Saturn and Signal: reviews invited

[DolleDolf]

I took a calculated gamble on a saturn and a signal from seller rarityclub. I first put the watches up here Three vintage arrivals
but thought they deserved a thread of their own.










As Paul mentioned, the snake hand should not be on this dial with the inner scale for the alarm.

Mark Gordon has a "big roman XII" up with stick hands and a short stick alarm hand



Then Dmitry has this one up on his collection, obviously poljot branded. but with a long snake alarm hand (but stick hands otherwise)



Wasn't too sure about the breitling lumed hands, seemingly most are stick but there are these ....




In all probably not original, but a mix of somewhat original parts. Could be better, but it has the old Signal aura, and at least there is no Tiger tank or Me-109 on the dial
Not that there is necessarily something wrong with Tiger tanks and Me-109s, mind, they were not always used in a positive manner, but a macine is a machine ....

Then there is the Saturn. There seem a lot of these around on he 'bay, many obvious redials. A bit like the shturmanskies.

I got it becausee the dial felt not too new, not too fake, and could actually be real.









The above is a seller pic. It would be hard to fake this level of wear, even if minor. You can perhaps throw a blanket over a new chair and beat it up with a baseball bat to make it look old, but that would not work here. If a fake I would consider it an old fake.

Now the dial is obvoiusly missing the bubble that they seem to have on the reference sites like Mark's (I had actually missed that until Paul drew my attention to it)

A movement picture from the seller.



Two very similar watches showed up in this thread.

Saturn - authentication comments please

And looking at these, it seems these crystals don't have a bubble crystal either.

And the hands seem similar to mine.

My own vibe is that I got a winner with the saturn, but am willing to remain skeptical.

The case, crown, dial, hands, crown, all seem to have the same degree (or relative lack thereof) of patina. The more I look at it the more I like it. To a degree that holds true for the big XII signal as well although I wish it had the stick hands and the small alarm hand. Still, with that reference from Dmitry's site this may actually be original as well.

Did not break the bank for either watch about $70 f0r the signal, and $75 for the saturn. Feeling pretty good about them. Even if not original, they are interesting. And will be worn without shame or embarrasment (I still have to put the Volna 2809 redial on my wrist also featured in my original thread).

I appreciate your input.

[JRMTactical]

I took a calculated gamble on a saturn and a signal from seller rarityclub. I first put the watches up here Three vintage arrivals
but thought they deserved a thread of their own.










As Paul mentioned, the snake hand should not be on this dial with the inner scale for the alarm.

Mark Gordon has a "big roman XII" up with stick hands and a short stick alarm hand



Then Dmitry has this one up on his collection, obviously poljot branded. but with a long snake alarm hand (but stick hands otherwise)



Wasn't too sure about the breitling lumed hands, seemingly most are stick but there are these ....




In all probably not original, but a mix of somewhat original parts. Could be better, but it has the old Signal aura, and at least there is no Tiger tank or Me-109 on the dial
Not that there is necessarily something wrong with Tiger tanks and Me-109s, mind, they were not always used in a positive manner, but a macine is a machine ....

Then there is the Saturn. There seem a lot of these around on he 'bay, many obvious redials. A bit like the shturmanskies.

I got it becausee the dial felt not too new, not too fake, and could actually be real.









The above is a seller pic. It would be hard to fake this level of wear, even if minor. You can perhaps throw a blanket over a new chair and beat it up with a baseball bat to make it look old, but that would not work here. If a fake I would consider it an old fake.

Now the dial is obvoiusly missing the bubble that they seem to have on the reference sites like Mark's (I had actually missed that until Paul drew my attention to it)

A movement picture from the seller.



Two very similar watches showed up in this thread.

Saturn - authentication comments please

And looking at these, it seems these crystals don't have a bubble crystal either.

And the hands seem similar to mine.

My own vibe is that I got a winner with the saturn, but am willing to remain skeptical.

The case, crown, dial, hands, crown, all seem to have the same degree (or relative lack thereof) of patina. The more I look at it the more I like it. To a degree that holds true for the big XII signal as well although I wish it had the stick hands and the small alarm hand. Still, with that reference from Dmitry's site this may actually be original as well.

Did not break the bank for either watch about $70 f0r the signal, and $75 for the saturn. Feeling pretty good about them. Even if not original, they are interesting. And will be worn without shame or embarrasment (I still have to put the Volna 2809 redial on my wrist also featured in my original thread).

I appreciate your input.

You know, I think you did just fine. It's not anywhere close to an area of 'expertise' for me so I can't comment on the authenticity of them, but they look good. Certainly worth the money IMHO.

[schnurrp]

You may have something there with the Saturn, Dolledoff. Looking' pretty good to me although I believe the bubble was on the original as you can see exactly where it would be placed interrupting the rings of Saturn and without it the days of the week are incredibly small. By the way, the days change every 12 hours so on the disk there are two graphics for each day. Too bad they didn't make one graphic red and the following black to create a am/pm complication.

Thanks for sharing!

[DolleDolf]

I believe the bubble was on the original as you can see exactly where it would be placed interrupting the rings of Saturn and without it the days of the week are incredibly small

Agreed! My age related presbyopia affected eyes certainly could do with a bubble on the crystal!

The two saturns featured in the quoted thread are mssing the bubble as well (and also have the obvious interruptions in the rings).

BTW, that little square Luch that i also got in the same haul looks really pretty in RL. On the pictures, enlarged to the size of a moderately sized domestic pet, you see all the little imperfections, but on the wrist it looks just fine. Soon to be featured on the WRUW thread.

Another thing: is radium exposure an issue with these when opening the cases?

Thx again

[schnurrp]

Just to be clear, I didn't mean to imply that the watch is not authentic because of no bubble crystal. It's pretty rare to see any of these watches from the '60s into the 70s that survive with their original crystals.

I seem to recollect that the use of radium ended by the beginning of the '60s. Even so the main danger is ingestion of the particles so if you must expose the dial be sure you are outside so you don't breathe in radon gas and I would use gloves to be sure not to transfer any radium particles to food, etc.

[Lucidor]

Congratulations to your nice acquisitions, I'm always happy when I see an interest in the 1950's era. I especially like your Saturn. Don't worry about the crystal, it's hard to find one with the bubble still intact. I think you can ask a watchmaker to add the lens to a flat crystal, but I'm not sure. I was fortunate some month ago to grab one with the vintage crystal, see this thread.

[DolleDolf]

Thank you Lucidor. Very nice watch in your thread too.

[storyteller]

Great Saturn, congratulations. I love these hands.
Somebody from watch.ru managed to make a nice lens by putting a drop of transparent glue, but I never tried, can't imagine how to remove the glue without hurting the plastic crystal, if something goes wrong.

[schnurrp]

I have seen replacement crystals with bubbles somewhere but I don't remember where.

[DolleDolf]

make a nice lens by putting a drop of transparent glue

I thought of that, but also think that that is something that I will not be able to pull off succesfully .... nice to read that somebody did it!