404 Club

[Razz]

This one kind of qualifies for the 404. A seller I have done business with had this 1996 Kinectic and I was looking at it and couldn't get it to work. He said take it and open it and fi d out what's wrong and we will talk next month at the next meet. So I take it home and figure out it needs a new rechargeable kinetic battery. $24.50 later it is running beautifully. So it is free for the moment...the first Sunday of next month it might cost me $90 minus the $25 for the repair, but I am enjoying it now. Might have been a very wise move for him to let me fix it and fall for it because it likely won't come out of my collection now.

Edited February 16, 2024 by Razz

[AndyHull]

A Chaika 1601A based "Dupont" USSR era with a deep blue dial joins the 404 club. It needs a new crystal, which I probably have in my stash, but other than that, it needed nothing other than a clean and a new strap.

The Chaika 1601A turns up regularly in Sekonda ladies watches from around the late seventies till the late eighties, although there seems to be some debate about when the Chaika 1601A went in to production, with some sites suggesting as late as 1985. It seems to me to be a much older design, with more in common with 1950s calibers than ones from the mid eighties.  

It has slightly odd dimensions, for a gents watch, which I presume it is. 

With the two hander dial, 17mm lugs and a case size that would not look out of place on a 1950s watch, and a touch of the beer bottle cap design of the Rolex Oyster, it is somewhat unique.

Its origins are a little unclear. Mikrolisk has a couple of suggestions. 

Despite its diminutive size, the relatively large 1601A balance makes for a reasonably accurate little watch. It isn't likely to make COSC standars, but it runs pretty well for what it is.

 

As you can see the dial changes colour quite markedly depending on the light. Quite attractive, and well worth the four quid it cost.

... and of course we have to have the "money shot" too. It may be possible to date this more accurately if anybody knows how to decode the serial number.

Edited February 26, 2024 by AndyHull

[rehajm]

Nice one Andy- a very ‘blingy’ 404 with all those jewels…

[spectre6000]

36 minutes ago, AndyHull said:

It seems to me to be a much older design, with more in common with 1950s calibers than ones from the mid eighties.

Elaborate on this statement. What sorts of things define calibers from different decades? The only thing I can think of short of the pocket to wrist watch shift around WWI and quartz is shock settings starting... late-40s, early-50s?

[AndyHull]

The Chaika 1601A bridge styles look more like something from an earlier time. It is also finished relatively well for the 1980s, as a lot of manufacturers by then had started a race to the bottom in terms of finishing and materials as a result of the quartz crisis.

If you compare it with a comparable Swiss movement from the same period, you will find they have much less elaborate bridges, and other cost cutting measures. Straight cut bridges with no bevel on the edges are much cheaper and simpler to produce than the curved bridges of the Chaika 1601A. They even went to the trouble of stamping a serial number on the movement. A practice which only the higher end Swiss manufacturers were bothering with by this point.

The Chaika 1601A does have a relatively cheap balance though. The 'timing screws' in the balance are for decoration only.

Having said all that, the USSR caliber designs were fairly conservative, and produced for relatively long periods. This was partly as a result of the command economy, which tended to lead to relatively little innovation in design, and partly because they weren't chasing after the fickle flights of fashion that arguably drove some of the changes from other manufacturers. Some of the USSR designs were licensed or even "borrowed" from Swiss and French designs.  

For example I have a Sekonda pocket watch (which may be the next one on the bench for a clean and service). It has a Chelyabinsk Watch Factory "Molnija" 3602 caliber in it, which was based on a Cortébert movement used in Swiss watches from around 1940.

Here is one of the examples from Ranfft. You can see that it is similar to the Chailka with curved bridges. They even had Breguet over coil hairsprings and "Geneva" striping. Some had shock protection, some did not.  

The Sekonda is in its original 1980s plastic presentation box, complete with "manufacturers guarantee" (although Sekonda obviously didn't manufacture it).

This same Molnija  movement was produced in the Chelyabinsk Watch Factory with little change, except notably in the level of finishing, from around 1947 until the early 2000s when production ceased.

For comparison, here is a Swiss ST96 from around the same period as the Chaika and the Molnija. .

Smaller jewels, flat and unrefined finishing, and all in all, a little bit lacklustre.

.. and a Rolex 600 from around 1922

 

The Chaika, despite being from the 1980s, to my eye at least, looks a little closer to the Rolex than the ST96

 

Edited February 26, 2024 by AndyHull

[Razz]

I just picked this up a couple of hours ago for $2US. Put in a new battery, pegged it just a bit and took these pics. I think 30-40 minutes in an ultrasonic bath and a little polywatch on the crystal and we have a beautiful nostalgic trip down memory lane for 1979. Maybe listen to Pink Floyd's The Wall and it doesn't get much better than that for a Sunday afternoon. Electric!

