This  page  is being  updated frequently.

THE  GENTLE  ART  OF  COLLECTING  VINTAGE  AND  OTHER  WATCHES

Essentially, in collecting vintage and other watches, you are the master of your ship, so to speak.  This means that depending on your spending ability, you may choose to focus on watches that you simply like for one reason or another, whilst paying some attention to functionality as well.  It won’t hurt to also keep a close eye on acquiring watches which are likely to increase in value over time.  Often, these are associated with the more expensive brands and in some cases rare models.

Many people prefer to buy and collect watches containing precious metal like gold, silver or platinum. Silver watch cases were popular with watch collectors in the early decades of the last century.   

Many great collectable watches were manufactured during and  just after the Second World  War and the cases were made of chromed brass because of restrictions and the difficulty in obtaining steel, post-war. These can be great looking watches if found in reasonable condition, have an intriguing history and are frequently well positioned items upon which to base a collection.  The ROLEX  TUDOR  that features in our home page is a good example.

ROLEX TUDOR (Reference Number 250) (circa 1947)

At the heart of the watch is the movement, that amazing complex arrangement of parts that makes it tick, keeps time and that has indirectly controlled the worlds of commerce, exploration, both marine and aeronautical navigation, since mechanical watches were first invented hundreds of years ago.  Planetary mechanics aside, it could be argued that it is our  human measurement and management of time that helps to keep our human world functioning. 

What is a watch movement?  Essentially, movements can be grouped into quartz battery operated movements and mechanical movements comprising manual and automatic ones.  Manual watch movements need to be hand wound regularly, whereas more modern automatic movements have a rotating finely-balanced rotor  inside the watch case that winds the watch automatically depending on the movements of the wearer’s wrist.

There are currently many manufacturers of mechanical (including quartz) watch movements today.  Many manufacturers closed during  the  “quartz  crisis” of the nineteen seventies and eighties, when cheaper quartz movements flooded the market.  Many of the older watches were powered by Felsa,  Adolf Schild  and ETA ( still prominent  today)  movements, amongst many others and these movements can still be found in a variety of watches, including some  high end vintage and contemporary  watch brands today.

There are essentially  4 “levels “of watch movement, with increasing levels of accuracy as one goes up the “scale”. These are namely the Standard , Elabore, Top and Chronometre, which range in “inaccuracy” from perhaps 5 to 10 seconds per day to only a couple of seconds per day. The word “accuracy” is in some respects  “what it is all about” in watch terms with some watch ‘geeks’ believing that this is the “be and end all” of things watch. However, accuracy is often a function of  how a watch is worn,  positional variations and temperature being  but a few  of the factors that may  cause a watch to “drift” slightly and so  affect the accuracy of a  watch, from time to time during “daily wear”. This is conceptually  a little similar to maritime navigation, where a navigator has to make allowance for plotting drift, tide, wind and weather in order  to steer a “true” course.  Many manufactures quantify accuracy according to various certification processes, with the COSC certification process perhaps being the best known amongst about 8 other certification processes, all of which specify accuracy specs ranging from between about  -8secs to +8 secs up to -1s to +1s per day.

FEF 270 BUCHERER BROOCH WATCH

A collector of rare and beautiful things recently asked us to repair a BUCHERER brooch watch.  The crown (winder) and stem  had become misplaced, and the owner was unable to re-insert them.

We undertook to repair it and this required a re-assembly of the keyless works.

Once we had removed the dial and the hands to expose the works, we discovered that somehow, the sliding pinion had slipped out of position and was jamming the re-insertion of the stem. This does happen from time to time and is generally a time consuming repair process. Management of the parts themselves, including the spring, is always paramount, as replacements are sometimes unobtainable for older watches.

We took some pics because the FEF 270 for the Bucherer brooch watch is a rather tiny movement.  The tiny parts are always a wonder to those fortunate enough to be able to actually view their time pieces being repaired.  The photos here include two matches in order to  indicate the scale of the work. They show the  parts and tiny screws that comprise the keyless works. The keyless works are the  mechanism in the movement that allow the watch to be wound up,  and also to move the hands to set the time when the stem/crown is pulled out one click.

Needless to say, one over joyed owner and the BUCHERER is running well  again.