Watch of Today

[AndyHull]

3 hours ago, AndyHull said:

The factory was based in Croydon, and manufactured these from just after the second world war to the early 1960s. I believe they also sold other brands like Avia, and later Swatch. The company name, like a lot of others seems to have risen phoenix like from the ashes at least once, and a "Newmark" produced some much more recent watches. I'm not sure what the connection between the recent offerings and the original Newmark company is, if any.

I knew I had a more recent Newmark. I just wound this and popped it on for comparison.

This is probably early seventies, judging by the square styling. As I recall it is EB8800 based, so no longer "Made in England", but Swiss.

The blue dial looks much better in real life than in this picture though.

[m1ks]

1 hour ago, Nucejoe said:

Out of the drawer now for stem removal, will ask for advice in proper sub-forum. Watch out, it is passed as genuine on ebay. It is not.

Got a miyota movement, watch looks clean if you don,t mind wiping everyday. 

I have a Panerai much the same with a miyota clone movement but, oddly, I'm planning on fitting a Tissot chronograph movement to it.

[Nucejoe]

I enjoyed and wore this Raymond weil more than some of my more expensive watches, I think it is the  gold plating in the back, thin watch and elegant to some degree, the dial is not what you would expect from a good watch, A varient of eta2892 beats inside and decent date jump, hack feature and good time keeping, this no longer holds as much power as it used to, I think poor maintenance of reversers in the module, fifteen years on wrist has taken its toll on the watch over all.

[Nucejoe]

Have you ever seen a lady or gentleman shopping for a watch, ask the retailor about the lift angle?

Glittering gold plated cases, dial and a reputable sounding brand name sells the watch. Gents bracelette help with the selling too.

Rado is notorious for breakable or gold plated base metal cases. Orders decent grade ETA and AS movements. 

Here is one with the cases still atached, simply for being in SS. ETA 2789 I think.

 

[ro63rto]

Sector Depthmeter today

[AndyHull]

Nice, lots of character, and one of those rare watches that actually suits a blue strap.

[ro63rto]

Nice, lots of character, and one of those rare watches that actually suits a blue strap.

Yeah, the original strap was a black leather with blue panels but was wrecked when I got it so it went in the bin.

[Johnnie]

Nice looking watch ! Looks large too, 

[ro63rto]

Nice looking watch ! Looks large too, 

Thanks. 40mm not inc the crown or crown guards.

 

I also have a black/yellow version but that needs a lot of work. Full strip down as there was acid leak in the past.

[Johnnie]

I will keep an eye out for one. Big hands need a big watch. I looked on eBay this afternoon but to no avail. Never mind half the fun is in the looking ! 

[JBerry]

Picked up this Sandoz Alarm watch, a bit big for my wrist, but it has a certain retro charm

[Johnnie]

Big is beautiful ! 

[Nucejoe]

West end watch co.

[AndyHull]

On 4/11/2019 at 9:47 AM, ro63rto said:

Sector Depthmeter today

More blue strap fun.

I'm not sure that blue is the perfect colour for the "Mardon", but since it was the only 17mm strap I had that wasn't attached to anything else, and since I can't think what else I would put it on, blue it is.

De-gunked, dial cleaned, case polished, movement serviced, new crown and stem fitted and ticking away nicely. 

It is looking a whole lot better than this..

[Nucejoe]

Chrono quartz. I especially like the finish on the case, if satin finish or hard chrome, I don,t know. The picture dose injustice, bezel is actually spotless.

[Nucejoe]

On 4/11/2019 at 10:28 PM, JBerry said:

Picked up this Sandoz Alarm watch, a bit big for my wrist, but it has a certain retro charm

Hi J , Collectible. Are crown and movement signed? Back plate? 

[JBerry]

6 minutes ago, Nucejoe said:

Hi J , Collectible. Are crown and movement signed? Back plate? 

Movement is an AS 5008 with signed Sandoz rotor, crowns are unsigned.

I actually picked it up from a former Sandoz employee, it's pretty much mint condition, even the plastic protective sticker on the caseback, so I'd hope the crowns are original?

