Lecoultre Vintage, is Box and paper legit!

T TomAdam

This is a well-respected and strong point. Since major US manufacturers like Elgin National Watch Company are no longer in business, I thought we may see something akin to Longines Wittnauer. I think Hamilton, Weiss, and Timex for the lower end are the only ones left to scale in the US.

gatorcpa

I pretty much agree with what he had to say.

First, Hamilton is no longer a U.S. brand. Swatch purchased it in the 1980’s, and although they had assembly facilities in the U.S. Virgin Islands for a time, these have long since closed.

Timex is not US owned either. Their watches are not made in the U.S., but mostly in Asia (specifically China) and will be hammered by tariffs as discussed in the video.

Weiss and the other US based micro brands use combinations of imported parts and components and American assembly. While tariffs might increase their costs less than fully Swiss brands, that increase will likely be enough to make it very difficult to compete with larger companies that can afford to wait out the U.S. tariff policy until its ultimate end. So bye-bye to them.

Bottom line as I see it is that if the current tariff policies remain in effect for any length of time, it will destroy whatever tiny semblance of a U.S. made watch industry that exists today.

There was a thread started a few weeks back regarding potential economic effects of tariffs on industry in general, but a few people got a bit too personal in their comments and it had to be closed.

Let’s not go any further in this thread, lest it suffers the same fate.
gatorcpa

Davidt

So you bought it?

Unless I misread, you said you didn’t buy it?

Was it advertised as serviced? Not at all uncommon to find a vintage watch needs a service.

T TomAdam

Not this watch, I am sorry, it for the other post, my bad, other JLC

Davidt

So you bought it?

Unless I misread, you said you didn’t buy it?

Was it advertised as serviced? Not at all uncommon to find a vintage watch needs a service.

gatorcpa

Did you purchase the watch in your initial post in this thread? If so, it should not have a cal. 478 movement, that is a sweep seconds only.

It likely has cal 480, which was more common for US imports. Still should be about a 40 hour power reserve. I agree that the watch may need cleaning or a new mainspring or both.

My opinion is that you should return the watch if it not as advertised, spend more and get more for your money. As you were advised above, this looks like a money pit waiting to happen.
gatorcpa