In for a penny, in for a pound

Canuck · Nov 27, 2022

I recently was approached by someone who is a hobby railroad telegrapher. He asked if I had a railroad watch for sale. Lotsa railroad watches, but none for sale. So I went to my stash and found the subject watch, an 18-size, 15-jewel Elgin with a perfect 24-hour vitreous enamel dial. It needed a balance staff, mainspring, balance staff foot hole jewel, a glass, a recondition, seconds hand, and a better case. I have a lot of very old NOS watch material, likely bought 50 or so years ago. I had a staff. Price on the envelope said 70 cents! I had a NOS genuine Elgin mainspring. Cost? Dunno. I bought an assortment of NOS Elgin jewels in settings for very little, close to 40 years ago. I had an exact original hole jewel in the right setting. I had a glass watch crystal, seconds hand, and an excellent gold filled case in my stash. I cleaned it, staffed it, fitted the mainspring, glass, and seconds hand, and this is the result. Cost? Under $20 plus sweat equity. Sold the watch for a good buck!

JwRosenthal · Nov 27, 2022

Canuck
I recently was approached by someone who is a hobby railroad telegrapher. He asked if I had a railroad watch for sale. Lotsa railroad watches, but none for sale. So I went to my stash and found the subject watch, an 18-size, 15-jewel Elgin with a perfect 24-hour vitreous enamel dial. It needed a balance staff, mainspring, balance staff foot hole jewel, a glass, a recondition, seconds hand, and a better case. I have a lot of very old NOS watch material, likely bought 50 or so years ago. I had a staff. Price on the envelope said 70 cents! I had a NOS genuine Elgin mainspring. Cost? Dunno. I bought an assortment of NOS Elgin jewels in settings for very little, close to 40 years ago. I had an exact original hole jewel in the right setting. I had a glass watch crystal, seconds hand, and an excellent gold filled case in my stash. I cleaned it, staffed it, fitted the mainspring, glass, and seconds hand, and this is the result. Cost? Under $20 plus sweat equity. Sold the watch for a good buck!

And if you did one of these a week from your stash, you would may be able to plow through them all by 2057

vibe · Nov 28, 2022

Been down this road plenty of times. This was a lowly Rolex 1003.

sheepdoll · Nov 28, 2022

I only had time to skim this thread. At least I am my own watchmaker. So I tend to look for basket cases to restore. Noticed lately though that I am eager to get the part. Then I am on to the next one.
More and more it becomes about the anticipation of waiting for the part, or that quiet evening/afternoon to work on the projects.
Then there are the tools. I got tools to make missing parts. Never seem to have a quiet, clean or dirty place to set them up. Some grinding and cutting tools can be quite messy. Yet they are precision machines that need to be in a clean orderly environment with good temprature control.

Other times it is something basic. Years of using my good tweezers soldering micro electronics has left the tips twisted and filed in all sorts of strange shapes. Do I get new ones for re-working hairsprings.

Do not have a jewel press but I do have the stakes. Do I get a press or adapt what I have? A project has broken screws. Got a screw remover, but they do not shift. The tips of the remover just get mangled. Do I use chemical methods, or do I re-grind tips to fit the broken or rusted screw?

My watch timer is defunct. Do I try and fix it? The pick up might still be good. There are apps for that. I wanted to sell some junk and use the funds for a timer. Instead I use the equivalent of 3 times that amount for parts and additional projects.

I have not even begun to consider the pocket watches ...

JwRosenthal · Nov 28, 2022

vibe
Been down this road plenty of times. This was a lowly Rolex 1003.

It’ll nickel and dime you to death!

RevZMan123 · Nov 28, 2022

vibe
Been down this road plenty of times. This was a lowly Rolex 1003.

Yesssss, looks like a rolliworks spa day.

