Nice family heirloom surprise today

Really nice surprise today.

My wife’s grandmother passed away at 94 in February. She was a lovely old school, no-nonsense lady. We really liked each others company and I used to visit her and we would have a wee dram, talk and look at old photos or stuff like that. We had our last dram of Ratzeputz (German bitter not for the fainthearted) about a week before she passed. My wife's grandfather passed about 20 years ago, I didn't get to know him that well but my wife and her grandfather were real close. He was a tinkerer and liked to (try to) fix things. My wife told me that he also had several watches during the years (just cheap ones) that he liked to play aroud with.

After grandmother passed we got some of her stuff home that my wife's mother didn't want among others some of grandfather's stuff that had been tucked away for years: some old military medals, his small collection of pipes and lighters etc. and there was also a watch caseback tool. So far so good... Today we opened another box and inside that was one of his watches 😃 YES!!!!

A no name swiss automatic, with a pretty worn chrome plated case, a cracked crystal and an old Fixoflex bracelet. The dial is pretty good underneath the crystal; some spots on the dial but the printing, lume and hands are top notch. It runs nicely when shaken and winds when turning the crown without any funny sounds, so should clean up nicely. Of course my wife claimed it but hopefully she will let me wear it occasionally 😀 So it will be off to the watchmaker for a much needed service and then worn. There was also a generic, flat link bracelet with a logo resembling a P but no end links.

I already have two watches from my grandfather, an old Omega and a Nivada, so it will join the club of passed down family watches.

I love it!

Didnt know you could that… hmmm 🧐

Thanks for the suggestions. I will have a talk with my watchmaker on Monday. He knows his stuff 😀

But from what I read some replating doesn’t last that long.

Good idea. Gold would probably work quite well with that dial. Wonder what that would cost.

I had a watch replated at Replateit.
Low cost, high quality.

That looks pretty damn good. Did they say anything about how long the replating will last? I read some where that the replated plating doesn’t last that long (but don’t know if that is general or it can vary)

No but I guess you could ask for a double layer. I’ve used mine for four years, not every day but my impression is that the nickel plating is sturdy.

Thanks. I might give it a shot 😀

You will notice faint scratches on the replated case. These were added by replateit on my request to make the case look a little worn and matching the age.