Bargain Diver's Thread

Fritz

here ya go @JwRosenthal

Bargain Divers!

Post them here. Those pieces which didn't cost much because, well... they're crap, and those pieces which you just lucked into at a good price.

I'll start...

Seiko SKX175 & Accutron quartz "Devil Diver"
The Seiko was 125 bucks lightly used in its original packaging, the Accutron $100, NOS from a nice man who retired from Bulova.

1944 USN Elgin, Underwater Demolition Team watch. Purchased from a watchmaker when the guy who bought it in refused to pay his bill and left it sitting at his shop for several months. I got it for the cost of the repair.

Dan S

Here are a couple of mine, a Helbros Invicible just like the one James showed above, and an obscure Squale-cased Herma (a French brand).

JwRosenthal

A crappy iPhone group shot of what I grabbed from my box- still have a few out at the watchmaker

abrod520

Cheap estate sale skindiver,

These things are so cool even if they’re too small for me at 36mm. This one runs extremely fast despite degaussing, suggesting the mainspring is probably broken

JwRosenthal

Once they have been straitened out (if they can be by someone who knows what they are doing), and after a service they run perfectly.

rootbeer7

I’ll play! Both of these were lockdown finds! The Cronel is coming back from my watchmaker tomorrow having had the movement restored. Being a single jewel only, there’s a lot of metal on metal!!
The Monvis’ timekeeping seems to be impeccable

abrod520

I don't doubt it, but this is a bargain-bin 1-jewel manual wind movement, and isn't worth having a watchmaker work on. I've considered having a go at it myself but don't think I have the level of curiosity to really go at a mainspring - to say nothing of equipment or anything else.