Hello all, Was wondering if any of you knew a way to source a vintage chronomatic movement? This movement was made and used by several brands such as Heuer, breitlingr and Hamilton. I'm particularly after a Hamilton Calibre 14 but my understanding is these movements are pretty much identical. Any help would be appreciated! Picture of the exact movement In question off of the bay This link seems to indicate that many brands used this movement under different caliber names https://www.watch-wiki.net/index.php?title=Chronomatic
Is this what you are looking for? I don't have one, but your search might be aided by using a picture. http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&2&2uswk&Breitling_11 Image courtesy of Dr. Roland Ranfft's movement archive. You might be looking for a donor watch.
Edited to include a pic and more details. I've searched for donors. Nothing south of $1900 which whilst not necessarily out of the question is a bit much. Not to mention the thought of gutting a nice working watch to salvage another makes me cringe....
The cal. 12 was also produced by JRGK, and this version found its way into a lot of chronographs from the non-mainstream brands. I picked up a Stowa with this movement a couple of years ago. I would be surprised if you couldn't find a donor for less than 1.5K, but it might take some effort.
Been trying to find a stowa like yours but no luck, can you give me a few more details like a model name?
Not sure you'd call these "identical". The 11's and 12's could be swapped in their entirety, but I'm sure there are some parts that are different. The finishes are also different, with the 11's finished in silver and 12's in gold flash. 14's and 15's have different subdials and functions. So again, some parts will be different. Hope this helps, gatorcpa
Maybe you need to be careful then, as the JRGK versions are basically the cal. 12 and it sounds like there may be compatibility issues from gatorcpa's post. The Stowa one that I have seems to be the only known example from Stowa so you're unlikely to find another quickly. You'll just have to search for JRGK and see what turns up. They were certainly used by quite a few brands (Kelek, Buren, and so on). Here's a good link: https://thewatchbloke.co.uk/2016/05/24/thermidor-chronograph-calibre-12/ And here's one that was sold a year ago, asking price was 1100 euros. http://cda.chronomania.net/forum_entry.php?id=148591
I have seen cal. 12 versions from 5 major American brands alone (Hamilton, Bulova, Gruen, Elgin and Waltham). Of course, at that time, only Hamilton and Bulova were still American owned. For other look-alike examples, see post below. https://omegaforums.net/threads/lets-find-some-non-identical-twins.52369/#post-634036 gatorcpa