[Nucejoe]

As5008 was/is  the valjoux of AS in alarm movements class, in most brands.Here is a fortis brainmatic AS5008.

[ro63rto]

Seiko Asymmetric today
Paid more for an extra link as I did the watch IIRC [emoji35]

Got a black dial one waiting for me to transplant a new movement too but that one came from Japan so needs two extra links [emoji37]

[AndyHull]

Time to lower the tone again I'm afraid.

Just before Christmas, I decided to see what was the cheapest new analog watch on ebay. I wanted a baseline to compare everything else to.

Here it is. It cost a whopping 76 pence, new, shipped from China, and included a battery. It is of course truly dreadful.  The case is plastic, the strap is.. something unidentifiable. It was covered in dust when it arrived, and I suspect wearing it may give me a rash, but its a risk I'm willing to take for science. 

 

It has run, (ticking rather loudly, amplified by the chap plastic case and thin metal dial) since it arrived in late January, and only gained about a minute over that period, so not exactly accurate, but not dreadful either.

I have no idea how long the battery will last, probably about the same length of time as the "leather" plasticized cardboard strap, but for 76p you get two spring bars, a set of "fake lumed" hands, and matching fake pushers and fake chrono dial,  a no-name Chinesium movement, a battery and a high potential for contact dermatitis.

You will of course observe that what I received bears no relation to the picture on the original advert, so even the advert is fake.

What more could you want for your money. Oh.. and it has a blue dial, so I'm slightly warming to it.. or is maybe that is the skin reaction kicking in.

The depressing thing is, the Daniel Wellington I picked up used,  for 99p is actually not that much better. It does have a metal case, and the dial and hands are slightly higher quality, and the original strap may actually have been leather (it arrived on a cheap nato replacement) but bear in mind that when new it would have cost between 100 and 200 times as much.

Edited April 13, 2019 by AndyHull

[AndyHull]

Well that didn't last long.

The unyielding rigid plasticyness of the strap started to get on my nerves, so I swapped it for something with a little more class.

I like this little watch, the gold plated case with its contoured lugs and the textured dial are very appealing. In the end I didn't swap the crystal, but gave it a pretty deep polish instead. It is on a soft dark tan leather band. Much more comfortable, and less jarring on the eye.

 

Edited April 13, 2019 by AndyHull

[Nucejoe]

Bought this today for the price of a seiko MS,  in the mail, said to be like new, EB movement tics inside. I have got spare movements, I can say, good chrome plating on the movement. 

ETA acquisitioned EB, I got some EB movement, exact the same as ETA  same caliber, etc, all parts are interchangable between the two.

[m1ks]

7 hours ago, AndyHull said:

Time to lower the tone again I'm afraid.

Just before Christmas, I decided to see what was the cheapest new analog watch on ebay. I wanted a baseline to compare everything else to.

Here it is. It cost a whopping 76 pence, new, shipped from China, and included a battery. It is of course truly dreadful.  The case is plastic, the strap is.. something unidentifiable. It was covered in dust when it arrived, and I suspect wearing it may give me a rash, but its a risk I'm willing to take for science. 

On the plus side, it has 200m water resistance, genuine no doubt, handy for when you hurl it into the sea and change your mind. Haha.

[ricardopalamino]

14 minutes ago, m1ks said:

On the plus side, it has 200m water resistance, genuine no doubt, handy for when you hurl it into the sea and change your mind. Haha.

Kinda reminds me of a Tissot I had . I think the movement was also called PRC 200 or similar .

[HSL]

On 4/8/2019 at 1:05 PM, AndyHull said:

The "V" and "W" sounds are often transposed or similar, particularly in related (Indo-germanic) languages. Volks Wagen for example, to my Scottish ear, when spoken by a German speaker, I can't hear the difference between the V and the W.

Well the plot thickens as I remember from school the V in german is pronounced as a F so it would sound little like FolksWagen in an harsh way.. 
Here is an Certina Waterking in a VW, matching in every way down to the dust specks on the glass... why have a digital clock in your car when it can look like this.