advice for noob vintage enthusiast
Thread: advice for noob vintage enthusiast
I have purchased 5 nice older russian wristwatches as a start (I am 50 and never owned a wristwatch....only 2 old pocket watches.....one a cortebert ) But NOW.....heck....I am in love with mostly vintage wristwatches. I like a lot of the trench watches I've seen on ebay.....and a lot of the Omegas and Vintage Girard Perregaux but it seems there might be a lot of "tourist" watches among them.
RARE Aged 1924 Swiss Elegant Omega Watch Black Dial New Stainless Steel Case | eBay
1948 Military Soviet USSR Russian Red Army MOLNIJA KOMANDIRSKIE Stalin Watch EX | eBay
also.....any opinion on good stores or sellers to be looking at ?
anyone shop here for example ?
Antique SWISS Watches, Military WW1 - WW2 Watches items in abv1224 store on eBay!
any advice on good models or what constitutes a good vintage value for between $100 to $500 welcome. I'm not fanatical about a watch being 100% original....(rebuilt is fine but would hate to buy a horrible franken )
Thanks in advance to any mentors !
Re: advice for noob vintage enthusiast
The first 2 are junk watches. Search for "Ukraine" for the gory details.
Dealing with Eastern European vendors is usually risky. Too many fakes and frankens coming out of the 'throw it together and make it work' culture that has predominated for decades. It requires real savy to come out of those deals without being taken to the cleaners and relieved of your pants/wallet/et.al. At your level of expertise, expect many of your deals to, upon later reflection, be considered not good ones...
I agree with Eeeeb,
Every link you posted including the link to the Ebay store, contains watches which are newly created pocket watch conversions.
These creations catch out many newbees to the world of vintage and in most cases it is stated what these are somewhere in
With experience you will quickly sift out these monstrosities, they look like a standard sized wrist watch in pics where you've
no sense of scale but in reality these are humungous and would like an 'alarm clock' strapped to your wrist.
They are very far from being original.
thanks guys.......I have been reading various postings here about franken watches.....reputable dealers and not so reputable dealers. I CAN spot a hunk of wire patched into the movement if I ever see it hehehehe.....but yes.....that store seemed odd to me / but then I don't know a thing about those watches. I got my very first russian watch today.....from a reputable dealer as it turned out.......maybe I just sensed honesty in his ad and it was only a $60 risk anyway. So after 50 years of not owning a watch here's my first
My watchmaker is a Russian. I had 3 I bought from a Russian eBay dealer. I wasn't going to have them serviced but he gave me a big discount to do so... he loves them. Durable. Easy to work on. Good reliable timekeepers. Not elitist watches. And they have a rich history.
Yours has a wonderful dial. I do not think textured dials are common on Russian watches. But there is a Russian Forum on WUS where some real experts reside.
Wittnauer is a quality choice for those who don't want to pay the price for Longines, their associated company in the past. Also, vintage Wittnauer watches seem to have more variety and less blandness of style than Longines from the ones I've seen.
Thanks Eeeb . Yes I liked the look of this dial and I bought another with a textured dial as well . Fortunately for me I work in the same room with one of the budding russian experts Mysterian who got me hooked on this. I learned a lot fast from him !
Originally Posted by Croton_Equator
Thanks Croton !.I will definitely look at those as well......I tend to like what's pretty so some of those really early Omegas catch my eye. Patek....oooohhh...if I had money !
An hamilton would be a nice vintage piece to own for a good price. Nice textured dial on that one you own.Omegas are good watches but you will need to do your research on them as they are many many bad ones out there so be careful. You could always post pics on here to see what people think before buying.
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advice for noob vintage enthusiast
Thread: advice for noob vintage enthusiast
I have purchased 5 nice older russian wristwatches as a start (I am 50 and never owned a wristwatch....only 2 old pocket watches.....one a cortebert ) But NOW.....heck....I am in love with mostly vintage wristwatches. I like a lot of the trench watches I've seen on ebay.....and a lot of the Omegas and Vintage Girard Perregaux but it seems there might be a lot of "tourist" watches among them.
RARE Aged 1924 Swiss Elegant Omega Watch Black Dial New Stainless Steel Case | eBay
1948 Military Soviet USSR Russian Red Army MOLNIJA KOMANDIRSKIE Stalin Watch EX | eBay
also.....any opinion on good stores or sellers to be looking at ?
anyone shop here for example ?
Antique SWISS Watches, Military WW1 - WW2 Watches items in abv1224 store on eBay!
any advice on good models or what constitutes a good vintage value for between $100 to $500 welcome. I'm not fanatical about a watch being 100% original....(rebuilt is fine but would hate to buy a horrible franken )
Thanks in advance to any mentors !
Re: advice for noob vintage enthusiast
The first 2 are junk watches. Search for "Ukraine" for the gory details.
Dealing with Eastern European vendors is usually risky. Too many fakes and frankens coming out of the 'throw it together and make it work' culture that has predominated for decades. It requires real savy to come out of those deals without being taken to the cleaners and relieved of your pants/wallet/et.al. At your level of expertise, expect many of your deals to, upon later reflection, be considered not good ones...
I agree with Eeeeb,
Every link you posted including the link to the Ebay store, contains watches which are newly created pocket watch conversions.
These creations catch out many newbees to the world of vintage and in most cases it is stated what these are somewhere in
With experience you will quickly sift out these monstrosities, they look like a standard sized wrist watch in pics where you've
no sense of scale but in reality these are humungous and would like an 'alarm clock' strapped to your
 wrist.
They are very far from being original.
thanks guys.......I have been reading various postings here about franken watches.....reputable dealers and not so reputable dealers. I CAN spot a hunk of wire patched into the movement if I ever see it hehehehe.....but yes.....that store seemed odd to me / but then I don't know a thing about those watches. I got my very first russian watch today.....from a reputable dealer as it turned out.......maybe I just sensed honesty in his ad and it was only a $60 risk anyway. So after 50 years of not owning a watch here's my first
My watchmaker is a Russian. I had 3 I bought from a Russian eBay dealer. I wasn't going to have them serviced but he gave me a big discount to do so... he loves them. Durable. Easy to work on. Good reliable timekeepers. Not elitist watches. And they have a rich history.
Yours has a wonderful dial. I do not think textured dials are common on Russian watches. But there is a Russian Forum on WUS where some real experts reside.
Wittnauer is a quality choice for those who don't want to pay the price for Longines, their associated company in the past. Also, vintage Wittnauer watches seem to have more variety and less blandness of style than Longines from the ones I've seen.
Thanks Eeeb . Yes I liked the look of this dial and I bought another with a textured dial as well . Fortunately for me I work in the same room with one of the budding russian experts Mysterian who got me hooked on this. I learned a lot fast from him !
Originally Posted by Croton_Equator
Thanks Croton !.I will definitely look at those as well......I tend to like what's pretty so some of those really early Omegas catch my eye. Patek....oooohhh...if I had money !
An hamilton would be a nice vintage piece to own for a good price. Nice textured dial on that one you own.Omegas are good watches but you will need to do your research on them as they are many many bad ones out there so be careful. You could always post pics on here to see what people think before buying.
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