JayBe · Nov 28, 2022

I bought this (stuck) SEIKO 5 in a thrift store for around 18 USD (with bracelet!) and thought that it would only need a date window and a service. But then noticed that the minute hand was set to conveniently hide the missing hour marker at 11:00. Amazingly, my watchmaker returned it to me, cleaned, serviced, with a new hour marker and date window for 40 USD. Without this kind of pricing, I couldn't justify this madness.

Aludic · Nov 28, 2022

This is one I need to plea guilty too as well. 😁

From this, bought relatively cheaply, but certainly not for just a penny...

To this:

cd9cef10-9f9d-457f-927b-7fad91800e2b-jpg.1470723

And work is still in progress. Details can be found in this thread: link

Davidt · Nov 28, 2022

Here’s one of mine:

60’s Seamaster DeVille ref 166.020 with unusual grey dial
Bought for £500
Correct NOS hands £72
New crystal £72
Full service £450
New crown £included
Mint BoR bracelet £220

Before

After

JwRosenthal · Nov 28, 2022

Davidt
Here’s one of mine:

60’s Seamaster DeVille ref 166.020 with unusual grey dial
Bought for £500
Correct NOS hands £72
New crystal £72
Full service £450
New crown £included
Mint BoR bracelet £220

Before

After

Looks like it came with a 1069 missing an endlink- that was a bit of a bonus.

TheGreekPhysique · Nov 28, 2022

Great post. Unfortunately I have no projects to contribute as I am not handy. I changed a strap once

MtV · Nov 28, 2022

Thank you @JwRosenthal , I feel much better now 😁

I can definitely relate. One of my projects as an example:

I'm a fan of this kind of patina and it was offered to me for ~1100€ if I remember correctly. Doesn't sound too bad for a pretty sharp, black pie pan dogleg Constellation if it just needs a tiny bit of work? Well.

It needed:
-the correct flat foot thin decagonal crown (50€)
-a new plexi (it was cracked) (50€)
-a correct second hand (20€)
-aaaaand a cal. 551, as, unfortunately, it came with a non-COSC-552. (200€):

It didn't stop there, though. I liked the case - it had obviously been worn, but the lugs were pretty sharp. Except the top right lug was more worn than the others and, most of all, had a major ding. At about that time I got to know a case restorer who offered to fix just this part of the case and I figured great, good opportunity to give this a try.
Of course, on the way to him, the parcel with the case got lost. At least I had kept the case back... So, the search for a spare case began. I ended up finding a 168.005 case, which should've been identical, or so I thought. 500€ later I found out that there were minute differences between the products of different case manufacturers, and my 167.005 caseback wouldn't actually fit. The search continued, I found another case (400€) and finally got the watch assembled and serviced (300€).

In the end, the total came to ca. 2220€ and it took a year or so until all the parts were sourced and I had the finished product:

Luckily, the insurance paid for the lost case, and the costs for some of the spare parts were comparably cheap because I had them anyway/due to the help of some generous fellow OF-users. Still, the initial invest was roughly the purchase price of the watch itself.

I'm not regretting this in any way, and often the process is actually quite fun. But I guess this thread is definitely one that we should link to every now and then when someone joins, asks about a watch and figures "I'll just need a new hand, a crown and a new bezel".

JwRosenthal · Nov 28, 2022

A close friend of mine often gets into these money pits, then doubles, triples, quadruples down.
He bought a nice generic brand 1911, nothing wrong with it- but no, he had to be extra and make it badass- exotic wood to make the grips (had to buy more becuase he fυcked up the first set), new trigger group, new slide, new barrel, he went to modify the case and melted the frame (I don’t know how he did that), had to buy new frame- about another dozen parts until he was finally done.
When I asked him how much the gun cost, he said $350. Then I tallied the math for his custom build which ended up costing more than if he had actually bought a Colt. But in his mind, he saved so much money becuase the gun only cost $350.

