January brought the Bordeaux service for the Genève.

And another hummer:

 

And then my first properly non functioning watch.

By this stage I'd starting getting Mitka (also of this parish) to service things as well as Christian and the chap I can stroll round to when I need to. I do like the photos and tracking that come with Mitka and Christian though.

I now had confidence that Mitka. Could. Fix. Anything.

The battered Cosmic that Graham had be reluctant to mangle (remember that? It's been a while) proved no problem:

https://workshop.mitka.co.uk/cgi-bin/library?action=show_photos&wat_id=175&tk_id=20547619

So I confidently bought a lovely Connie from a seller in Germany.

After two days browsing the mighty Desmond and reading his PDFs.

Not running. Can't set hands. A mess.

It went off to Mitka.

Who worked his magic:



It needed a lot of work. And quite a lot of spares.

https://workshop.mitka.co.uk/cgi-bin/library?action=show_photos&wat_id=205&tk_id=444387024

But now it is brilliant.

And I am responsible for bringing it back to life.

And so *slim*...

 

Newly confident about overseas sellers on eBay, this arrived from Japan:

 

And then I needed some beaters for a trip to Singapore. Didn't trust the humidity.

So found a non date version of my dad's watch:



And a Buler, for £30:



To be honest I felt a bit dirty not wearing Omegas, so all the Cosmics came too.

 

Two months ticked by (ha ha) with no purchases.

I was away, but still learning from all of your wise words (thank you. Again.)

And now it is April.

And I read a blog post from Christian about the service on a Glycine Compressor, and what a solid movement the ETA that it used was.

So I bought this, and sent it to him to service:

 

Hanging stage lights pays pretty well.

have fun
kfw

 

Emboldened by my audacity to try new brands I bought this:

 

That was a long long time ago and I moved on...

 

And then a mishap.

Found a very pretty Cosmic 2000 from Korea.

I know, I know, it was bound to be a redial, but it had an original bracelet (that I hate. Remember that?), that I'd be able to flip and cover the cost of 70% of the purchase.

Click.

Buy it now.

It arrived. And was lovely.

But the bracelet was not the one photographed.

Crap.

Nasty fake.

Thought I'd really got burned.

But I messaged the seller and complained politely and they said send it back.

Really thought I was going to end up with no watch and no refund.

But no. Refund came through.

And compared to some of the stuff I've read here (Iceland anyone?), I got off insanely lightly.

Thank god for my skinny wrists not suiting bigger (more costly) goodies.

 

Was I deterred?

I was not.

I found this:



and it arrived with the sweetest note from the seller - it had belonged to his father, who had been a watchmaker, and worn it daily, and he hoped it was going to a good home.

I like to think I'm rehoming strays.

 

It's June now, and I'm away working in the summer, but find time to buy this:



My colleagues are deeply perplexed that I have traveled to France with enough watches to wear a different one every day that we are there.

One of them (the colleagues, not the watches) grew up in Elgin, Illinois and was properly cross with with me for not owning something from her home town.

So when I got home I bought this:



Not running. Dirt cheap.

Sent it off to Mitka, who worked magic:



The only automatic movement manufactured in the US.

The internet is endlessly informative.

 

I really fancied a Genève Dynamic.

And found one:

 

And now it's September 2019 (nearly done) and I continued to trawl the bay most days and read the posts here.

Getting to know the people and what they knew.

Waiting for exactly the right person to present exactly the right answer.

Holding my breath waiting for the gentle burns of particular behaviours.

Then I decided it was sad to only have one Certina, and that it would get lonely. I bet the Omegas are mean to it once the drawer closes.

So I added this:

 

And this:



both from a terrific seller in Amsterdam

 

And this arrived from Hungary:

 

I found an unused Glycine where the back gasket had turned to goo.

But it really feels like anything is repairable:

 

And this really sweet Glycine Combat:

 

There's another Elgin currently on Mitka's workbench.

And a Cosmic 2000 that's arriving tomorrow.

I'll post pictures once I have them.

I just wanted to thank you all for letting me lurk in the corner, listening to all of your conversations and laughing at your jokes, and *learning* from you all.

Thank you.

Simon

 

Any sales forum would suit

 

Why are there so many follow-on posts ? Why not just make one showcasing all the watches ?

Nonetheless, they are nice.