I am hoping that someone can help identify a particular watch that unfortunately I have only one fuzzy photo of -
The only thing I am sure of is it had to be produced no later than 1970 since the owner died that same year.

- any assistance appreciated.....

- richard

 

Looks like a Rolex Air King 116900 to me.

 

This perhaps?

 

3 , 6 and 9 clearly visible... photo pre-1970... Rolex Explorer !

 

Yup. Much better candidate than an Air King. I do believe you nailed it.

 

Sounds reasonable to me........thanks for the input Speedy -

 

I thought it was a vintage explorer too but the shape of the logo at 12 doesn’t resemble a crown and the hour hand is a very broad arrow shape. Those two features threw me for a loop

 

I found the hands.

 

It happens to be on Jimi Hendrix in the photo who I am a life long fan of.......the hash marks also look strange and I was thinking maybe it had been a custom made (or painted) face for him. The hour hand looks almost heart shaped and the hash marks all look egg shaped to me.......it is different from anything I have seen.
Someone must know..........

 

I think it's a variance of this style diver, many brands have used this dial, but this was the only one i could think of right now:



Board arrow hand and large 12-6-9 markers and you image looks like there's a date window bubble at 3.

Edit: Date window version. Again - The brand text isn't the same - but many people seemed to share this layout.

 

That truly does resemble everything you mentioned......along with the "tombstone" shaped hash marks at the other positions as well - if only I could clear up the photo.

 

I always loved that scene in Blade Runner, where he had a photo and just kept telling the computer to "enhance" a section and it would enlarge it at full resolution. But that's sci-fi.

I tried walking away from the photo to see how it looked farther away. It does look like a number 9, but 12 and 6 didn't jump out at me as much. Not much help there.

For my guess, I was thinking something like a vintage Oris Diver 65, but it doesn't appear to have a diver bezel, so that's when I stumbled on this Certina DS. Hour hand isn't the same. Maybe this will spark someone's memory.

 

That's my Certina...

I'm assuming the watch in the OP is missing its bezel, or its worn down since some of the cheaper watches in this era used plastic bezels. But since you can see the light reflecting on a lip near the crystal, I'll bet it's gone.

I still say the broad arrow and just-barely-visible boarder around the 12 points towards a variation of the dial I posted.

 

Raymond Weil does his limited editions but I think the closest bet is the Sovreign type dial with 2 lines. I have never seen an article on Hendrixs' watch

 

Could this possibly be an Omega watch of 1970 or earlier?

-

 

Doesn’t it appear to have a thin, black, bezel with some sort of lume pip or marking at the 12? Notice the black ring that, especially at the top of the watch, contrasts against the top lugs. If it were without a bezel, this black ring wouldn’t be there, would it?

 

PS, here’s another period example of people wearing straps undersized for the lug width

 

looks like the tudor more in my opinion