I picked up the below Conquest off ebay for $315 (best offer). Besides that hideous crown and the need for a service (losing 1.5min/day), it looks good to me. Dial looks better in person. Fish in Kelp logo is generally intact. I emailed Longines for history and they dated it to 1960, invoiced to Venezuela (seller was in Colombia).

Here's the ebay listingPurchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network. A few listing photos and my own photos are below.

Here are my questions..
1) Am I correct to assume this should have the elusive scalloped crown? I believe I read here somewhere that pre ~1961 it should, and while they weren't entirely clear, the Longines historian seemed to think that's the right one as well.
2) Do you believe it's been polished? The edges seem pretty sharp to me but I find I am not as good at judging this as many of you..
3) Anything look amiss? How'd I do? Full honesty very much appreciated.

As always, thanks in advance for the wisdom. I've been reading the forum increasingly often lately so I'm hoping I'll be a sage of my own soon..

Seller photos:




My photos..

 

Everything looks honest and OK to me, nice catch! I would vote for unpolished - these gold capped examples lose definition easily and the facets on yours looks still sharp. Hard to say whether this would have had the scalloped crown originally though.

 

To me it looks like a nice pick up now lets call our Longines expert @ulackfocus

 

I'd also vote for not polished. Everything looks good there, the dial is nice and clean. The movement is a little dirty but nothing a decent watchmaker can't fix. Just don't go sending it to Longines for a service.

A scalloped crown is correct for the following references:
9020, 9021, 9023, 9024, 9025, 9026, 9027, 9028, 9032

Yours, being a 9022, should have one that looks like these:

 

Looks lke an honest watch with a little patina. The crown is a generic replacement which TropicConnie has pointed out, but that's about all I see wrong.

 

Congrats for this purchase also from my side. Railtrack Conquests are not easy to find and your example is honest and also nicely aged imho.
I would also vouch for unpolished with these lugs and the super sharp bezel.
During a service they could also try to carefully clean the dial with bergeon rodico. I remember a similar Conquest I used to own where this treatment removed most of the blemishes without doing any damage to the dial. This and a new crystal and I will call first DIBS, but I doubt you will ever let it go afterwards...

 

Very nice, congrats @seekingseaquest

 

That strap pairs well with that watch

 

Thanks all for the comments!

@yako54 I think I'll leave the dial as-is.. it's not ideal but I'm happy with it and wouldn't want to risk anything happening

@TropicConnie I saw that in the this thread. However, I've seen many examples of 9022 Conquests with the scalloped crown, including the two photos below that were provided by the Longines historian when I asked about the correct crown. Unfortunately this is all they could provide..

Anyone else have insight into which crown is likely to be original?

 

The rail track ref. 902x should always have the scalloped crown imho.

 

Grats !

She’s a beauty!

 

Thoughts on the best scalloped crown substitute for the above?

..assuming no one has one laying around..

 

I'm not sure that watch should have a scalloped crown. The scalloped crowns only came with 29x series calibers in very late 1960 through very early 1962 for date-at-12 291, 1960 through early 1962 for non-date 290, and 1959-ish through 1962-ish for date-at-12 + power reserve 294 - and that was only on certain references. Your watch, despite having a serial number dating it to mid 1961, might very well have come with a serrated crown which would be easy to find.

However, if it's a scalloped crown you desire, @Pahawi might have a few extra from when he made them. He used an existing original specimen to manufacture virtually exact copies. I don't know if he offered gold plated versions, but you could always have it plated to match.

 

It was invoiced in December 1960 so my guess is the scalloped crown should be correct. Will message @Pahawi but if that doesn't work out, what's the best way of tracking down the correct post-1962 crown?

 

They do pop up for sale. Gotta be on the lookout

 

PRE-1962.

The best way is to set up a search on eBay and run it every 2 or 3 days.

 

By post-1962 I meant the serrated crown, not the scalloped crown. I'll keep looking for a scalloped crown but may get a serrated one for in the meantime.

Is one of these the serrated crown I should be looking for?

 

@Andsan - are you still around? Got a pic of a Longines serrated crown for him?

 

Hi Ulackfocus. Here are pictures of my crowns that should be original @seekinseaquest

 

Yes, with great help from you Dennis, I did a couple of them. I made them in brass and another member gold plated it. Here's the story:

https://omegaforums.net/threads/homemade-conquest-crown-%E2%80%93-will-it-work.14878/

Maybe @yako54 can add some information on his nickel plated version....