Let’s start a thread for Cheapo Vintage Beauties.

These are the uncollectible, unsung beauties of the vintage watch world – local brands, knockoff designs, Ebauches movements and every so often plated cases. CVB-thread guideline: in-house movements are frowned upon and signed crowns are barely accepted

I’ll start with a Milljonär Scandinavic. Milljonär was a small Swedish brand that operated from the 1950s to the early 1970s. It sold cheap, often chrome plated, watches and frequently copied its designs from another popular cheapo brand, Atlantic. Imagine being a poor man’s Atlantic… Well, that business concept proved to be a pretty successful one and eventually Milljonärs were peddled via mail order magazine adds throughout the Nordics.

This Scandinavic is all steel and in fantastic condition, it even had the caseback sticker on when I got it. It features a tritium dial, robust Unitas 6325 movement and bizarre caseback markings. A fun watch and well worth the 22€ I paid for it.



Boatload of tritium. Still glows surprisingly strong after light exposure.



I guess missiles and tanks were in vogue during the Cold War.



“Wehrmachtswerk”, a common heart of a CVB.



It’s kind of crazy how much joy wearing this thing brings me. I even decided to put it on a nice Hirsch Ranger strap, effectively doubling the value of the watch.



Let’s see your cheapos!

 

Cool case back!

 

A few thats passed and a few still there.

 

This cost me £60 a few years ago. It’s probably worth at least £65 now.

 

Nice idea for a thread

 

That Rodania is

As are several others of the ones you posted

 

+1!
But I'm not sure it's CVB-eligible - umpire's ruling, please!

 

Yeah maybe the Rodania has no place here as well as the Waltham alarm watch but the others are all from unknown / underrated brands and was if I recall correctly pretty cheap compared to its quality and beauty!

 

Lots of beautiful cheapos and a couple quality watches Especially that Tidena speaks to me.

 

What's funny about that is that the Tidena could barely be given away if I recall correctly - took a long time for @hejsam to move it. But yes, I really like that purple!

 

Yes the purple Tidena was very nice and actually had a very well built 200m WR steel case.

Along with most unknown cheap watches for sale here it took a while to move and I think I sold it in a lot with two other Tidenas for under 200EUR.

 

I didn't want to deal with international shipping or I certainly would have been tempted.

 

I can imagine Tidenas aren't exactly flying off the shelves. Recently I have been following @cineaste and his efforts to sell a QVB (Quality Vintage Beauty) Certina for a price of CVB. Poor chap! It's not easy to move lesser known watches unless you already have a large customer base. A local watch shop regularly sells Milljonärs for +250€!

 

I forgot to mention in the 1st post that in-house produced pin-pallet watches are welcomed to join this thread! I hope one of you freaks has a charming UMF Ruhla you’ve been dying to show off

Dropped Milljonär Scandinavic off for a service and had a nice chat with my watchmaker. The guy picked up the watch and half-jokingly said “Oh, a mesmerizingly beautiful Milljonär!” Weirdly enough he happened to be wearing his Milljonär that day! He had a turquoise dial variant on his wrist which looked pretty nice. Watchmaker had gotten the watch from a client for free. He also said the Unitas 6325 Wehrmachtswerk is actually quite nice and runs accurately. I was rather surprised to learn that the dude was a fellow Cheapo Vintage Beauty enthusiast as I know he usually wears high-end brands, mostly Rolex and Omega. I gotta say, from Rolex to Milljonär, the chap has an impressive range in taste. Or this could be a case in which two extremes of a spectrum end up meeting like a horseshoe

 

Got this recently for about 17 cents so it definatly a cheapie, as for beauty it could be but not right now. Damn thing ticks like a cartoon time bomb, you wouldn't want to try and sleep with this on your wrist.
It's a one 1 jewel movement Swiss Movt Ruby Deluxe and looks are ok for the $10 you would have bought it for in the 60-70's.
My WM convinced me it wasn't worth servicing, I may have to convince him otherwise, I really quite like it!

 

That Longeau is really lovely in it's simplicity, but if I remember rightly that's no side street unknown, that's an Enicar.

 

Next up an edge case: Camy Superautomatic, movement ETA 2472. Beautiful lugs and a signed crown, dicey dicey. Camy certainly was an affordable brand back in day, being often sold via mail order. To appear as a high quality brand the company also produced watches with unnecessary high jewel counts, some as high as 77 jewels.



The watch was a gift from my lovely wife, so it always has a special place in my heart.

 

simple tank from a friend. Not sure if its Rubens SA or Rubensa. No luck on mikrolisk

 

Looks lovely!

 

I bought that exact Rodania from someone on eBay about a year ago. Same dial and scratch on the crystal around 8.
Absolutely love it and wear it quite often in my rotation. Hopefully you'll be pleased to learn it's still in the OF and living a great life.

Pic from a few weeks ago and one I just took!