Contructa Watch Ltd

[civic98]

Hi, appreciate if anyone can tell me where and when this watch is from. I just got the guts to open it and saw "Constucta Watch Ltd" on its movement, couldn't find anything on it other than it is owned by Mondaine.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/civic98_gallery/Watches/Pierre.jpg

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/civic98_gallery/Watches/ConstructaWatch.jpg

[Marrick]

There are a couple of threads in here already which give quite a lot of info:

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=116262&highlight=Constructa

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=42234&highlight=Constructa

[civic98]

There are a couple of threads in here already which give quite a lot of info:

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=116262&highlight=Constructa

http://forums.watchuseek.com/showthread.php?t=42234&highlight=Constructa

Thanks for the info, i found only one of those threads earlier, the second one (a link in the thread, below) I think matches perfectly to the movement in mine.

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&Baumgartner_866

Oh one more thing, I just checked its accuracy, since last night, it is faster by almost AN HOUR!!

[Hartmut Richter]

Hardly surprising! It has a cheapo pin pallet escapement movement by Baumgartner from before the quartz crisis. Those watches can be surprisingly accurate but, if something is wrong, they are usually out by a mile!

Your adjustment lever seems to be way over. Is the watch extremely fast? Or extremely slow? The former seems more likely. If so, try moving the lever on the hairspring over - CAREFULLY; if you don't know what you are doing, get someone to do it who does.

Hartmut Richter

[civic98]

Hardly surprising! It has a cheapo pin pallet escapement movement by Baumgartner from before the quartz crisis. Those watches can be surprisingly accurate but, if something is wrong, they are usually out by a mile!

Your adjustment lever seems to be way over. Is the watch extremely fast? Or extremely slow? The former seems more likely. If so, try moving the lever on the hairspring over - CAREFULLY; if you don't know what you are doing, get someone to do it who does.

Hartmut Richter

It's faster, extremely fast, almost an hour in a day. Will try to see what I can do, THANKS for the info!! :thanks

[Hartmut Richter]

Be sure that you move the right lever - the one with the end point of the balance is the wrong one!! Move the other one (the one closer to the middle of the movement) outwards, towards the one holding the end of the hairspring so that the effective length of the hairspring is lengthened to slow it down.

Hartmut Richter

[Chascomm]

Hi, appreciate if anyone can tell me where and when this watch is from. I just got the guts to open it and saw "Constucta Watch Ltd" on its movement, couldn't find anything on it other than it is owned by Mondaine.

http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd131/civic98_gallery/Watches/Pierre.jpg

Looks like the BFG 866 angle has been covered thoroughly, so I'll move on the othe case and dial.

See the 'Swiss Movt' inscription; that's a big hint. This watch was most likely made in Hong Kong in the early/mid 1980s, using a movement that was finished in Switzerland and shipped complete to HK. As the Swiss pin-lever industry imploded, the HK pocket-watch makers switched first to Soviet jewelled-lever movements (usually Raketa, but I have a Poljot-powered 'Michel Rene' from 1985), then as the Chinese economy opened up, the Chinese Standard (Tongji) movement with jewelled-lever, from various manufacturers, became the mainstay for mechanical PWs. And still is to this day; see ebay for hundreds of examples. Of course many more are now made with generic Japanese quartz movements.

My Michel Rene still has 'Swiss Movt' on the dial, suggesting that it was made pretty soon after the cut-over.