In my little watch collecting corner of the world, the summer doldrums are here. For an online watch hunter, these lazy hazy days are boring, stuck here as we are, between Watch Seasons. Every watch I look at seems to be either pristine and overpriced, or trashed and overpriced. And the same watches show up over and over again. And again. And again. Monotony. In times like these a favorite sport of mine is to pull on the proverbial hip waders and go dredging for bargains in the sewage of the ‘Bay. You know where I’m at. The solids that are floating in these waters always start at no reserve, are often marked ‘For parts or repair’ or ‘no returns,’ and never, ever have movement photos or well lit, close-up, focused pictures of anything...except the background. A case in point: One day this listing drifted by me, titled “tissot mens watch used.” The description was “Found at an estate sale,runs then stops,sell for parts,thank you.” The pictures met all of the requirements. Here is the nicely focused photo... ...and the high-altitude photos of the front and back... ... and the well-lit front photo: Now I suppose most collectors wouldn’t give this listing a second look - and to be honest, I didn't either, knee deep as I was in sewage. And yet: can you spot the interesting detail in the listing images? So, let’s take a closer look. Seasoned watch collectors recognize a steel case, so no worn-off chrome or ratty gold plating to worry about. Let’s check that dial by enhancing it in some photo editing software, and look for signs of dial deterioration or moisture damage. The dial looks pretty good to my eye, with all of the original lume intact on the numbers and hands: Now let’s look at that interesting detail: Military watch aficionados will know that KNIL stands for Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger, or the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army. The KNIL was the military force maintained by the Netherlands in the Dutch East Indies, now part of Indonesia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Netherlands_East_Indies_Army In military watch circles, KNIL markings are famous for being on double-marked WWW watches, such as these Longines: https://omegaforums.net/threads/new-project-www-longines.75601/ https://omegaforums.net/threads/let...-any-military-watches.3531/page-4#post-203509 I have only seen three other KNIL military watches from Tissot, which shows that uncommon does not have to be expensive, and that dredging for bargains can be fun
Fabulous!!! And congrats for spotting that.. those pics would have deterred the most diligent collector.
Gotta love the thrill of a good deal. Whenever Vitezi posts, Tissot share prices skyrocket. Just joking