Help On Buying A Vintage Watch

Hi everyone,

My name's Alex, and I'm fairly new to this whole watch collecting business/hobby. I've been trying to read up on different types of watches and learning how to do my due diligence, but when I read through this forum, it's clear that you all have much better wisdom, experience, and attention to detail.

Therefore, could you help me evaluate this listing?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/11121306058...451&_trkparms=gh1g=I111213060582.N5.S2.M10577

As a newbie, my first goal was to figure out if it was authentic. I tried to match up all the details I could find on this watch model to the details listed and the poorly lit pictures. Everything seems like it fits. Anyone have any suspicious inputs? (I also contacted the seller for a flat picture of the watch because the angles make the top right corner very suspect)

I know that condition is also one of the main factors to a watches price, and this watch seems pretty worn and has a lot of dirt on it. Could you guys give an estimate of how much this watch is worth? Or if it would be worth buying at a certain price and cleaning up (or would that just deteriorate the value even more)?

Also, was my methodology correct? Any advice to help me on my next journey. Part of me just wants to stalk the Watches for Sale section and buy it from you guys due to the low risk of being cheated. 😁

Sorry for all the questions. I'm trying to learn about these watches 👎 and you don't have to answer every question. I tend to ramble...


Best Regards,
Alex

Hi Alex.

That's a redial, so I looked no further.

Alex

If this is to be your first vintage watch purchase, please don't pick a watch like this one as a starting point. These early chronometers are a really specialised and difficult area, where even experts can come unstuck. Choose something straight ahead with lots of choice as your first purchase, a nice Seamaster or Geneve perhaps.

This particular 18k chronometer is in very bad shape all around.

🙁 GG


Thanks for the input. I just find the chronometeres so much more interesting than the Seamaster though 😜




Yeah I read through that thread, and am staring at the FS section 😀

Yes chronometers are defintely more interesting, Just means you will need to be more patient to find the right one. And also more 💰 .