Canuck · Nov 28, 2022

This one langoured in a tin box, in pieces, for about 50 years. It was all there except for the case. Minor rust damage to the dial train components solved with a fibreglass brush. OB member @Tritium made a case (with Omega crystal and crown) available. I conditioned it and put in a new mainspring, and here it is. Total investment about $250.00 plus the mainspring and sweat equity. Calibre 355, date at 6:00, bumper automatic. The un-used mesh bracelet came to me, gratis. No previous owner could use it as it is XXLONG. But shortened to the max, it fits my large wrist just fine.

sheepdoll · Nov 28, 2022

Arrived over the weekend. Only need the dial. I had to get 75% of a watch at fair market value (66USD +S&H) just to get the dial. Now I have most of a spare movement with the same markings on the bridges. I previously purchaced replacement wheels (15USD) and springs (11USD), some of which are doubled apart from the minute jumper spring. These invariably never have a minute jummper spring, A part which can cost as much as a watch movement itself.
At least I already had the case.

Shabbaz · Nov 28, 2022

1. Watch EUR 525
2. Hands EUR 25
3. Crown EUR 55
4. Donor dials EUR 40
5. Lume and metal ball job EUR 120
6. Service EUR 245

Total EUR 1.010

OneTwo · Nov 28, 2022

Ha this thread is helping me feel better about my Wittnauer 8023-241T "project" and also reminded me that I'm in good company when it comes to having a soft spot for the watches needing a little love.

The state it was in when I purchased:

The movement was pretty rusted out and needed some replacement parts:

Back from Watchmaker and functioning perfectly:

And the costs through the lens of those old credit card commercials:
Watch purchased - $ 321.91
Signed Crown - $ 176.00 (probably way more than I should have paid but I wanted it to be signed)
Overhaul Service - $1,200.00
All in total - $1,697.91

Feeling when on the wrist - PRICELESS

JwRosenthal · Nov 28, 2022

OneTwo
Ha this thread is helping me feel better about my Wittnauer 8023-241T "project" and also reminded me that I'm in good company when it comes to having a soft spot for the watches needing a little love.

The state it was in when I purchased:

The movement was pretty rusted out and needed some replacement parts:

Back from Watchmaker and functioning perfectly:

And the costs through the lens of those old credit card commercials:
Watch purchased - $ 321.91
Signed Crown - $ 176.00 (probably way more than I should have paid but I wanted it to be signed)
Overhaul Service - $1,200.00
All in total - $1,697.91

Feeling when on the wrist - PRICELESS

Nice! Who made the bracelet!

JwRosenthal · Nov 28, 2022

I think it should be stated at this point, for all newer collectors, that this thread is a cautionary tale. Just because it’s a “bargain” doesn’t mean it will be a bargain. As much as I love contributing to the bargain thread- this is what happens when you get a little over ambitious hitting the “buy it now” button.

Arancio601 · Nov 28, 2022

This thread came at a good time for me. I am always a sucker for a basketcase, but a few of you putting the $$ next to what you had to get done to rectify your 'bargains' is bring the message home for me.

A few ways the scenario plays out for me:
1. Don't do it
2. Do it. Eyes wide open, understanding the delayed costs, and carefully planning its rebuild while keeping to a pre-determined budget
3. Do it. Can't afford the parts or labour, goes into the drawer with the rest of your "I'll fix it one days"
4. Learn how to tinker within your abilities and only choose project watches within those abilities
5. Fall in love with the basketcase, drop all the $$ it needs to revive, but don't create a spreadsheet of costs (this is how my car projects run), enjoy it at the other end with no regrets and the dollar pain a distant memory

In for a penny, in for a pound

Canuck

JwRosenthal

vibe

sheepdoll

JwRosenthal

RevZMan123

JayBe

Aludic

Davidt

JwRosenthal

TheGreekPhysique

MtV

JwRosenthal

Canuck

sheepdoll

Shabbaz

OneTwo

JwRosenthal

JwRosenthal

Arancio601

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