Hi guys
Venting my frustration at the fact that every time I am offered military watches 95% of the time they are wrong. I’ve probably dealt with 20 or 30 of them now and upon closer inspection I always notice mismatched numbers, wrong hands, arrows, movements, cases, crowns etc. I’m beginning to think finding a nice original vintage military watch is becoming a very difficult challenge.

I guess when they became popular everyone starting grabbing bits of them and putting them together.

rant over!

HH

 

Real military watches got abused a lot, especially those on loan which were worn by several officers over a period of 25+ years... yes not everyone had his own watch and had to loan one from sierra4 services!

 

Deep pockets and great knowledge are needed these days for military watches.

Due to the higher prices in any watch model or type, the dishonesties increase with the price increase

 

i'm not sure I understand the OP. there are in fact plenty of authentic military issued watches to be had. is it the increasing prices that limits the OP's access?

 

A visit or two to https://www.mwrforum.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?2-Main-Forum&s=&daysprune= would show that there are many original pieces to be had.

 

An all original Railmaster/Seamaster 2914-5 PAF, from a respected seller, sat on this forum, unsold, for months. Perhaps you’re not looking hard enough?

 

Keep your eyes on this and other respected forums. I just picked up a lovely, all original, serviced Swedish military Candino for what I considered to be a very reasonable price.

 

I think most of us could say this about all vintage watches. In fact, finding one good piece out of every 20 would make me pretty happy.

 

I agree when in the setting of hunting on the internet. However even then one doesn't need to look too far to find good pieces. take for instance this forum and other respected forums like MWR and VRF. Surely a quick perusal of the sales sections will turn up much more than your 1-to-20 ratio of good pieces. The salient issue is the prices for these good pieces, not whether one can find enough of them to choose from. If the OP is looking for Shayet 13 Kontiki's and broad arrow SM300's for $1000 like in the old days then he's plum outa luck...

 

Happy days

 

Hi guys
Venting my frustration at the fact that every time I am offered -----------------------watches 95% of the time they are wrong. I’ve probably dealt with 20 or 30 of them now and upon closer inspection I always notice mismatched numbers, wrong hands, arrows, movements, cases, crowns etc. I’m beginning to think finding a nice original vintage ------------------------ watch is becoming a very difficult challenge.

I guess when they became popular everyone starting grabbing bits of them and putting them together.

rant over!

Stock rant boiler plate Insert desired watch in the blank space

 

It is a generic rant.
Must be looking for more rare "military" watches than I have. I'm guessing a Bulova, Elgin, Waltham military watch is not on your list .
When you get into the low production numbers of released watches (higher priced) you have to expect more unscrupulous sellers in the mix.

 

As a matter of fact... should anyone be aware of a legit Tudor Sub issued by the French Marine Nationale (Tudor MN snowflake) being up for sale.... don't hesitate to DM me!

 

Cheers for the replies guys. I was just annoyed at the time as I visited a local collector who promised some nice examples (Lemania, HS9), Lemania WWW, Omega 6B/159 and some others. When I got there all had wrong hands or mismatched numbers or dial font etc.

Maybe I've just been unlucky with what I have been offered recently. I guess if I really want a nice example it will be time to hunt one down on the suggested forums and pay the higher price for one.

Cheers
HH

 

Playing off the thread title here, there are some WWII vets left. If you can spare a moment to wish a vet a happy 100th birthday, he’d appreciate if you could send him a card https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/wwii-vet-fred-arsenault-turning-100-birthday-1.5451523

Edit, the address is

Fred Arsenault
9 Kenmore Ave
Toronto, Ontario
M1K 1B3
Canada

Happy weekend everyone

 

Not at the higher end of collectability but at i.t.r.o. a couple of hundred quid and 100% genuine

 

Actually, that NATO is new...I can't see any sweat/salt stains...

 

Not a NATO as such, one of a bunch of charity sales I picked up from ‘Revo’ a while back and without checking back I think they were RAF pieces ?

A task for tomorrow and hopefully I’ll report back.

 

Update, yes a rare occasion but my memory was spot on, RAF issue.
I suspect Ollie may still have some left if you were interested, a lovely soft strap

 

Great research Stuart, I retract my friendly poke...
This is an all original watch, with a cracking NATO strap that I obtained from Stuart