Thread: Starting to take an interest in mechanical watches. Anyone info?

Originally Posted by Wullie

You too? LOL Been down that road. Nothing prettier than the inside of those old watches. American craftsmanship at its finest. Sold all of mine before the bottom fell out. SOme pretty good buys out there now, but I'm over it. My old pard that I used to trade with that also fixed old watches gave it up. He doesn't even work on 'em any more. Asked me if I was interested in buying all his tools and parts when I saw him Tuesday. Told him thanks but no thanks.



Been wearing a SINN FLIEGER for 15 years now. Needs a good cleaning and adjusting. VALJOUX 7750's are pricey to get worked on so I reset it every other day. They were sold here in the states under the BELL & ROSS banner at one time.

My understanding is that the Chinese have started making very reliable mechanical watches for a LOT less $$ than the big names everyone associates with watches. Some of the Russian mechanicals are good solid machines but they are rather spartan.

I like the weight of a REAL watch as opposed to case for a battery powered mini-clock. The battery powered jobbies have a tendency to keep a LOT better time though........:\

I have a vintage Tag Heuer Automatic Chronograph, from the 80's or 91 at the latest...has the Valjoux 7750 movement since it has the tachymeter, (Calibre 16 movement if not) when I'm not wearing it, it stays in a watch winder, but love the thing. I do notice, about once every two weeks, it will lose a couple of minutes, but for an analog movement and an old beast, not to surprising.

Still get a chuckle out of it, sometimes I'll move my hand in a certain way, and I'll feel the winding feature in the watch carry on for a second or two...waterproof to 200 meters, although I can't imagine why anyone would go "diving" using a watch like this, it's old enough that it was the pre-cursor to the AquaDiver series...great old beast, and for me, it has to be automatic/mechanical movement.

Originally Posted by JBPilot

Check out Doxa. I love mine and they've got some great mechanical automatics that you can find on both watchuseek and eBay for sub 2k.

I ended up with an old orange face DOXA SUB 300 ( pre US DIVERS ) like Dirk Pitt wore in all of Clive Cussler's books. Somebody made me an offer I couldn't refuse and it went to a new home. I've had Omega's, Rolex's, and a Brietling among others. Cheap battery powered quartz watches keep better time, BUT, they have no soul.

Phrank, that 7750 movement is a tank. I too get a kick out of it when that inertial winder keeps spinning and you can feel it shaking on your wrist. I love mine, but it needs a bath I think. Last quote for cleaning and adjusting I got was $300. Told the guy for that kind of $$ I'd just reset the time when it needed it.

I only have three mechanical watches. Funnily enough, they were all given to me by my uncle :L two of them are old Russian watches (the brand is Poljot), one is a chronograph, the other is just a watch. I should say that my uncle collects old watches and clocks!
The watch I've been wearing mostly for the last six years is a Sinn 103 series pilot watch that my uncle gave me for my 18th birthday. It has the steel bracelet, its a beautiful piece. And one of my most prized possessions.
If you go the route of buying any mechanical watch from any big brand, you have to factor in that the watch will need to be serviced every few years. I sent mine in to Sinn two years ago, the watch had started to lose a substantial amount of time. They cleaned it up, replaced the glass, face and hands and I got it back in absolutely perfect condition. The problem was it cost 300 euros + registered postage there.
But its great to have a timepiece you can be proud of.

Originally Posted by MattCB

To be honest unless something really grabs my interest will probably start with something in the <1K range. Anything further will depend on how I enjoy the experience, research, and opportunity.

I can relate to that.

The last month or so I've been reading about automatic watches, and I just ordered the first one: an Orient Bambino. Very cheap actually, but it gets good reviews. What I really wanted is the Oris John Coltrane, but that one I found too expensive.

Maybe that one day I will buy an expensive watch, but I'm sure I'll never pay more than, say, 2,500 USD. And even that I find borderline decadent. Given that one of those expensive watches loses quite some value as soon as you walk out of the shop with it, I've decided to only buy used watches. Oh, and do not forget that a mechanical watch needs to be serviced every x years, and that's not cheap either, especially with the more expensive brands.


A good blog/site for reviews is wornandwound, the average price of the watches they review is fairly low.

Oh, and another good source for buying an original watch at not too steep a price is Kickstarter. Young turks who've come up with an idea for a watch and are looking for crowdfunding.

I've currently committed myself to buying a splendid specimen for something like 299 CAD so here's me knocking on wood the deal get's fully funded.

Buy once, cry once,a quality watch will last a lifetime,but never pay retail.
Join The NAWCC and deal with the pros.

Longines Legend Diver Re-issue from 1960

I would check different Seiko, Orient automatic watch model reviews as well.

You can buy a Seiko for $300 that will last all of your life and probably never require any service and keep great time. Is it a great watch? Yes in the same way a Honda Civic is a great well engineered car. Once you get much over a grand your talking luxury pieces and it's all a matter of what you want to pay and what it's worth to you. it's all in the name and the price quality relationship decreases markedly.

With the 30% valuation change in the Swiss Franc I imagine that 7 grand Rolex just increased to over 9 grand as will all Swiss watches unless they absorb some of that change which I doubt they will do.

I've warn nothing but Seiko watches since 1970. Got my first one in Okinawa at the Air base there. Gave it to my dad when I went home on leave. I've had several and was well pleased with them all. I never had one to go bad on me it was always me that broke them.