Got a Longines Spot Chief after my grandfather but I don't know much about it. They think he got it some time in the 60s. Not even sure if it's gold or gold on stainless. Serial: 13159488 Any idea about a value and should I pay to have it cleaned and maybe change the lens. Don't think the bracelet is original, same goes for the crown. The bracelet is a fixo-flex and the crown has a K on it. Any information will be greatly appreciated.
Welcome, Not karat gold. It looks as though the case might be good shell over stainless steel, with a stainless steel back. This constitutes a case shaped hollow karat gold stamping applied over a steel case, and perhaps soldered on. If you will notice, the under side of the case lugs appear to be steel, and there appears to be a veneer of karat gold showing along the edges. While not a karat gold case, it is superior to gold anodized, gold filled, or rolled gold plate. And more esthetically appealing (?) than stainless steel, and vastly better than chrome. The movement is a genuine Longines (not a Swatch Longines) caliber 280 as seen in Dr. Roland Ranfft's movement archive, here. http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&Longines_280 The archive shows approximately a mid '60s vintage. Indeed a fine movement. The bracelet looks like a later Fixo-Flex model, and esthetically, doesn't add anything to the watch. Value? There may be many opinions on that. I am not certain the very plain, basic style of the watch would mean it would be a highly sought after collectible. It's greater value is the sentimental worth. Maybe check eBay archives to see what they have sold for. Worth servicing? To clean it up, replace the crystal, gasket, and perhaps a genuine Longines crown on it, dump the bracelet in favour of a quality strap. This all won't likely be cheap. But the watch conceivably would give you much pleasure, and reliable performance. Get a quote, and decide as to whether you want to do it.
Everything he said ^^^ It looks to be in good condition and with a new strap, crystal, crown and a service you'll have a very nice family memento.
If you have desire to keep it I would service it and enjoy it. You can look at this watch in three ways: 1) not particularly collectible, old, gold-filled case (all stainless or solid gold usually more collectible), rather plain looking, manual wind, or 2) a vintage watch with a nice movement designed and manufactured in-house by a great Swiss watchmaker (owned now of course by the Swatch Group, although they were totally independent when this watch was produced), or 3) a superfluous thing I don't need because I have a smartphone and who wears a watch anyways? The 280 movement was introduced in 1959 as a center-seconds only design as opposed to a modification of a more standard 17 jewel sub-seconds movement. The serial number on yours puts it around 1966. Even the more mainstream Longines movements such as this one still were very nicely made with a lot of workmanship going into them and great little touches like chatons (the little brass rings around the jewels in your pictures) to hold the jewels as opposed to just press-fitting them. It has a nice-sized balance wheel, incabloc shock absorber, and is anti-magnetic (all nicely stated on the caseback too!). It would cost me about $200-250 to do all the things to this watch that Canuck mentions above (and with which I agree). If you look at this watch from the standpoint of 1) or 3) above, probably not worth it. You have enough interest in this watch to find this blog and create a profile to place your first post, so you may be interested in watches in general and look at this more in line with 2), in which case it would be totally worthwhile to spend the money to bring this watch up to good running and aesthetic condition.