Good evening saw an old Orvin watch from the 1950's seller wants 80.00 for it. Only thing i really know is that the watches were sold by Sears and Roebuck years ago. he called it a triple date watch it does run well but he does not know when it was last service. Can anyone shed some light and is it worth the 80.00 he wants? i wasn't thinking so this is the only photo i have.
It's hard to assess value at that kind of price point: the watch itself isn't very rare, but it's also not very popular; there's a couple of very similar watches on eBay sitting unsold for $200-$400, but I can't find one that has sold, and there aren't many Orvin watches which have sold for $80 or more (some of the divers are in that area). It would cost you a lot more than $80 to get it serviced, so you're in a spot where either it runs OK and it's an $80 watch, but when it needs to be serviced for a least a couple of hundred dollars, it's a $300+ watch, and how much you paid for it doesn't have much to do with the full out-of-pocket spend. If you like it, offer him less, and either he'll take it, or he'll wait until he finds someone willing to pay $80 (and if you like it a enough, that person might be you).
Depending on your knowledge of vintage watches, you may know that chronographs generally cost much more to service than good ol’ 3 hand watches.