Today's bargain watch that I'm not buying

peasant wrote: »

but that's the Soviets for you.

Yea true on all counts P, but the Russian mindset has it's advantages. They were very innovative on soooo many levels, but they were also damned practical with it. If it worked and worked well why fcuk with the concept just to be "clever". They were thinking of a nuclear based battlefield. Just one EMF pulse from a nuke would take out much of the western tech in a heartbeat. But that clock would keep ticking while the quartz clock would be a lump of useless metal and plastic. If WW3 ever happens and we're marching around a nuclear wasteland a Breguet from the 18th century will still be ticking looong after the G-shocks will have given up the ghost.

I'm old enough to remember when the bloke defected with the Mig "foxbat". Our Yankee cousins laughed at the fact it was "old tech" and even had old stylee valves as part of it's aeronautics. Valves are immune to EMF. All this and the fact that the Mig29 could operate from a ploughed field or a road in all weathers and could even run common diesel in place of aviation fuel and could be rearmed very quickly. The F16 by comparison can have issues with flying in heavy rain and takes over twice as long to swap out an engine, never mid rearm.

They learned well from your fellow Germans in WW2 on that front. Your guys were and still are amazingly good at balancing seriously inventive tech and practicality. My dad on the "other side" in those daft and crazy times learned to read German and in my innocence I once asked him "WTF why?" His response? "those feckers were the best, most inventive engineers out there, so you just had to be able read about what they were up to".

So it is with watches. If you want the best most intricate engineering generally speaking go to the Germans/German Swiss, if you want pretty damn good that you can fix with a hammer and pliers and at a good price the Russians are your best bet.

PS Damn cool experience P. Now... have you any contacts knocking around that can source us some ex Bundeswehr watches by any chance?...... Nudge nudge ;) Though given your extensive and fascinating collection I'm suspecting you have more contacts in the KG used to B.:D

Feck.:(:D

Eoin wrote: »

Actually, that's a bloody good idea. I am ridiculously unhandy but I'll see what I can do up.

Damn right. You would be surprised how handy you are. Put it another way you've come from a verrrrry long line of very handy people, from stone tools(which are damn hard to do) through Tara broaches and all points through time. Just give it a bash. You could go the metal route, or the plastic route or even the wood route. Trust yourself and feck it!

peasant wrote: »

worst case scenario ...you can still buy something off the shelf

This coming from a German chappie, a people who know a bargain and are practical to boot. So you just know it makes sense.

Eoin wrote: »

Took the plunge on the one with the blue body, so we'll see how this works out!



PS - spotted this thread just in time in the bargain alerts forum - £5 voucher for limited time off any eBay.co.uk purchase! Says it's just for UK residents, but it worked fine for me.

Fair play. Voucher eh... and it worked for you? Hmmmm I'm in my "every two years I splurge my saved up pocket money to trawl ebay for vintage stuff" mode. This may come in handy...

Bullseye1 wrote: »

Wibbs three for you to consider.

Thanks

Timor WW2 watch £400
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f29/fs-vintage-wwii-swiss-made-authentic-timor-w-w-w-cal-6060-breguet-very-good-condition-657207.html

Saw that Timor elsewhere. Nice watch for someone who wanted to add to or start a military collection. Proper issued one too and in good original condition. They come up on the bay quite often and you can get lucky on price, but that one's a nice one.

Zenith Military from 1946 €300
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f29/vintage-zenith-military-1946-a-638092.html

Zenith are always worth a bet. Still climbing in value. That one isn't strictly military though, certainly not an issued one. That said if you could get it for 200 quid and I agree with sparrowcar that you probably could, that's a fair price for an all original quality watch and maker(with the still for the time rare centre second). It's gonna be small in size though, so only scrawny gits need apply.

Longines 1940s Greenlander £2000
http://forums.watchuseek.com/f29/original-1940s-longines-greenlander-sale-648042.html

Very nice. About the only UK "WWW" watch I like and from a fave maker of mine too. Decent size unlike most and that one is in gorgeous condition. A sure fire investment too. In a decades time I reckon you'd be hard pressed to find one under 6-8 grand IMHO. Too rich for me though

I tend to be an ebaycrawler, looking for that elusive bargain that's not been spotted, or one that's quality and rare but not on the radar of most collectors. Yet. Rare but they do come up. Actually there's a couple of unconnected lots for under 2-300 that if you got them both, added some time and effort to mixed the two you'd come away with a likely 2 grand plus watch. I'm playing with pocket money/I swear I'm not Peasants twin brother funds so sadly a bit risky for me.

I have to say Adverts.ie comes up with some bargains too, though most too young for me I saw an auto speedmaster for 900 quid a few weeks ago. OK not the "original" moon watch and all that, but that's a lotta watch for that money. Saw an early auto Gruen for 150 quid IIRC. OK small watch, but again a lot of watch history for the money. I'd be shocked if the seller couldn't double the price on a specialist site.

We really don't have a big wristwatch culture here. Maybe in the newer end, but the vintage market here can be serious bargain time, though the search can be long. In the late 80's/early 90's I regularly saw "old" stainless steel Rolex stuff go for 50 quid at general auctions. I once passed on a box of SS rolex and Omega for 100 quid. The gold ones went for far higher, but I suspect earmarked for meltdown. Now this is Rolex, a name every Thomas, Richard and Harold knows. God knows what seriously important Rolexes ended up melted down or thrown in someone's bedroom drawer. That said we didn't have as much of the kinda wealth of say the UK until quite recently so you did notice at general and house auctions the over abundance of "meh" stuff. Or at the other retail end "it's old therefore it's priceless you know" can hold sway. Particularly when the celtic pussycat was roaring. In particular I saw low quality American pocket watches made in their millions with big pricetags on em. One example I saw was a 7 jewel Elgin PW for 500 quid(more like 50 in real terms) and in the same window a gorgeous and large stainless steel Universal Geneve from the 50's with 150 quid on the tag.

I would reckon there are still some really rare/high value watches out there. Especially military ones. Why? Well when you consider over a hundred thousand Irish men and women joined up in WW2, never mind the amount that went in WW2 and Korea later on. And all those emigres who left for the four corners of the earth. You can be sure some cool stuff came back with them. "Ah that old thing, probably junk"... :eek::)

I wouldn't but Belgium is not one of the usual suspects countrywise so I'm sure some will. The joke is I've never had any problems with eastern European sellers that many avoid. I just avoid the obvious fakes.

OK since I was on my own "let's look for ancient early wrist watches" hunt, I spotted this tonight http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Nice-vintage-WW1-trench-watch-Running-condition-/120878349009?pt=NL_Horloges&hash=item1c24e93ad1 That is stupidly cheap for an early style wristlet so if ya like watches having one of the earliest examples of the breed is something to have. Wrong hands, however if one of ye lot goes for it I reckon I got the right hands and I'll stick em in the post(though you may need a watchmaker cog jockey to size/fit them). Can't see it lasting long before it's snapped up mind you. Normally you'd be looking around 200 quid anyway.