This bracelet is just so comfortable on the wrist as well.

Edited April 7, 2024 by Razz

[Razz]

Some updated pics after US cleaning and using dental pick to pull out the dirt, hair and DNA from the bracelet.

[spectre6000]

I love it when they pretty up like that! Is it all stainless? Usually the plated cases do not fare well.

[Razz]

On 4/10/2024 at 6:37 AM, spectre6000 said:

I love it when they pretty up like that! Is it all stainless? Usually the plated cases do not fare well.

Not SS but very slight wear on the underside edges have a little brass showing under magnification. New crystal arrived £3 with tax. Nice champagne dial color.

Edited April 18, 2024 by Razz

[Waggy]

Latest 404 is this Baron which has a copy of a Seiko 66B movement in it, handy when I needed to find a replacement setting lever. Apart from the setting lever, crown, stem and new crystal (original was cracked) the watch is original.

Finished result:

[Waggy]

Knocked out another 404 last night...when you are in the zone!

This watch was a non-runner which I picked up as part of a lot of 8 watches, so works out to be $3.12 per watch.

Before:

 

And the finished watch, new crown and stem and the crystal was cracked so was replaced. I also replaced the mainspring as the original was the old steel type spiral and very 'set' - all else is original:

The Movement was a AS 1686, but in reading around a little the ACCRO watch company were sued for their use of the five point crown on their Jacques Pere range as it resembled Rolex, see below:

ACCRO then reverted to just ACCRO on their watches - I have done some sniffing around the internet and haven't seen another example of ACCRO and the crown together on a dial so maybe I have something unusual, or maybe I was looking in the wrong places .

 

[GuyMontag]

My newest 404 candidate, a late '60's / early '70's Waltham with a UTC 33 / Seiko 6601 17 jewel automatic movement. It needed a new crystal and I put on a strap from my Strap Graveyard. The timegrapher was a snow storm before servicing but it cleaned up nicely. I really like the funky font used for the hour markers.

Edited May 7, 2024 by GuyMontag

[Razz]

My latest. Timex 2465. Replaced the crystal, caseback gasket and spring bars. All in less than $5US. Added a gray NATO strap I already had in stock.

[Michael1962]

On 7/7/2020 at 6:57 AM, spectre6000 said:

@AndyHull and I have been chatting, and we think it's time to formalize the 404 Club. 404 is the HTTP standard response code returned when a file (page) is requested and not found. You've probably seen the "404 Not Found" page a few times in your internetting adventures. Turns out though, watches can be found for such a tiny sum! Some surprisingly nice ones even!

Every currency doesn't have the same buying power though. Fortunately, the Dollar to Pound conversion at the moment works out to about $5.00, and the 500 response code means there's an internal server error... Not quite poetic, but at least it's on theme. Similarly, Euro to Pound works out to €4.50. 450 is specific to Microsoft and means "Blocked by Windows Parental Controls" ... So you guys behave!

So the way this works is you buy a watch for your currency/error code plus reasonable shipping (I've been saying $10 max unless I really like the watch, in which case I'll stretch to $15; the point is to avoid those $1 buy $200 shipping scams), fix it up for as little as possible, then add it to your personal collection, sell it off to pay for the next one, gift it to a friend, hang it around your neck as a tribute to Flavor Flav, or whatever else strikes your fancy! Somewhere in there though, post a picture of it here!

So it works out to nearly $8 per watch for me if I want to get on board.

And I can find nothing in Australia that fits inside the the allowance.

[Waggy]

13 minutes ago, Michael1962 said:

And I can find nothing in Australia that fits inside the the allowance.

I agree, it's getting harder and harder to find anything that meets the brief other than complete junk, or fake/frankenwatches. I would be in favor of raising the limit so people can continue to enjoy the challenge of resurrecting these low cost watches to their former glory and allowing the watchmaker the ability of practicing new skills without the worry of breaking the bank if all doesn't go to plan.

Now all we need to do is settle on a value - maybe base the value on a standard currency so we are all playing by the same rules ($, £, €...?)

Unless anyone minds I could start a poll and we could all vote on currency and value... let me know!

