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SOLD 1966 Caravelle SeaHunter "Devil Diver" 666 Feet

  1. gophishin Jan 21, 2017

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    FS: 1966 Caravelle SeaHunter, otherwise known as the "Devil Diver" from the 666 Feet water depth rating prominently displayed on the matte black dial. There's a lot to love with this watch, it's a great versatile size with so many classic vintage diver characteristics: no-date, matte, tritium, "explorer" style dial with sharp dagger/dauphine style hour and minute hands and a very sharp drop tail sweep seconds hand. The tritium lume has aged to an honest yellow. Lume glows briefly after being exposed to bright light.

    The watch is completely original and honest down to the big "C" signed crown. The case is strong and honest, with slight signs of normal use. There is a small dent on the left and right sides of the case that I didn't really notice until I loaded the high-res photos. There are a few scratches to the top left lug, but as you can see in the pictures, it is clean and honest overall for a 51 year old watch.

    The caseback is the weak point of this watch, as it is worn and contains scratches from someone's prior attempts to open. The text is still visible reading: "shock resistant, waterproof to 666 feet, all stainless steel, anti-magnetic, Caravelle, M6." "M6" means this was a 1966 model, the letter "M" indicating the decade and the "6" indicating which year. Later models of this watch contained straight hour and minute hands and a lollipop seconds hand, and the dial read "water resistant" instead of "waterproof".

    The watch has not been serviced while in my possession for the last 3 years, but has always kept great time. I'm timing as I'm writing this, but so far it's +/- 0 seconds after 1 hour. <Update> After 24 hours, face up, the watch gained 2 seconds. As you can see from the pictures, the movement is very clean overall. Winding and setting is very smooth and power reserve is approximately 40 hours.

    Condition: Clean overall and honest. Pictures accurately show the condition and serve as part of the description.
    Movement: Caravelle 11DP Seventeen Jewel Japanese Movement, Manual Wind, ~40hr PR
    Crystal: Domed acrylic in good condition, no noticeable scratches.
    Case: All Stainless Steel - in good condition, there is dent just above the crown and one on the left side of the watch as well that I never relaly noticed until I took the high-res photos. Case is otherwise sharp and honest.
    Dimensions: 36.5 mm without crown, 40 mm with crown, 44.5 mm lug to lug, ~10.5 mm thick, 20 mm lug with.
    Caseback: Stainless Steel screw down. Case back is worn with faint but still readable text, and scratches from someone prior trying to open.
    Crown: Large, signed original crown
    Dial: All original matte black tritium "explorer" dial, with silver "Caravelle" "WATERPROOF 666 FEET" text. Signed "T Japan T". Hands are equally fantastic dauphine style, lume filled, and a nice drop tail sweep seconds.
    Strap/bracelet: 20mm Crown and Buckle Black Perlon single piece strap.
    Bezel: Bi-directional, has one tight spot around the rotation, I suspect the spring clip needs to be reseated, it is pretty minor so I always figured I would have it fixed if/when I had it serviced.

    I am lucky enough to have two of these. In the pictures below showing both, only the watch on the black Perlon strap is for sale. I actually think this is the better watch of the two, as the other one arrived with (known) issues, and although it has been serviced, it is not as accurate and I don't want to pass a potential issue to a buyer while the service warranty is still in place. I love this watch, and as you can see, it is very versatile on a variety of straps including NATO, Perlon, and Tropic Sport. I tend to think any imperfections seen in the photos is exaggerated by the large unedited files, the watch is a real stunner in person. It's subtle and unassuming to most but garners a lot of attention from other watch geeks because it has so much character.

    If you have any questions or if there is anything I missed, please don't hesitate to ask.

    Price is $500 USD net to me via wire or PayPal, shipped vis USPS Priority Mail with insurance in the CONUS. I would prefer a CONUS sale, but any shipping outside of the CONUS will be TBD with buyer based on costs. I have multiple references as a buyer and a couple as a seller, and can link my eBay profile for references as well. Face to face in Phoenix, AZ is also welcome. Thanks OF for the space and thanks for looking!
     
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  2. gophishin Jan 25, 2017

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    TTT
     
    watch3s and jaguar11 like this.