hi all ,just bought a arlea mans swiss made 30 jewel calender automatic cheapie wristwatch to tinker with.it looks like it was made in the sixties and once was quite a nice watch.i have never heard of arlea ,anyone able to help with info on the make.i know these threads are much more interesting with photos but dont have the beast yet,many thanks ..greasemonkkey
obviously not a common watch!.i have stripped since the last post to do a little restoration and found it has a felsa 4007n movement in it.i know it has no great value,but it has a nice rose gold filled case and is starting to look pretty.if i manage to get the movement back together without loosing something i will post a pic when its done..cheers..greasemonkey
Hi GM, If you select any four, five or six letters from the alphabet and jumble them you'll come up with the name of one of these type of watch (it seems). Felsa was an ebauche manufacturer from the 30s to about 1970 and thousands of their "engines" were cased by various watch "assemblers" in the 40s, 50s and 60s. It appears that Arlea was one of these using a Felsa movement. For a nice look at an Arlea, scroll down here http://watchrepairandrestoration.blogspot.com.au/2009_10_01_archive.html Felsa were also the first company to design the first truly bi-directional automatic watch movement (called their BIDYNATOR). Many of the watches like Arlea were of good quality but the brands seemed to come and go overnight in some cases, but Felsa was also used in some high end watches like Breitling for example. Nevertheless, they are an interesting item and can provide good experience for the watch tinkerer. Get that camera out again and lets see some pics. Cheers Jim
thanks jim for the information,as said if i can get it back in one bit and running i will get the happy snapper out,cheers..greasemonkey
