic....

 

[AndyHull 1,357]

The band arrived for the Timex LED, so I swapped back to that today, but I wore the Seiko in the garden as I was afraid I might put a scratch on the Timex, which would be a pain, given how much time I spent cleaning and polishing the thing. 

Edited May 27, 2020 by AndyHull

[JohnD 333]

Keeping with the 'Swissonic' theme, my 'new old stock' Limit of Switzerland ESA9158 electronic....

 

[FLwatchguy73 526]

Today I'm feeling a bit green, so I wore my 1969 Seiko DX automatic 6106-8209. I got it last November at an antique show for a $1. It has the reliable in house 6106 movement. I do like the feature of pushing the crown in to advance the date. They certainly don't make watches like this anymore. As you can see, the watch retailed for $69.50 which is about $485 in today's money. You can get a handsome new Seiko Presage for about the same money. It looks as if my bracelet may not be original to the watch. Honestly, I'm happy that it does seem to be period correct. Eventually I'll need to replace the Crystal as it's pretty well scratched up. All in all, not to shabby for $1

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by FLwatchguy73

[JohnD 333]

This 'old thing' today....well I have had it for over 50 years

 

[yankeedog 508]

A Franken .The movement  and dial came out of a badly  trashed pot metal case.Placed into a case that  came with a badly trashed movement. Not original, but attractive  and serviceable. 

[manodeoro 129]

Ho my ... I love that one ...

[JohnD 333]

Keeping with this theme, how about this Ingersoll? Made in Wales I believe.....

 

 

[manodeoro 129]

Keeping with this theme, how about this Ingersoll? Made in Wales I believe.....
 
 

Congrats !!! nice and shiny ...

[JohnD 333]

2 hours ago, manodeoro said:

On 5/31/2020 at 5:26 PM, JohnD said:

Keeping with this theme, how about this Ingersoll? Made in Wales I believe.....
 
 

Congrats !!! nice and shiny ...

Wasn't when I got it, it was just another 'scrapper', with a cracked crystal and no crown, in a job lot that I had bought for the Timex electric it contained......

 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2020 by JohnD

[Hopgoblin 132]

My new 1958 Omega Seamaster 'Seachero'. I posted a bit more info about it in the 'What so you have coming' thread. 

[FLwatchguy73 526]

Today I'm wearing my 1971 Timex Blue Nebula Electronic. Actually, the movement inside is the non-date, electric M84. What was originally in there, was the M87 electronic with the date feature. The original M87 had given up the ghost and after searching on eBay for a reasonably priced functioning watch, I picked one up and excitedly put it in. Only, when I went to install the original sweep second hand did I discovered something was different. I was able to reuse the original second hand and at least get the watch running. Really helps paying attention to the specifics of these watches, lol. The movement is pretty cool to listen to it ticking. It has 5 soft ticks followed by one much louder tick which is when the second hand actually indexes. Someday I'll get the correct movement, but for now, I'm happy with the fact that it works.

Edited June 2, 2020 by FLwatchguy73

[JohnD 333]

After yesterday's Welsh 'cheapy' I thought that I would go with some Japanese opulence today....

 

[AndyHull 1,357]

Also Japanese, but not quite as opulent (although it is, none the less, fairly pleasing on the eye), this Miyota quartz movement based Accurist was treated to a new cell and a fresh strap today.

[FLwatchguy73 526]

Today's wrist watch is the Timex Falcon Eye, which as lovely as it is,  I'll spare everyone from a rehashing of it, so today I'll feature my PWOTD. Today I'm wearing my 1920 18s Elgin pocket watch. It features the 7 jewel model 5 movement, one of Elgin's last American made 18 size movements. Overall it's a , sleek, clean and reliable watch. I acquired this one because it had the very bold Roman numeral dial, which, as far as I can tell, is somewhat rare for Elgin. This watch is 43 years newer than my 1867, 18s model 1. When compared, You can see how the design was simplified to bring down costs and improve speed of manufacture. I don't know if they were beginning to deal with any negative changes to the watch industry in 1920 that would eventually spell the end of nearly all American watch making about 40 years later. Waltham was out of the game by 1957 and Elgin followed suit 11 years later. The Swiss learned allot from American watchmaking and eventually drove us out of the game. 

In the photo below are the two watches for comparison. You can see the simpleness of the model 5 compared to the model 1 at the top.

[AndyHull 1,357]

Very nice.

I have a couple of Elgin movements waiting in the wings, though currently I'm much busier in the garden than I am on the work bench, so they may not make an appearance before the winter. Time will tell.

