- Posts
- 106
- Likes
- 278
Frenchdude87
·I’ve never started a thread on this forum (or on any forum for what I know) but I just wanted to share with you my recent feeling about what I consider my first milestone as a (vintage) watch collector as I found what I’d like to call my first "junior grail"
I’ve been in the "watch game" (lol) for about three years. My wife offered a watch for our wedding and my obsession immediately started as I wanted to learn more about pretty much everything. I ended up - I’ll skip the details - focusing my taste on vintage watches, and by a funny but interesting path speficicaly on one brand : vintage Certina (60s/70s which seems the best vintage years for about any brand ^^). After lots of browsing on that brand and its history, its models, some very small first purchases, I later on learned that my fondness was going towards 2 specific -and"classic" - models of the brand (that also had the opportunity of being "rather" affordable) : the "one that started it all" aka the original Certina "double securité" DS (1959-1968), and the funky DS 2 (1968-1976)
The first one is to me the quintessence of the classic regular daily beater / classy / sporty watch. But so well executed on the design, reliable, tough, perfectly proportioned and to die for on it’s original gay freres bracelet it has NOTHING to envy to its (slightly) older cousin the Rolex explorer.
The second one represents to me the "funky craziness" of the 70’s. Funky, bulky, colorful. So many dial colors (and so many amazing ones) you couldn’t count them. Proportions and shape (tonneau) that I thought were never gonna fit my 18.5cm wrist…how wrong was I.
About the DS , I quickly spend a lot of time learning stuff, browsing forum after forum, making my first (and sometimes painful) purchases, my first mistakes, my first likes and dislikes. Quickly learned how to spot a good and original specimen.
I especially learned - as every vintage collector must have - that the best thrill you can get is the one of the hunt, of the auctions, of the key learnings, of distinguishing if this watch you see on this very bad and blurry picture of is in good or bad condition… "So……is it the crystal or the dial that’s messed up ?"
After a few first purchases and hours of browsing, I found what I really wanted, my first "junior grail" watch : a very simple no date black dial manual DS with dauphine hands.
Why that config ? It represent everything I (for now) love about watches : a simple daily beater, no date (let’s admit that the date function without quickset is kinda annoying…) and a black dial that I just find so classy and sporty at the same time.
Simple configuration, but not so simple to find (even harder in an "OK condition"). I quickly learned that for sure.
I’ve hunt quite a lot of regular DS, and tbh I think less than 5% (and I’m being conservative) of DS on the grey market have this black dial. I guess it’s as rare as the very nice pie pan dial of the early DS days (do you certina fans agree with me ? ). I guess back in the days, black was not that popular…
Also this black dial only seems to exist on the manual version of the DS, which is something I also tend to like : rewinding your watch every morning is a lovely feeling and routine !
I’ve found my first manual black dial DS about 10/12 month ago : a date version, with a very oxidized dial. I liked it, but after wearing it a few days I realized my hunt was far from over. This one was not the one (by essence it couldn’t be : it has date - thank you for those who followed the whole story)
Believe it or not I found THE specimen I was looking for on a French website a few month ago (that’s were I’m from), at a VERY reasonable price (85€) though the watch was not running. For the condition and having it in my own hands, It was even better than I imagined, especially due to the crazy golden patina of the hands matching the golden indexes, contrasting amazingly with the back of the dial.
When it came back from the watchmaker and I paired it with a GF bracelet I had, it was love at first sight. I’m not gonna describe it more as picture are far more valuable than my lightly experienced words.
I’ve been wearing it for 3 weeks straight now, I and honestly think it’s the first time I’ve had such pleasure wearing a watch. As I said, it’s beautiful, simple, classy, sporty. Period. The three colors - steel, black and gold - go so well together. It has nothing to envy to a vintage explorer in my opinion !
It’s not much but I wanted - for the first time - to share my passion for a particular watch, the thrill of said hunt, and the pleasure of wearing it.
My hunger for watches - and Certina in particular - is "certina-ly" not over, but I tend to see that very purchase as my first real milestone in my collecting journey.
Next on the list : a good condition "dark green fumé" dial DS 2 that I can pair with a 6300 original jubilee bracelet. I already have amazing blue fumé and red fumé Dial ones ; that one will sublime the collection, green being my favorite color.
