Today's bargain watch that I'm not buying

How about yet another Zenith. This time a bruiser from circa 1976/76 with its original bracelet.



40mm case and very distinctive looking. The quartz movement in this is one of the very toughest of the early quartz. Damn near bulletproof. Bit of TLC to the case and strap and you'd have a pretty unusual Zenith on your wrist. And the price for such a watch? 179 quid Buy it now. That wouldn't buy a buckle for a new one, and how often do you reckon you'll bump into another with this watch?

Oh yea and the more eagle eyed and prurient among ye will see that one day of the week it says Sex on the dial. I mean c'mon folks, what's not to love about that? Feck why am I potless!! Arrrrgh. :mad::(:P

Near NOS Aquastar Regatta yacht timer/chrono



These yacht timers from any marque tend to go for strong prices. This one is a lovely bit of kit and with a day to go it sits at 200 and one bid. However, be aware it has an odd bracelet/strap lug attachment going on and getting something to fit could be a nightmare. Still if you were willing to risk it, at say sub 300? I reckon that's a sleeper that could fetch a lot more down the line.

Wibbs wrote: »

Near NOS Aquastar Regatta yacht timer/chrono

OK folks, did a bit more digging on the above. Turns out it's from 1981. Uses the same Lemania calibre that Heuer and Omega also used at the time for their yacht timers. How much would one of them set you back? If you could find one.

It also turns out that adapting a strap to fit isn't such a nightmare. Here's a for sale post on another forum where someone did just that. Oh and BTW, check out the price it sold at. 750 squids. Two years back.

Currently one bid 200 quid, 5 hours to go. That in my humble is a fecking steal. If you get it for under 300-350 you're still robbing it. The cheapest I could find one go for anywhere was 450 and that was some years back and it was in ropey condition. If funds allowed I would be all over that. I really would.

*EDIT* In the end it closed at 368. Still low IMH. The buyer got a good deal.

amacca wrote: »

With regards to the aqua star above, is there a small bit of corrosion on the case near the crystal near the 20 second marker on the inner bezel? If it is corrosion, is that an easy fix?

Well it is a vintage watch so generally speaking you'll have some wear/age/patina going on. It depends on the degree of it and personal feelings on that kinda thing. In that case I reckon it was well under the threshold of bad. Fixable? Maybe, but I would have left well along myself. In the end it went for just short of 160. IMHO that's a bargain. A vintage mechanical diver with funky inner rotating crown for the price of a mid to high range Argos special.

I'll keep my eyes peeled for a tuning fork for you A. The Omega ones seem to have taken a slight drop in prices of late, so might be the time to buy. I think they've dropped because people have maybe realised they're not that rare. They're by far the most common marque that used that movement. On the other hand prices for the Longines using the same movement have really shot up. Well over double of what they were even a year ago. Again I reckon because folks have spotted that they are much less common to see. Ditto for the Tissot and others.

The cone shape Omega you mentioned, they have kept their value. They're rarer and seem to be sought after.

fmul9798 wrote: »

The Aquastar yachting watch went crazy in the last 1 minute. I loved the look but didn't bid in the end. Actually Wibbs, a few hidden gems you have posted here have done so. I wonder if they're boardsies becoming magpies?

Maybe F. That's the usual for that sort of thing, unless the photos and/or descriptions are truly bad and it's not spotted at all. Hopeful buyers thinking, hoping nobody else has spotted it don't bid, some don't even add it to their watch list in case it flags it as a bargain, then last minute their snipe bid goes in, hence the flurry of bids in the last 20 seconds. In this bargain hunter game you do need to snipe IMH.

As for bad listings? Here are two recent examples of the listings where I got very lucky. First up that GP with the very rare dial. This was the only photo.

The description was in Spanish, which will put off many in the Anglophone world(some, especially Americans, won't even entertain buying from southern Europe). Add in an awful pic and I think there were 3 bidders in the end and I snagged it for around 220 quid.

My Longines Ultraquartz? The title was Lomgines turning fork. And this was the best pic, with no zoom.

Again very few bids and I got it for not much more than the GP. A month later a busted one went for over 600 euro.

A year back I got a working GP quartz for 46 quid because the listing had it as a "Gerard Peregaux"

You do need to be an obsessive insomniac lucky barsteward to spot those ones though. It also helps being shortsighted. No really. As a kid I didn't get spotted for a Mr Magoo until I was nearly ten so purely as a survival adaptation I can see patterns in blur and sharpen them better than any Hollywood CSI software.

Mredsnapper wrote: »

The zenith pilot went for €176 which I'm guessing is good price.

Well the way I look at it MrEd is for the same price as this very basic Bulova quartz from Argos you're getting a vintage Zenith. When new that would have not been cheap, even before the mad post 90's price hikes. For what the Aquastar chrono went for you'd get this. Now nothing wrong with either of those new watches, but when you see what can be had with a little bit of digging in the vintage market… And that's before we look at the prices some pay for the high "quality" fakes out there.

