I’ve once again returned to plumbing the depths of eBay in search of brass buried in all that muck, and last week found what looked to be a very out of focus 168.017 constellation perched on top of a rather natty piece of wicker work: Sadly the wicker basket didn’t come with it, but what showed up was this: It’s filthy and it doesn’t run for very long. It’s also quite scratched on the case top and bezel, so I’ll be having a little light case work done at the same time as the service. Overall really pleased with it at the price paid... which thankfully leaves funds in place for servicing! Oh, and linen dial... WOOF!
Nice pickup! Wait until you fit a new hesalite to it, those linen dials are something special . Cheers, Max
Great pick up Loving the dial. As I also love the obscure pics on Ebay. Helped me greatly once with a vintage Heuer. BUT.....Do we know if the wicker is still for sale? Need to redesign the office on a limited budget
Sweet dial. That should clean up nicely. For some reason that cushion case doesn't call out to me. You can bet that when the prices go up, I'll start to feel the need.
I’m half tempted to not have the case refinished, but half in the camp of “this is not a tool watch, that white gold bezel shouldn’t be covered in scratches, and there really shouldn’t be scratches through the radial case finish”.
Not bad, not bad at all. They often tend to have pretty nice condition dials and movements too as the water resistance was finally fairly good in this era and you can actually wear them without worrying every time you wash your hands after they've been sealed up properly.
Wear the hell out of it in the first instance without fear of adding more scratches.....then decide what to do. It's rather liberating
It needs a service (runs 5 minutes and stops, and I can't get the spring bars off they're rotted in place)... so it's either refinish now, or never.
Cheers Ash. The dial appears to be pretty good, I think there's a little bit of gunk next to the date window, which I'm hoping will lift off. There's so much gunge on the case back that I'm not even going to try opening it up... spring bards are melded in place with verdigris and human tissue samples.
The C case is also on my wish list for this year (dark grey dial) if I can find one. I keep reading conflicting views regarding the 14k white gold bezels. Do you know for sure the bezel on your watch is solid gold? If so is the knurled bezel also solid gold or some other material? I am not too fussed which one I get but the gold bezel would be a bonus I suppose.
As far as in understand from @mondodec excellent guide, they all have gold bezels. And I used to have a grey dial/knurled bezel version... which I kinda regretted selling and have been looking at other c-cased Connies ever since!
I've said before that when it comes to a dress watch, it should be perfect. Tool watches are improved by scratches. Frankly, I wouldn't buy a scratched dress watch if I had the option of buying a good one. That said, the basics of this all look good and you say the price was right. So, give it to STS (I'm sure that's who you had in mind anyway) and let them work their magic. You might lose a little metal but they'll keep the right shape and few people would ever be able to tell the difference.
