I been roaming all over the place for a cool watch. I always like vintages. Can anyone tell me their impression of the vintage chronometers found on eBay. I see them from companies like Mido but I don't know much about them. How far do you think you would be from their original chronometer spec? Is there a high chance I have to get it serviced?
Hi phillyj,
my three vintage chronometers (no Mido, but among them is also a Nivada with an ETA in chronometer grade) run just perfectly after being serviced. What I mean: In daily wear they only gain or loose few seconds per day (less than 10 anyways, the Omega and the Nivada less than 5) - that might not strictly be i.a.w. COSC specification, but who cares in daily life. I mean they are really considerably better then some non-chronometers I do have. All are older than 40 years. But it doesn't always need a chronometer grade movement. My Longines and Enicar and one Tissot are in the same league. However I do also have vintages watches where it has not been possible to regulate them to run better than 10-25 seconds loss or gain per day, no matter how much time was invested.
This all applies even to watches that were in a very moderate condition upon arrival.
Olof
To answer your original question you have good advisories. I have only a casual answer. Bought a gold cased Omega for $50. 455 Ladymatic 1962?
Some supplied with COSC certificates. An accurate old little autowind. But practically I have a 751 Omega Constellation certified chronometer that was $350 from a careful fine watchmaker about as good as you can do in my opinion for a nice condition well serviced and adjusted one.
Thanks for the help. I wouldn't really want to service a watch since the watchmaker charges $90. When I can, I'll get a nice vintage Omega and then I can justify servicing it.
If you don't want to pay to service a watch, then either don't buy vintage or learn to service them yourself; otherwise, you're just destroying watches. Its kinda like saying you don't want to service your car (albeit with a lesser chance of accidentally killing someone because of it ;-)).
The case and the winding square show that it wasn't stored in a drawer,
but extensively used for a very long time. But the screws and some just
faint scratches show that it was serviced properly within reasonable
intervals. And last not least the untouched looking setting square proves
that it scarcly needed setting.
It was probably never a chronometer meeting present COSC limits, but it
still does exceed them just marginally after some 180 years, and it could
be easily readjusted to meet COSC limits.
it is all a matter of care. Take for instance this watch (from my archive):
bidfun-db 1251298803: 1047: Gents Quarter Repeater, 14K Gold, ca. 1830
I am saving this sharp image as an excellent example of a Swiss movement with fine compensated escapement and repeater mechanism type I did not know existed that long ago.
This one warrants an historical and technical report. Not easily done I suppose.
Maybe to pick this up again, also because You said that You try to avoid servicing a watch. I understand You and know about the dilemma. Apart from the fact that it is a lot of money, some watches sell at a lower price, and after having them serviced, in general the market value has not risen considerably. But: You can't expect a 40-50 year old watch to run perfectly without being cleaned and oiled. Old oil starts to become sticky and can make the watch run slow, but what's worse - there may be no oil where it is needed, or a mixture of oil and dirt instead, grinding down precious parts of the movement untill the watch indeed loses it's accuracy for ever. Apart from buying a watch that has received a service recently, the answer to Your last question is: Yes, with 100% certainty. If You neglect that, and wear it daily, next thing is not just a service but a total loss or expensive repair.
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