Post pics of your watches Part II

893bet

Fitz II wrote: »

Welll wear, its suits you. I really wish I could have kept it, but because I love to make bad watch decisions, I needed to become more liquid rapidly. I did however have the privilege of trying on Cyrus's VC Offshore...and well thats a special watch. Know you have a buyer on that should you ever decide to sell. I have sold my JLC and Omega this weekend, people are thirsty of watches at the moment, a pal of mine is mid purchase on a fancy forum watch also. A good time for trading.

Nice to see you sell a speedmaster at a good price and it stay on the forum this time.

If that VC comes loose I will double down and would also most likely take it if Fitz didn’t want it! Not handled that model but assume it would hit the spot for me.

I can be the easy local flip for Fitz if and when. Would prefer to be the middle guy (wahey) as I fear it could become a keeper with you if you ever get it.


(Cyrus apologies for talking like you have already sold it but........0......you have form for flipping).

hitemfrank

I've never been much of a fan of gold watches or fluted bezels. So obviously I bought something that combines them both.

A Tressa Lux (which is a pain to get a decent picture of)



It was the day/date layout that I really liked on this. And I'm coming around to the gaudy gold fluted bezel. A bit of flash in the collection now.

I do not like the brown alligator pattern leather strap however so a new strap metal strap is on the way. Two tone because a full gold one would be way too much for me to deal with.

unkel

And when your bank balance gets a bit healthier, you'll replace that homage with the original. Fluted bezel, full on 18kt yellow gold at that stage, on the president bracelet. Phase 4, hitemfrank. Scary stuff! :pac:

eljono

Speaking of fluted bezels, here's one in tungsten carbide

hitemfrank

unkel wrote: »

And when your bank balance gets a bit healthier, you'll replace that homage with the original. Fluted bezel, full on 18kt yellow gold at that stage, on the president bracelet. Phase 4, hitemfrank. Scary stuff! :pac:

Well I did just have a review in work :eek::eek::eek:

I think this might just be a bit of a fling with the gold as while I'm coming around to the gaudiness it's still a bit much and I don't think the real deal is something I'll ever aspire to.

Fitz II

Finally got one....

893bet

Dear Diary,

I am back in phase 4.

unkel

Well wear! I think a sporty watch suits you. Pepsi is a lot cooler than a batman / batgirl too

Wibbs

That's a fine looking timepiece F. The bracelet looks bloody lovely.

Creamy Goodness

Yup the more I see the Pepsi on the jubilee the more I like it. I know this might be sacrilege but I still prefer the oyster steel bracelet but the margin is definitely narrowing, by the time I ever get to own one I'll have swung to the jubilee side and they'll discontinue it and go something else :pac:.

Well wear.

Cyrus

unkel wrote: »

Well wear! I think a sporty watch suits you. Pepsi is a lot cooler than a batman / batgirl too

totally agree, batman / batgirl for me is not as nice as the original black bezel but the pepsi on the jubilee is the bees knees :cool:

Wibbs

Battery change yesterday.



Bulova who made the Accutron, when quartz came along cleverly adapted an Accutron movement to take a quartz module, so very smooth sweeping seconds hand. And buzzing. Those teeny screws at the top left was how you regulated the +/-. Nightmare. Luckily this one is spot on. Under a minute a year. Note how the "silicon chip" has the manufacturing date on it as was the fashion in them days. 38th week of 1974.

Stuck in traffic...



Accuquartz 1975 centenary edition. NOS when I got it. Funky strap and all, but I swapped that for a NOS suede one(70's baby!). The blue dial is brushed and lovely, but hard to get a decent pic of. One handed. Waiting for lights to change.

Lorddrakul

That is a genuinely lovely piece.
It is so 70s and yet, there is a classic quality to it too.

The brushed finish looks really well still, fair play.

While I'm not mad about an Accutron Spaceview, it is actually a handsome movement that deserves to be seen.

Well wear.

893bet

Cyrus wrote: »

totally agree, batman / batgirl for me is not as nice as the original black bezel but the pepsi on the jubilee is the bees knees :cool:

Definitely the stand out GMT2 for me also.

When will be see the ceramic coke is a question. Or is that too predictable and perhaps they do a new colour combo like green/red or green/black. It is the Pepsi they would need to discontinue if they do a coke as they wouldn’t want two red bezels at the same time. Hard to believe the Pepsi GMT2 is only out 2 years. Assume it’s here to stay for 3 more years at least.

Cienciano

Wibbs wrote: »

Accuquartz 1975 centenary edition. NOS when I got it. Funky strap and all, but I swapped that for a NOS suede one(70's baby!). The blue dial is brushed and lovely, but hard to get a decent pic of. One handed. Waiting for lights to change.

Very cool style, sort of thing a hipster microbrand today would try to do. Great having the original

Wibbs

It's a bit odd alright and very 70's I even found a gold plated centenary version. Also NOS.



