New guy from Toronto looking for vintage watch

amcclell

In answer to your question, the hands and dial look quite nice but but the photo is terrible resolution, so you would need better pics to confirm it is original. As stated above, the case is a mess and I suspect that in person, it will look even worse as any brass showing through after the severe wear and polishing will stand out like a sore thumb. The yellow gold, mismatched crown stands out, as does the rough bezel.

You are into the era of newer ETA Tudor movements and there are parts available for these, as everyone and their brother used them back in the day. Do a Google search of ETA 2472 and you will find page upon page of links to information. There are lots of old stock parts around as well as scads of old donor watch movements. The major brands engraved their names on the rotor, so the original would have had Tudor on the rotor. The Solar branded rotor indicates that a worn rotor was robbed from a Solar watch to fix this one, or just as probable, the entire movement from the Solar was transferred to this Tudor.

You have a bit of a dilemma with your search, as some of your objectives will be in opposition. You like autowind and dial designs of the 1950's which creates parts availability challenges. Autowind was not nearly as common then, but manual wind movements were the norm and they were very robust. If you look at Omega, and Longines there are plenty still around. By the 1960's when the autowinds took hold, most watches had simple designs with no numbers on the face. The early 60's to mid 70's were a golden era in Swiss watch making and these movements are very serviceable by independant watch makers today. If I was going to buy only one watch for everyday use, for the 1940's and 50's, it would be a manual wind and most likely a sub-second movement to give me the best longevity and serviceability. For the 1960's and 1970's, autowind with centre seconds is great. If I was going to wear it to work, where it was subjected to abuse, it would be stainless steel and a glass or sapphire crystal. That takes me from the 1970's through to the 90's but I used to be a mechanic and the crystal takes a real beating. On older watches, everything that touches acrylic leaves a mark, so the crystal will need regular polishing or replacement if the abuse is severe.

In the end, it is up to you and how long you want it to last.

amcclell

Glad to hear you are getting the hang of it. I don’t know a lot about the 2472 movement but it is possible that Tudor modified it to offer a non-date version. The later 2824 and 2892 are by far the most common. Kind of the small block Chevy of the watch making world. Here is a couple of links to threads that make reference to non-date versions.

https://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg&th=1960089&rid=0

https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=123734

If your are looking up general info on movements, Ranfft is a good go to site. You may have found it already.

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&0&2uswk&ETA_2472

dmcleod

Signed up there too. Thanks!

watchyouwant

You should start to look beyond chrono24. This is a bigger ladies size. They wear very small....you will have no joy with that movement. No parts. But if Tudor is of interest, don't ask the vintage omega forum. Join the vintage Tudor Forum. And the certina, eterna, Longines and whatever Fora come up in your dial configuration search. These guys know technical things beyond your desired dial configuration. Good luck.

Dan S

Given that it's gold-filled and 34mm, it had better be negotiable. By a lot.