Edited May 8, 2024 by Waggy

[Michael1962]

I just found these. They don't really grab my eye at the moment, but having seen the change in some of the watches on here, before & after, the results have been pretty impressive.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/196382906131?itmmeta=01HXBSJJXDB5J6H916ARJP9PHE&hash=item2db9555713:g:REwAAOSwUNdmOYAZ&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwOAlUO3a1pAUX60Y8gUeXMPriraj5e7rkBNH2EA6cIUH7kb7hzoq6jRmOsYOQazk9R%2FteDESr1e50Asabv2tbJyDM%2FVODtmrAScFS4jPhHdgu6Jvt%2BFuRGBijpTkPl4NiK%2FDGr6qztc1Ujb33Tt6YdaUztOH9R1y9XJbwjH0puPDy8m0ilYcal7Vphcp7d59DLtBliNnbqfxfWhxdia2xMRyHYFHzR0Rg7NqB1z4xQGMZb73MAG4QBiF9FMkrII88Q%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_KuyvnqYw

[spectre6000]

I just poked an inflation calculator, and $5 in 2020 would be about $6 in 2024. Doesn't fit very neatly into any status codes, which stop at 5XX, but that's honestly somewhat arbitrary outside of a clever pun for those that dabble in such things.

Back during the pandemic, I would spend a good chunk of idle time in the evenings scanning through hundreds of listings a night, and I would only land 1-2 a week max. I would often go months without finding something suitable. A very small percentage of the watches in the price range are worth pulling the trigger on for my purposes. The number floating through the thread here may be somewhat deceptive.

[luiazazrambo]

3 hours ago, Michael1962 said:

I just found these. They don't really grab my eye at the moment, but having seen the change in some of the watches on here, before & after, the results have been pretty impressive.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/196382906131?itmmeta=01HXBSJJXDB5J6H916ARJP9PHE&hash=item2db9555713:g:REwAAOSwUNdmOYAZ&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAAwOAlUO3a1pAUX60Y8gUeXMPriraj5e7rkBNH2EA6cIUH7kb7hzoq6jRmOsYOQazk9R%2FteDESr1e50Asabv2tbJyDM%2FVODtmrAScFS4jPhHdgu6Jvt%2BFuRGBijpTkPl4NiK%2FDGr6qztc1Ujb33Tt6YdaUztOH9R1y9XJbwjH0puPDy8m0ilYcal7Vphcp7d59DLtBliNnbqfxfWhxdia2xMRyHYFHzR0Rg7NqB1z4xQGMZb73MAG4QBiF9FMkrII88Q%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR_KuyvnqYw

There is one Oris there at least, and if you could get a Unicorn for this price!??!  It says that they don't work though, you might need to figure out what a Unicorn eats then.  

[Neverenoughwatches]

On 4/30/2024 at 5:02 AM, Waggy said:

Knocked out another 404 last night...when you are in the zone!

This watch was a non-runner which I picked up as part of a lot of 8 watches, so works out to be $3.12 per watch.

Before:

 

And the finished watch, new crown and stem and the crystal was cracked so was replaced. I also replaced the mainspring as the original was the old steel type spiral and very 'set' - all else is original:

The Movement was a AS 1686, but in reading around a little the ACCRO watch company were sued for their use of the five point crown on their Jacques Pere range as it resembled Rolex, see below:

ACCRO then reverted to just ACCRO on their watches - I have done some sniffing around the internet and haven't seen another example of ACCRO and the crown together on a dial so maybe I have something unusual, or maybe I was looking in the wrong places .

 

 Watchmaker gave me some info on this a couple of years ago, the brands may be connected, I'll see if i can find it Scott. 

https://www.watchrepairtalk.com/topic/22189-ackro-watch-history/

Edited May 8, 2024 by Neverenoughwatches

[RichardHarris123]

12 minutes ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

The Watchmaker gave me some info on this a couple of years ago, the brands may be connected, I'll see if i can find it Scott.

How do you even pronounce that? 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 minute ago, RichardHarris123 said:

How do you even pronounce that? 

ACK - RO

[RichardHarris123]

Just now, Neverenoughwatches said:

ACK - RO

Thought the last letter was a D, I can't read or struggle to read cursive and weird fonts. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

1 minute ago, RichardHarris123 said:

Thought the last letter was a D, I can't read or struggle to read cursive and weird fonts. 

I know I'm wierd as well, i tripped over my own feet today and landed face first in a huge heather bush with my gob wide open.

[RichardHarris123]

1 minute ago, Neverenoughwatches said:

I know I'm wierd as well, i tripped over my own feet today and landed face first in a huge heather bush with my gob wide open.

I wouldn't of laughed, ok I would of done. 

[Neverenoughwatches]

7 minutes ago, RichardHarris123 said:

I wouldn't of laughed, ok I would of done. 

I was spitting out flowers and leaves for 10 minutes,  fortunately 3  people saw it and promptly whipped out their phones to film the quick " nothing to see here " recovery