In fairness I got very lucky and that one was under 30 quid, partially disassembled(the steel was under 100). Both were from European ebay sellers and neither would have been seen by .com viewers, specifically American where most Accutron collectors are and would pay significantly more for them(they're about the rarest of the centenary editions).

Both had the original hang tags and prices. Not mad money for the time, but not a cheap watch either. So where an Omega Speedy was around 300 quid, these were around 200. I suspect they were a little too oddball looking at that price and didn't sell so well and the cheap digitals were starting to come in and were becoming more fashionable.

Down the years I have noted analogue watches quartz or not, can be much more easily found in NOS form from the period of say 75 to 85. Or are engraved retirement presents. Even analogue watches made in 74 being engraved with dates from 83 or whenever, so held in stock for years(I saw one Girard Perregaux quartz from 72 with a 1986 dedication). The popularity of analogue fell off a cliff for a time.

mad m

^^^ Man of Mystery you are Wibbs....Think my delivery of that WW1 watch is arriving tomorrow

Wibbs

mad m wrote: »

^^^ Man of Mystery you are Wibbs....

Speaking of the 70's. Continuing the theme today.



Girard Perregaux from 1973. Lovely linen dial in the flesh. Got it from an ebayer in Argentina of all places. The first quartz movement that set the frequency standard for the vast majority of quartz watches down to today. Though IMHO a far superior design than pretty much all that followed(no exposed coil for a start). More expensive to make mind you. Teflon bearings instead of jewels so no oil required. Mechanical bits by Jaeger LeCoultre and oddly for them below par.

Think my delivery of that WW1 watch is arriving tomorrow

Sweet! Funny enough when I finished working earlier my mind wandered to other things and what needed doing...



I removed the as healthy as snogging an ebola patient radium lume during the summer. Bloody carefully, masks, gloves, a geiger counter and paranoia were involved. Today its time to relume! Half way there. I'm easily amused.

david

Nice job Wibbs! Just out of interest how do you dispose of the old radium lume, I’m guessing not in the green bin

dakar

david wrote: »

Nice job Wibbs! Just out of interest how do you dispose of the old radium lume, I’m guessing not in the green bin

Well it wasn’t green to begin with...

IrishPlayer

Some really cool watches Wibbs! Always enjoy learning about some of these quirky watches that seem to have been forgotten over time.

Not the biggest fan of gold watches,but haven said that there is a couple out there I think look really good like that Bulova.

It is interesting when hunting on eBay not everything is available in each region. I use eBay Geo when searching, even then I find it can miss stuff. Also varying the wording can often bring up stuff missed on the first search.

I got chatting to a guy on another forum about my pilots watch and he was telling me how nasty that lume can be ,especially if it still glows :eek:

Wibbs

IrishPlayer wrote: »

I got chatting to a guy on another forum about my pilots watch and he was telling me how nasty that lume can be ,especially if it still glows :eek:

Actually IP if it still glows it usually means it's way safer.

It's either been replaced with non radioactive lume or there was little enough radium added to the original mix. Radium over time burns out the phosphors that make the glow(radium on its own doesn't glow, or very little). The more added the faster they burn out.

Trench watch ads and ads at the time to add lume to a watch would only guarantee the glow for 2-3 years because they tended to throw a lot of radium in the mix. So you could buy a brand new watch in 1916 that would glow like a torch, but would be dark by 1920. Later radium lume mixes were weaker so the phosphors lasted longer. The radium itself of course has a half life of IIRC 1600 years so it's still just as hot a 100 years later.

Tritium that replaced it has a half life of(again IIRC) 12 years, so by around 24 years it's pretty much dead. It's also a weak emitter, mostly beta, so doesn't bugger up lume the way radium did. Some experimented with promethium(sp) in the 70's and 80's but it has a half life of something like 2 or 3 years so about as much use as teats on a bull.

david wrote: »

Nice job Wibbs! Just out of interest how do you dispose of the old radium lume, I’m guessing not in the green bin

I came up with a way of removing it that also helps contain it D. What I do is take epoxy glue, you know the stuff that has two liquids you mix. Well I use the clearest one(the activator I think) and found it breaks down whatever original binder is left. So when the dial and hands are clean(I check with the geiger counter to make sure), I then add the other liquid and stir it together with the toothpick I use to remove it. In due course it all goes rock solid and all the bad goo is contained within. I then put it my shed at the end of my garden. Clearly marked should I fall off the twig without telling anybody. If there were an avenue where I could safely dispose of it officially I would, but I've yet to find one, but they are tiny amounts of the stuff. Given how widely it was used in the past it's like a drop in the ocean.

