I know I've said it before but there was a time, not too long, long ago when picking up steel flat-links of all flavours really cheap was something I took great pride in. They were mostly attached to non-runners, beat up Seamasters and the odd cheap Constellation and the majority were found locally. All the ones I have attached to dress watches came in this way and I don't think any of them cost more than €2-300, including an attached watch head! The availibility dried up around 2016/17, mainly coinciding with the greatly increased interest in Speedmasters and also the rise of the P/T 'watch dealer', where everyman and his dog was now chasing a deal and/or a flat-link.
Here a couple as I liked to find them and this SM600 which was actually the last good deal I made on a flat-link- this one in 2017 and it was also way the most expensive, €800 IIRC, actually coming from an Amsterdam bricks and mortar watch dealer who didn't really know what they were selling
😁 :
Badly water damaged 14701/7077/4's - rusted and non-running
Barely running 14381/7077/4's
This SM600 came with a stiff and virtually unworn 1035
Also interesting is that a lot of new collectors have the idea that flat-links were first seen on the 2913, 2914 and 2915 trinity in '57, simply not true of course and these bracelets were sold with especially Seamasters and also Constellations a couple of years earlier around '55/56. There's quite a lot of brochure/catalogue advertising from the mid 50's showing both steel and gold flat-links attached to Seamasters and to a lesser extent attached to Constellations.
These pages from an Italian catalogue from 1956 where both Seamasters and Constellations are presented with the option of a steel or solid gold flat-link bracelet which when ordered in gold cost a lot more than the watch head itself!
