This isn’t the right thread for such questions, for reasons of clarity it’s not meant for inquiries, see it’s title. You’ll find quite a few comments on that topic using the forum search (and could, of course, always open a new thread to discuss), but bottom line is roughly:
With a combination of a healthy budget and most of all knowledge/experience.
It was a face to face transaction for a watch that had been at least 30 years in a drawer. Interestingly the seller was Vietnamese and said it had been his father's watch bought in Vietnam end 60's/early 70's and brought to NL when they had fled their country.
So I'd checked that the watch was winding, setting, etc as we had coffee in his apartment, paid and left. I went to my car and was setting the time and whilst doing that I took my eye off the dial as I cycled through the hours. I looked down and you now see the result, the minute hand somehow caught the 11 o'clock marker and got stuck there
Oh man I had a shock alright as it had had a half full wind and I was very concerned that it was going to free itself and scrape circuits of the dial, it was only when the seconds hand also got stuck on the mangled minutes hand that I could breath again....bit of a downer though.
It's still in at my WM....I've not managed to track any hands down yet
Very frustrating, but as you say could have been much worse if the dial was damaged.
It was a face to face transaction for a watch that had been at least 30 years in a drawer. Interestingly the seller was Vietnamese and said it had been his father's watch bought in Vietnam end 60's/early 70's and brought to NL when they had fled their country.
So I'd checked that the watch was winding, setting, etc as we had coffee in his apartment, paid and left. I went to my car and was setting the time and whilst doing that I took my eye off the dial as I cycled through the hours. I looked down and you now see the result, the minute hand somehow caught the 11 o'clock marker and got stuck there
Oh man I had a shock alright as it had had a half full wind and I was very concerned that it was going to free itself and scrape circuits of the dial, it was only when the seconds hand also got stuck on the mangled minutes hand that I could breath again....bit of a downer though.
It's still in at my WM....I've not managed to track any hands down yet
We have lots of threads from members asking opinions on watches listed on ebay. How about we turn things around - let's talk about watches on ebay that are worth purchasing. My disclaimer is that I am not affiliated with any of the sellers whose watches I post here and cannot make any guarantees except to say the watch in the listing looks good to me.
Here is one - a nice looking vintage seamaster:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/261094371580?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
And a nice looking vintage piepan constellation - I would like better pictures but the ones up in the listing suggest a decent watch. What makes this uncommon is that the markers are silver and not yellow gold. Seller accepts returns so you have some level of security.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/280963906279?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
Nice little gold plate Geneve Cal 613 with a clean dial, hands and case but some poor photos.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/165122867435?hash=item26721700eb:g:NwgAAOSwaxFhZJvM&LH_Auction=1
Seamaster 166.064 Calibre 752 Day-Date in nice shape going no reserve
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124947991561?hash=item1d177b0c09:g:i0wAAOSwqTBhZKfS&LH_Auction=1
