So I bought this watch off eBay a couple of months ago, it was £320, so not a huge amount. I bought it for the dial, which looked okay, and the solid gold case.

When I received it, it came with a note: 'thank you for buying my watch. It belonged to my stepfather and purchased in Adelaide. He passed away in 2004 after moving to the UK from Australia with my mother.'

With the watch came some papers


This was odd, especially as it says the purchase date was 69' and when opening the watch, it had an incorrect serial. However, it was 9crt gold, the name matches, and the jewellers was (and still is) in Adelaide. I asked the son about this, and he said this watch was the only watch which his father owned.

So I suppose my first question is, what is the deal with these papers?

Secondly, as to the watch, here are some photos.




What immediately jumped out to me when I received the watch was that the hands were incorrect. However, after a little research, I found a couple of cal 283s with these leaf hands, and blued seconds hands. My next question is therefore are these hands original?

Also, clearly the crown is incorrect (which isn't a huge deal), and also the lugs appear to have been converted into fixed springbars. Is this easy to rectify?

Any other thaughts/musings would be appreciated!

Lucas.

 

That's a nice dress watch with a 30mm movement from the 50s. The dial looks original, and the hands are not the most frequent type but they (I think) can be period-correct. A pic of the inside of the caseback would get us the model number. That case is known as a "spider" lugs. It is a lovely watch, but obviously does not match the papers.

 

Hi,

Incorrect crown indeed. The leaf hans are correct with this kind of dial - what color are they, I am not sure on the pics?

We need to see the "fixed springbars" to help. Maybe you watch has the kind of lugs that require "female" springbars [edit: I did not notice the pic showing the attachement of the bars, so not female sringbars type].

 

Apologies, I seem to have missed the caseback. Here is the photo. As you can see, no model number (at least, I don't think 96109 is a model number). Clearly it does not match the papers and if I got this from anyone appart from the original owner I would immediately dismiss them, just thought it was really odd that the original owners would supply me with the incorrect papers.

The hands are of a silver colour. That reassures me that the leaf hands are correct. What do you recommend about the spring bars, currently I cannot change the strap, is it possible to drill them out? Also would you happen to know what the correct crown would be?

Thank you both ever so much for your help, it seems whenever I post on here you two often reply. It is much appreciated.

Lucas.

 

If you cannot take the bars off, they may be fixed to the lugs - although usually when it is the case you cannot see the point where the bar is fixed to the lug as in one of you pic. That would imply that the band has been put on the bar and then glued.

If you do not care if the band, you can cut it off and then show us a pic if the bar.

 

I don't care at all for the band! So I cut it off. Interestingly, it seems the bars are gold too. Perhaps it was originally a fixed bar model? Apologies for the photos, no daylight here in the UK at the moment.

 

Definitely fixed bars. It seems they were fixed on a case with holes for regular spring bars, maybe after the case was made. But if they are indeed in solid gold, I think it is unlikely someone did this job afterwards!

 

Thank you very much for your analysis, I agree with you. It would be very odd for someone to add solid gold bars to a watch like this. I suppose the next question is where to buy a fixed lug strap? Do you have any suggestions?

 

I buy mines buy on eBay - several choices depending on prices and your taste. Other ways are possible of course.

 

Thank you very much! I shall order one now!

Thanks again for your help,

Lucas.

 

Here is one of mine. Same hands with original crown and removable spring bars.
Different ref but same era.