I have personally found that the radiation from old lume is low enough in gamma radiation and more a beta emitter. The latter is stopped by very little. Even thin card. It's also a point source so if it were in the corner of the room so long as you weren't sitting on it... The biggest risk if from ingesting it. Then you'd be in danger. The other risk would be if you had say a large collection of old aircraft dials in one room. They had much more painted on and as it breaks down it releases radon gas. That all said watchmakers who used to be exposed to this stuff on a daily basis for most of their working lives don't show any obvious higher incidences for cancer etc so...

Wibbs

IrishPlayer wrote: »

It is interesting when hunting on eBay not everything is available in each region. I use eBay Geo when searching, even then I find it can miss stuff. Also varying the wording can often bring up stuff missed on the first search.

Yeah. Years ago I started going to regional ebays like ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.es and the like. Way more likely to find the unusual and at better prices and you weren't competing with the .com bidders. Ebay.de is OK, but German prices are not. Much higher on average and they tend to over restore vintage stuff. I rarely had a seller refuse to ship to Ireland. Ebay.co.uk were the most likely not to oddly enough.

Wibbs

Rechecked the dial and hands... Highest sensitivity.



Dead. Well the odd twitch for background(beta).

Get the bits and bobs together.



Like atomic Blue Peter here. No sticky backed plastic though. No adult supervision either.

Testing the first coat.



Needs a second coat. This involves a tiny brush and much tongue sticking out corner of mouth. And cursing frequently.

It flashes off pretty quickly. Under an hour. Hands lined up and back on and not binding(this can be fiddly and easy to feck up).



Leave to cure a few more hours...

Porcelain dials are sooooo nice. Look brand new even after over a century. Gorgeous depth to them too. Having had in my hand new watches with porcelain dials by the likes of Patek they're not a patch on the old stuff. Soft around the edges to the point you think your eyes are going funny, not nearly as crisp and they charge like wounded bull elephants for the privilege. Yet even cheap dials from a century ago were better and they rattled them off in their bazillions. Also the new stuff is one colour, aren't double sunk dials, never mind triple sunk with loads of different colours on them.

mad m

https://youtu.be/2Gqot6O8ZIA

Keeps the hand steady. Back in the aul days when I was a sign writer..Can use an arrow as well for a stick.

shano76

Wibbs wrote: »

Battery change yesterday.

Accuquartz 1975 centenary edition. NOS when I got it. Funky strap and all, but I swapped that for a NOS suede one(70's baby!). The blue dial is brushed and lovely, but hard to get a decent pic of. One handed. Waiting for lights to change.

Love this. Very cool watch. As said already, the style of watch being aped by the likes of Stratton & others these days, trying to re-capture that 70's spirit.

Wibbs

That 70's spirit. Earlier.



Burn. It. With. Fire.

Well another oul Trench watch has been relumed and rendered potential atomic mutant free. Beside here's one I did earlier.



Obligatory wrist shot.



Ready and able for it's next century.

These half hunter(and hunter) case styles were an attempt to protect the glass just as they had in pocketwatches. Apparently got their name from English Lord Inbred The 3rd types wanting a better protected pocketwatch while they were on horseback chasing down the various defenceless fauna of England's green and pleasant land. The half hunter was an attempt to make them readable when closed. These were sometimes called "Napoleons" after the French chappie who it was said growing tired of having to open his full hunter pocketwatch chopped a window out of it with his sabre. As you do.

The wrist versions were rare enough as they weren't popular being again harder to read, the full hunter needing to open the case. They had some popularity as "shrapnel guards"(about as much use as a chocolate teapot) and glass crystals were delicate.

When "unbreakable" glass(a stipulation in military field lists at the time) came along in 1915 their fate was sealed, though some seemed to like the design as I've seen a Longines example hallmarked for 1936. That said many UK buyers for some reason hung onto the Trench style well into the 30's when the rest of the world had long relegated them to the old hat bin. I've a pic somewhere with a British soldier wearing a Trench watch in WW2. Maybe his dads?

A regular thing I read about these watches is how delicate they are and you couldn't possibly wear them as a daily watch. Not my experience at all. OK some are going to be harder on a watch and yes I wouldn't swim with one and water is to be avoided, but I have found a good one to be pretty robust. The above Longines I've had for decades now and has been through the mill. I've had a couple of broken crystals(until I went acrylic) after it got a clatter or I fell on my arse. I've worked on cars, crossed hill and dale and have even shot shotguns, rifles and a pistol wearing it* and it keeps on going. Accurately too. The number of them out there still going engraved with the names of men who actually fought in the grim conditions of trench warfare says more about how pretty robust they can be.





*well, given the original purpose...

Every time I open this thread, I go down a rabbit hole. Nice watches, Wibbs.

Cyclingtourist

Wibbs wrote: »

That 70's spirit.

Not everything in the 70s was a great idea.

NIMAN

A bargain for £40 delivered
https://flic.kr/p/2k8ctXR