Post your BEST vintage find!

Good find there. I'd like to see the back and the inner back on that one. Was the crown cover on it, or was that added?

I have socks that have been in my sock drawer for 20 yrs but not much patina.

These are my two best finds. The 1960 Seamaster below came from ebay in about 2013 for £128. Had a nasty expanding bracelet which went straight into the bin, but the dial is perfect. Best picture I have of it.


This one was also on ebay, rather more at £438 in 2016 but it came with the BOR and is not far off mint. It was gaining rather a lot but after service is well within single figures.

What a great thread! 😀
Ive been collectiing vintage watches for some time and some of my best purchases have been through WTB-listings.
About a year ago a old lady called me and said she had 15 watches laying around and wanted to know if I was interested.
She told me it said Omega on a couple of dials, but the rest she couldnt read clearly. She sent me one terrible photo that was so unclear I couldnt see other than what looked like a couple of Connies.
The lady seemed nice and I took a huge gamble., so I wired her $1200. When the package came I was hoping it contained watches and not a brick.
I was pleasently suprised 😀
Other than the two Connies I got two Chronographe Suisse (38mm) in 18k gold, a couple of Omega Geneves from the 60s, three Omega Seamasters from the 60s, some Seikos, Tissots and Certinas. Everything was from good to great condition and all except one watch was in working order.
The best watch of the lot was this one:

The crown is the original type and was on it, although the chain was wrecked and had to be redone. There's a nice gouge on the back, who knows what did that damage. Soldered in tempered glass crystal is in perfect shape though, which is real nice because I don't know anybody who knows how to install them. The movement had an assortment of cracked jewels and bent pinions, my watchmaker friend was into it many times before all the bugs were worked out. Elgin made zillions of the 539 caliber though, so NOS parts were available for all the broken and bent stuff. Keeps perfect time now and the hack mechanism even works! I even found one of the original plastic straps for it, although its terrible to wear so I keep the watch on leather. I actually bought a 1959 USAF A17A Bulova to get the strap.... that watch turned out to be nice enough to get redone as well.

Sorry I've got no shots of the inner cover or movement. I'd love to find the proper wrench for one of these cases as well as another inner cover as the inner is missing from the Bulova (which looks like it would take the same inner as both are Star made cases.)

This is a Speedy 145.012-67 found last year on a Devon (UK) car boot sale for less than £20..I bought it off finder for £1500..
Now sold..

Another of my (very few and far between) incredible finds..IWC Mk.X found on a Devon (UK) antiques market for £30
Now sold.

I'd get up at 05:30 and walk around muddy fields for a year of Sundays to find that 👍

On the local craigslist. Think the whole country wanted it.

Allready 4 years ago by now..

This is the sort of thread that needs resurrecting... and I need to go to Devon boot sales!

Sometimes it seems that all I do is hunt and buy forgotten, vintage, watches. This was an auction buy just before Christmas. Case is flawless; the dial (I think) has the perfect patina; ran well before going to one of my elves for a complete movement service and new glass. Seeing as he had the temerity to take a holiday, I'm still waiting its return.... but shouldn't be long:

(2581-1 dating to 1948)

The story of this watch ended really nicely..It was purchased from me by a military officer stationed in Helmand Province who wanted to "re-acquire" a Mk.X...He wired me the money in complete trust and wanted me to send it to IWC in Switzerland for a complete overhaul..
This particular Mk.X also features in a list of found Mk.Xs on the IWX Mk.X forum that exists..

That one with orange hand and crown at 4 top right..Omega? Seiko? Looks v. interesting!

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bund issued to the German military.

W O W !!

the best ever? easy in my case. looking for a Heuer BUND Chronograph, i found on ebay germany a watch without any dial signature. arrow on the back. unwearable. very high thickness. 3 piece screwed together from a material, that looked like some aged metal. not corroded, but tarnished. looked like custom made. plenty of rubber seals between all layers. the seller sold for his neighbour. who was a German WW2 Kampfschwimmer/frogmann with an issued Panerai. which was taken from him by the British. but one of the british frogman sold him his watch. and that was the one for sale ...... Auction was Ebay Germany only. nobody else worldwide. was listed 70 minutes before. what followed was a long night of emails. the seller wanted to recover his money from 1945. and some.... no idea, what it was. i convinced the ebay listing neighbour, to go over to the old diver and ask , how much he wanted. me with a large whisky in Australia at midnight. In Germany 2 pm in the afternoon. 3 hours later with many emails exchanged and agreeing to a deal outside ebay for cash payment straight away, i demanded to take the watch out of the listing . and they did. then i transferred the money via bankwire in euros . by then i knew, what it was. and then came the tricky part; shipment via courier with that low value of euro 680. could not tell him after that ordeal to insure it for euro 15.000. and waited for a week to arrive..... all went well. here is a picture from the Longines Divers watch , hand made from massive Silver ; that was the tarnished colour..... ( steel was for the War Effort...) and the numbers are still unclear . maybe around 30-40 pieces. a few lost. low issue numbers. i know of 10 in collectors hands. the lugs are 24 mm to give you a perspective....... kind regards., achim

Of course it is this local find one 1300usd 😀 still cant forget the excitement and a sleepless night waiting for the delivery

I'll share my 14755-61 in beautiful conditions. This was a barn find in Florence last year.

I think at the moment this is my best vintage find.


I mean they aren't always that appealing nowadays (to me) 🥰