44 minutes ago, FLwatchguy73 said:

The Swiss learned allot from American watchmaking and eventually drove us out of the game. 

They certainly drove Elgin and a lot of other US manufacturers out of business, although you could argue that the competition from the likes of American Time Corporation (Timex) and others, for example Westclox might have been as much of a factor in this as the competition from Switzerland.

Jewelled timepieces, not made in the USA were certainly far more of a predominantly Swiss product on the shelves of the US stores in the later half of the twentieth century. This might have been as much to do with a dislike of Japanese, USSR, Chinese Indian and German engineering as much as anything else though, since these countries still produced large numbers of jewelled mechanisms, and indeed  in some cases produced mechanisms in many respects at least comparable in engineering and build quality to the Swiss.

The Swiss however mastered the promotion of their product, by pushing Swiss engineering quality as its most important  feature.

Having said that, a low cost, basically engineered EB8800 pin lever could hardly be said to be as high quality as a Seiko, Citizen, HMT,  Luch, Seagull or even Kienzle jewelled movement.

[JohnD 333]

The World' first quartz analogue solar watch...

 

[Deggsie 145]

Here is the latest watch I’m pleased to have completed for my collection. I bought this watch in a pretty poor condition described as runs intermittently and in need of a crystal.

Well, that was not very accurate. One of the dual springs was snapped, the lower Inca lyre spring was snapped and by fortune the cap stone was found in the works. That explains the intermittent running [emoji23]
Anyway, here it is, 2 new mainspring, a new gilt ring crystal and a nice brown leather strap. I only wish it was larger in diameter.





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[JohnD 333]

Been wearing my 'slightly modified' SKX007 today (Crystal Times coin edge bezel, OSC Planet Ocean bezel insert and NH36 movement, fitted with a Dragon Shrouds Jumbo crown). Apologies for the old picture, peeing with rain here today and didn't fancy going out to take a new one.

 

 

[AndyHull 1,357]

It is Timex Thursday for me today.

 

[AndyHull 1,357]

1972 Blue dialled Timex Viscount.
A few months back I picked up a large job lot of crystals. Off and on since then, I've slowly been working my way through the scruffier members of the 404 club addressing the worst of the scratched and cracked acrylic.
It also got a new blue/silver NATO style strap.
I ordered a couple of these blue NATOs when I fixed up the blue dialled Komanderski, although it ended up on a navy blue leather strap.

I think the NATO  suits the Viscount very nicely.

Clearly covid lock down has left me not knowing what day it is. I've set it to the 16th when it is actually the 15th.

Edited June 15, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull 1,357]

I finally got round to replacing the crystal on this Bifora 115/CLD based "F Hinds" 17 jewel, which has been waiting patiently since December 2018 for me to do something about its cosmetic imperfections.

Its one I wear fairly regularly, (hence the slightly scruffy strap), so I thought since I'm on a horrible crystals purge, it deserved "the treatment".

The crystal for this one came from our very own luiazazrambo via ebay.

He just so happened to be the only seller I could find with the correct high dome in the correct size. I didn't even know it was his seller ID, till he PM'ed me after I had made the purchase. Its a small world. Thanks again for a prompt and painless transaction.

Here is a little info about the German manufacturer Bifora.

http://www.bifora-ev.de/bifora-freundeskreis/museum.html

 

Edited June 19, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull 1,357]

I seem to be on a bit of a German watches track at the moment.

Today it is a diminutive Kienzle Markant circa 1960, with a Kienzle in house pin lever 051 b 53 movement.

They appear to be quite popular, with a small bidding war for this one one ebay.de recently. Needless to say, since this is a 404 club member I didn't meet the same eager crowd of bidders, but then again, it wasn't in working condition, and was looking slightly shabby when it arrived.

It is now clean and wholesome once more, and beating away very nicely (if a little loudly).

All in all quite a fun and attractive little watch.

 

Edited June 22, 2020 by AndyHull

[AndyHull 1,357]

1 hour ago, AndyHull said:

They appear to be quite popular, with a small bidding war for this one one ebay.de recently. Needless to say, since this is a 404 club member I didn't meet the same eager crowd of bidders, but then again, it wasn't in working condition, and was looking slightly shabby when it arrived.

Hmmm.. They are very popular in Germany it seems..  -> https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Orig-KIENZLE-MARKANT-Mechanical-Mens-Wristwatch-Hau-mechanically-ca-1960-/264562406132?hash=item3d9925f2f4%3Ag%3AEJYAAOSwh8pdszIq&nma=true&si=Cz%2Bcgq34gbiwVU3N4wpeQ3%2Fw02o%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557