Cheapo Vintage Beauties

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@Laneside Thanks! Milljonär is still in my collection and in regular use. Watch keeps ok time, losing about 20s a day. I've had the movement serviced by a local watchmaker. Unitas 6325 caliber can be regulated to run pretty accurately.
 
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I don't know if this counts as a cheapie as it cost me GBP192 (it's gold). I wear it often.

@Laneside ,

At the current rate of exchange, 0.53 pounds will buy a Canadian dollar. Your watch would cost close to about $362.00 Cdn. Glad you like it! Probably worth all of that if it is solid karat gold.
 
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We found a box of watches in my girlfriends grandmother's attic. Couple were worth polishing up and adding a strap to. The style was apparently gold on flexible bracelet in those days.

 
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Does £112 constitute as Cheapo? I'm not sure but I certainly think this, my first Movado, is worth it.
 
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Oh, I have (and had) lots of cheap beauties. Here are a few for starters. These four cost me probably 50€ in total. Likely less. Well a bit more perhaps if you count changed crystals, straps and such. I hunt a lot at flea markets, antique stores, buy and sell sites etc.

 
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That is awesome. Nice, clean steel case and then complete madness on the dial!
The good stuff with this beauty doesn’t end there, it runs very exakt and the ticking is so loud!
I love it.
 
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Zentra with HB (Hermann Becker) 115
Paid 45 Euro for that beauty (but it needs a cleaning)

 
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Do Lanco watches qualify? I guess at 16EUR they must.... now the question is to service or not to service... Caseback has Lanco reference 14738 and I am guessing it must be from mid to late 1970s. Nice to see a brown dial in a vintageish Swiss made watch that isn't so because of patina... 🤔😅

 
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Picked this up for about £70 from eBay last year. It needed a new crystal and I got it serviced at the same time.
Felsa 1560 30 jewel movement.

 
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All this for only $125 USD. Includes the original leather strap in good condition (branded Venus, not shown)
Happy New Year!
 
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As a late discoverer of this thread, I've got many to share! Buying something cheap and dirty, but running, to clean up and enjoy is my stock-in-trade in watch collecting.

On the wrist today (photo not from today) a vintage Renis Geneve tv case (big, 38mm) with an integrated bracelet and day in French or German, which tracks because I don't think "Renis" sold many watches in English-speaking markets... AS 5206 has "choose your own adventure" set of markings on the movement.

It just needed a clean up and adjustable clasp to make it fit (and if anyone needs the National Semiconductor clasp it came with, lmk).


Happy vintage watch hunting!