By nature I'm somewhat of an iconoclast, so I don't have movement snobbery so much. That opens up a lot of bargains even among the big names. The usual collectors ignore anything with a battery, because apparently ETA use magic elves to infuse souls into their mass produced tickers… When you see very rough and ready pin pallet Sicura's, the cheap casios of their day regularly going for twice the price of Girard Perregaux/Longines/Omega/Zenith with batteries it's hard not to smell the BS IMH. That said I do think people are beginning to smell it in wider watch collecting circles. Prices are definitely climbing. Even so a [pick a big name] watch with a mechanical movement will be usually at least twice the price of pretty much the same watch with a battery and usually more.

First up and with under a day to go an automatic Girard Perregaux.



Pretty funky looking IMHO and in fantastic condition. With a nice strap on that.. As I said under 24 hours to go, 2 bids and 3 euro so far. Hammer price? *checks crystal ball* I'd reckon a snipe of around 150-180 should secure it. 250 would be a shoe in. For an auto Girard Perregaux? Hell yea.

Next up for the armchair paratroopers and Saving Private Ryan fans, here's a WW2 Bulova "military" watch. I put military in parenthesis because I can't read the caseback to see if it's an issued piece so, military style anyway .


The pics appear to have been taken by an Australian. In a cupboard.

So turn your tablet or laptop upside down to view. If you have a desktop stand on your head. Go on, nobody's looking.

4 days to go, 2 bids 2 quid. Hammer time? I'd reckon again 150-200 likely less if nobody's that bothered considering the pics.

For Potterer and his Skin diver quest, there is this example.


Much more like early 1970's than 50's IMH and a high starting price of 200 quid with nearly 10 days to go. Hmmm, these can be a difficult one. The high opener can work for you as it puts off many, so often you don't have nearly as much competition compared to 1 quid no reserve openers. Human nature and all. I'd reckon… 250-280? Likely less.

A it couldn't be more 1970's Longines Conquest



190 quid BIN. It's been up a few times this one and he has dropped the price by about 50 quid IIRC. Maybe wait on this. If he was asking for offers I'd throw 150 at him and hope it stuck.

Last but not least, here's a Lanco 60's divers in a Super Compressor case with the internal rotating bezel and double crowns. Not big at 30mm, but I think it's got a gorgeous vintage patina to the whole affair.



The size will likely put folks off, though I think it would make for a bloody lovely women's vintage diver. 237 quid BIN or make offer. Maybe 210?

Mredsnapper wrote: »

The Gold Seamaster in the Flightmaster case went for a measly €434. If only I had the funds.

I reckoned 4-500, even with the Omega "halo". A steal if you're into Omegas, never mind it came with box, hang tags and original guarantee. What this actually tells me and has told me for a long time now; dealer prices are way off. As are many BIN prices, as are many forum sales prices, as are many enthusiast perceived values. When many models you would expect to be worth X amount go to open auction it's a near given they'll go for much less than X, sometimes significantly so. Of course some do go for much more than you might expect. Even outside of two well heeled bidders have a bidding frenzy.

Interestingly, I couldn't find it's reference 166.000 in the Omega Archives

Thanks to my Blurrovision(™) the reference is actually 166.090 and if you feed that into the google blender you'll get the info on the model Mr E. 71-76, came in stainless or 40 micron gold plated like our boyo, Omega 1002 engine(same as PloProf and others).

Aye, Mr E and why I tend to snigger when I read that ebay is all clapped out of good buys, or that the vintage market is dooooooomed. It so depends on what you're looking for. That perception is very strong though. When I pointed out on a WUS thread that you could build a collection of very nice pieces, even some very rare examples from the big names in both mechanical and quartz for between 2-300 quid each the incredulity and mocking came very fast. Good I say. If they've bought into drinking some of the online bloggist and industry Kool aid, that leaves them out of the market. More for some of us

Oh and for the USSR fanciers… Here's one I'll admit I was actually thinking of for myself, but then remembered to check my pockets and the moths flew out… *sad face*

A Raketa Amphibia. These come up all too rarely. The quartz version is common enough, the Vostoks are two a penny(sometimes literally), but not this one.



This is a solid old lump and they usually sell for 300 odd as they are sought after by Soviet watch folks. I'd punt 2-250 at that one.

Oh and the same seller, it seems a fan him/herself also has this very rare to see for sale early Vostok amphibia. The first series, with wire lugs. Oh and more, it's the 300 metre depth rating version, which is of a magnitude more rare to see.



These are like unicorn poo. I really don't know how high that one might go. I reckon it could hit the 400 mark or at least 3 anyway, but that one could go to mad money pricing(for a Soviet watch anyway) as it would be a major grail for such collectors. What might put off some is the state of the hands, but a watchmaker could sort and stabilise them PDQ and replacements would be easy enough to source. They've some other nice Soviet era watches too, all no reserve low starting prices. IE a good and sensible seller.