Hope you enjoyed.
AC
I’ve been in the "watch game" (lol) for about three years. My wife offered a watch for our wedding and my obsession immediately started as I wanted to learn more about pretty much everything. I ended up - I’ll skip the details - focusing my taste on vintage watches, and by a funny but interesting path speficicaly on one brand : vintage Certina (60s/70s which seems the best vintage years for about any brand ^^). After lots of browsing on that brand and its history, its models, some very small first purchases, I later on learned that my fondness was going towards 2 specific -and"classic" - models of the brand (that also had the opportunity of being "rather" affordable) : the "one that started it all" aka the original Certina "double securité" DS (1959-1968), and the funky DS 2 (1968-1976)
The first one is to me the quintessence of the classic regular daily beater / classy / sporty watch. But so well executed on the design, reliable, tough, perfectly proportioned and to die for on it’s original gay freres bracelet it has NOTHING to envy to its (slightly) older cousin the Rolex explorer.
The second one represents to me the "funky craziness" of the 70’s. Funky, bulky, colorful. So many dial colors (and so many amazing ones) you couldn’t count them. Proportions and shape (tonneau) that I thought were never gonna fit my 18.5cm wrist…how wrong was I.
About the DS , I quickly spend a lot of time learning stuff, browsing forum after forum, making my first (and sometimes painful) purchases, my first mistakes, my first likes and dislikes. Quickly learned how to spot a good and original specimen.
I especially learned - as every vintage collector must have - that the best thrill you can get is the one of the hunt, of the auctions, of the key learnings, of distinguishing if this watch you see on this very bad and blurry picture of is in good or bad condition… "So……is it the crystal or the dial that’s messed up ?"
After a few first purchases and hours of browsing, I found what I really wanted, my first "junior grail" watch : a very simple no date black dial manual DS with dauphine hands.
Why that config ? It represent everything I (for now) love about watches : a simple daily beater, no date (let’s admit that the date function without quickset is kinda annoying…) and a black dial that I just find so classy and sporty at the same time.
Simple configuration, but not so simple to find (even harder in an "OK condition"). I quickly learned that for sure.
I’ve hunt quite a lot of regular DS, and tbh I think less than 5% (and I’m being conservative) of DS on the grey market have this black dial. I guess it’s as rare as the very nice pie pan dial of the early DS days (do you certina fans agree with me ? ). I guess back in the days, black was not that popular…
Also this black dial only seems to exist on the manual version of the DS, which is something I also tend to like : rewinding your watch every morning is a lovely feeling and routine !
I’ve found my first manual black dial DS about 10/12 month ago : a date version, with a very oxidized dial. I liked it, but after wearing it a few days I realized my hunt was far from over. This one was not the one (by essence it couldn’t be : it has date - thank you for those who followed the whole story)
Believe it or not I found THE specimen I was looking for on a French website a few month ago (that’s were I’m from), at a VERY reasonable price (85€) though the watch was not running. For the condition and having it in my own hands, It was even better than I imagined, especially due to the crazy golden patina of the hands matching the golden indexes, contrasting amazingly with the back of the dial.
When it came back from the watchmaker and I paired it with a GF bracelet I had, it was love at first sight. I’m not gonna describe it more as picture are far more valuable than my lightly experienced words.
I’ve been wearing it for 3 weeks straight now, I and honestly think it’s the first time I’ve had such pleasure wearing a watch. As I said, it’s beautiful, simple, classy, sporty. Period. The three colors - steel, black and gold - go so well together. It has nothing to envy to a vintage explorer in my opinion !
It’s not much but I wanted - for the first time - to share my passion for a particular watch, the thrill of said hunt, and the pleasure of wearing it.
My hunger for watches - and Certina in particular - is "certina-ly" not over, but I tend to see that very purchase as my first real milestone in my collecting journey.
Next on the list : a good condition "dark green fumé" dial DS 2 that I can pair with a 6300 original jubilee bracelet. I already have amazing blue fumé and red fumé Dial ones ; that one will sublime the collection, green being my favorite color.
Hope you enjoyed.
AC
