Hello all,

My first vintage watch was an 18K Helvetia but unfortunately the case was damaged and had been missing a lug for many years and in that time I had been keeping an eye on E-Bay for a possible replacement case.

One of the ones I had my eye on was the one below, pictured in the E-Bay seller’s pic. However, the price was too high when I was mainly interested in the case.



I decided to get a new lug made for my Helvetia but in doing so it rekindled an interest in the make and I as the watch I had my eye on for the case was still available I had another look. It looked an interesting watch. Early 40s I thought and with fixed wire bars soldered to the back of the lugs, maybe a repair of the original bars? As there was a “Make an Offer” option I thought I’d give it a go and offered about 50% of the asking price. My offer was accepted!

While waiting for the watch to arrive I kept an eye on E-bay for any other Helvetias and literally the next day came across this (again sellers pic).



Only the second one of these cases I had found in years of looking at Helvetia cases and it was the day after I had bought one. This was going cheaper as a spares/repairs and after putting in another low-ish offer and with a bit of haggling I had this one on the way as well.

They arrived the same day and are interesting to compare. The serial numbers are about 2.4 million apart, a reasonable number of years I think. The older military style is solid stainless steel with a Helvetia 82A movement, the same one Helvetia fitted into its German Army watches from the 30s on. The newer is chrome plated with a Helvetia 82C movement. They both have the same fixed wire bars soldered to the lugs, the older one has actually had a repair and on the other the chrome plating covers the wire so it is obviously how they were originally manufactured.





The watches are 34mm without the crown, a reasonably large size for the time (Helvetia tended to make bigger than average cases) and the lugs are 19mm which I think is unusual for watches of this date and size.

The dial is not as bad as I at first thought and I think I’ll keep it as it is. The watch doesn’t wind properly but I think the spring is ok but the click is worn.



And here is the chrome watch tidied up a bit.



I have got together quite a lot of info re Helvetia watches over the years and I think I may put something together on the web as info was quite difficult to find when I was looking.

Thanks for your interest. Carl.

 

They hedged

 

Yes they are very pretty. I especially like this two tone dial one, with a Cal 82c. Movement

 

Here is a cool old diver that came in a great deal from a good OF member that went to my son as a b-day gift.

 

Can't let a little thing like a war get in the way of business!

I've not seen any British issue wrist watches from them, though I have seen a few post war US Army issue.

 

I like the way the dials tend to be not too fussy. Numbers and dots mainly with a seconds track of 0 - 60 quite often and the odd more fancy one like yours. I've just seen one recently online like a cross between yours and mine.



Do you have the serial no? I'm trying to build up a bit of a database.

Thanks.

 

Like everyone they certainly went a bit funky in the 70s!

 

Sorry, it is out of the country being repaired at the moment. The only pain in the neck is those solid lugs, effectively preventing, in the modern age, the owner from wearing his watch!

 

Thank you for sharing. I love these lesser known brands.

 

Actually you should see how
Beautiful some of those helvetia movements were! really nice quality

 

In terms of a purist piece, this one is pretty pure...lol


Get this: ~85 years old, appears to have never been serviced and still keeps bang-on time. A true draw / barn find. This was one of first vintage watches I purchased @ a vintage shop in the Berkshires. Must be 15 or 16 years gone by now. I paid $65 and felt like I got ripped off a bit (at the time).

Long story, boring: Turns out it's Platinum. But, possibly a re-case. But, maybe not. I took her on a trip to Miami with me a few years ago to ask Matt Bain if he knew anything about it. Right away, he offered to buy it so I knew there was something unique about such a ubiquitous watch.

I can put his watch head next to ANY watch head in the world and It holds its own. The dial is almost flawless and you never see me use such flowery rhetoric to describe any of my watches on this forum. Nope, not a re-dial.

Thanks for looking!

 

So it is really platinum?

 

Ahhhhh, finally someone who seems to know the ins and outs of Helvetia.

Thank you for sharing all of this info!

The thin, almost zero bezel layout makes these watches wear much bigger than actuallly are.

 

Yes, but I think it's a re-case (but, not sure lol)

*edit

Platinum was dirt cheap in the late 1930's. In fact, the Platinum group metals didn't really run up in price during the war unlike just about every other precious metal.

So it kinda makes sense ppl would re-case fixed lug watches in platinum.

 

Interesting, I learned something new.

Is that your only Helvetia?

 

Hey, this is fabulous news, That watch is nice and I especially like the Helvetia shock absorber. But I have a load of nearly-one jewel pin pallets with this ACIER INOXYDABLE marking.

I'm gonna pull out all those watches, which generally stayed stuck in my unusable parts stock. If these obvious re-case watches are indeed real platinum, I'm rich, - and I thought all those watches I amassed dirt cheap over the years were dead stock. If there was a common thread linking those (I thought) bits of junk, it was that they never seemed to work once they were more than a decade or so old.

If they are (obvious franken) re-cased platinum, I won't feel any remorse about destroying the originality of these pin-pallets while I am making money hand-over-fist! Sorry to sound a bit commercial on these boards but this is great news. I'll bet Platinum was cheap during this period (1940s/50s) because not many of those wartime airplane engines used catalytic converters to reduce emissions

But it is funny how the nobility seemed inherently to know how valuable these investments, - which you say were cheap in those days, - were going to become - https://www.1stdibs.com/jewelry/mor...-antique-diamond-platinum-tiara/id-j_3381333/

I suppose the rich will always get richer while ordinary folk will stay with all that junk in our bottom drawers!

 

Thanks everyone for your interest in Helvetia!

It has turned into a bit of an obsession with me now and I've decided to start a web site with everything I've learned. I've got details of about 300 watches off of ebay and I think I am pretty sure of serial numbers and dates now. I've also discovered some interesting patents and links with the Aero/Aeroplane shock protected and waterproof watches of the 30s.

Here is the one that started it; the 18K watch with the lug now repaired.




As you say, the thin bezel makes these look much larger than they are and they are not a bad size for a 40s watch anyway.

I'll let you know when the site is up if there is any interest.

Thanks.

Carl

 

I am skeptical that there were many cases made of "cheap" platinum during that period.

 

Really interesting, do you mind if I use your photos on the site I'm creating? Do you think that serial number had a number before the 2 that has been polished out. They were into the 3 millions by the end of WW1 and 3242125 would put it at about 1921 according to what I've managed to pull together.

Edited to add, Helvetia didn't always use their own serial numbers on some of the cases and sometimes there are case makers numbers. This watch is from later than the number would indicate, see below. Thanks.

 

Actually looking at the movement. That is an 82A-24 and the fact it actually has 82A marked on it, earlier 81 and 82 movements didn't, and it doesn't have the "Patent Shock Absorber" text of earlier movements. I would put the date at about 1940, numerals are similar to other watches of about this date too. Earlier ones were more stylised. If' you look at the early 40s watch I posted above (and again below) apart from the colour the dial and movement are very similar:





Here is an early 30s version of the same movement for comparison: