They called me from a law firm in a town 100 km from where I live. I have no idea how they got my number, but they had heard that I could value old watches. They had a few they wanted to get rid of, because they were clearing out an estate. So there were all kind of stuff, but some watches too.

They described an Seamaster Automatic to me, so I could picture a cal 491 from the late 50ies. I gave them my honest opinion on how much I thought the watch should fetch on auction. Then they surprised me by asking "OK, what do you pay?" So, I said a figure 25% lower than my estimate. OK, they said, deposit that sum to our account and we´ll send you the watch. So I did. A few days later this one showed up:



An oversize bumper cal 342 with waffle dial from 1952 in really good condition!

Anyone else that has experienced an unexpected/ surprising acquisition?

 

I've had some unexpected/surprising calls from lawyers...

However, none were as pleasant as yours!

 

Nice pick up!

I've had two watch surprises.
The first was my then fiance's (now my wife) family gifting me my Speedmaster Professional as an engagement gift. Totally blew me away!

The second was my uncle gifting me a pocket watch. We were talking about watches and he pulled out a few items he had. His pocket watch was a Hampden Dueber which is a company that had it's production facility near where I grew up, but closed in 1935. He bought it from a shop near him sometime in the 80's and wore it on special occasions. It was a nice moment between the two of us. I left and saw him again later that day. I walked into his kitchen and there was a small box on the counter. He pointed to it and simply said, "take a look, that's yours." Inside was the watch.

Edit: Neither way was odd or unusual, but both were definitely a surprise.

 

2657?
Weird, I was just hunting one of these
2 hours ago

 

Correct, 2657-1

 

Nice one too... Very nice.

Mine is a -4, also cal.342... Much heavier patina. To me, it wears larger than its size with those long lugs.

 

Lovely story - it's karma! You help someone, and good things come your way ;-)

and DIBS!!

 

Nice pickup. Dam. can't they just randomly ring me for watches like this!

 

Me and my little brother were at my Grandparents house digging through some cigar boxes with some old lighters that they had kept over the years. I open one box and there are a hand full of watches.
I say .."HEY what's up with the watches?"... my Grandfather said there just old watches ....you need a watch?...take um..

My little bro yells "Dibbs" and snatches a 1680 grey bezle sub. And I got a seamaster 562. It's all good we trade off from time to time.

So all in all I went digging for an old lighter and found a Dunhill , rolex and an omega. Not bad a?

 

I'd been focussed on Omegas for some time (hence my parachute into this forum from WUSΩF) and wasn't really into anything else.

One day I saw a post by a member relating to a nice Wittnauer chrono on the 'bay. I did a quick check to make sure I wasn't cutting his grass and with his OK, put in a bid.

Without mentioning names, the enablers initials are Dennis K (ulackfocus) and Mike Kelly (RIP mate ) who graciously stepped aside.

The result was very pleasing and it started me on the disaster ridden road to financial penury chasing the elusive twin register stainless chrono.

 

That is a really remarkable chrono, Jim. They knew how to make watches in the 50ies, that's for sure!

 

It really was an unsuspected acquisition in the sense that I wasn't even interested in TRCs at the time.

And when I put the feelers out, both Dennis and Mike gave me the go ahead, probably to their detriment when the final result was seen.

To have that sort of support on a forum is almost unimaginable in this day and age, but fantastic to see here on Ωforums.

And you're right Ash, Mike was a lovely guy, and in time the forum will go ahead and forget him.

But as one of us that bantered with him and communicated with him felt a bit lost when he went.

I'm glad that I knew him (internet wise) and would have liked to meet him in person.

Such is life.

 

But you are still with us, Jim, for the joy of all of us, excellent writer as you are!

Keep it coming

 

Don't lament the immutable: we all die. I never had the opportunity to interact with Mike but just reading a few of his posts here and there gave me all the information I needed to know about him; he was a cool fcuking dude. One of the more consistently positive heads.

Life is for the living and I bet he lived a good life - he deserved it. I hope his family isn't suffering their loss too greatly…that's the toughest part.

 

A freind, who knew I was into railroad pocket watches, once gave me a bag of watches because he was cleaning out his place and didn't want to just toss them. A retired guy downsizing, he was moving from his house to an apartment and tossing all his excess stuff.

There was an early Seiko LCD quartz with a cracked screen...... ick!
A Bulova railroad grade quartz wristwatch..... better....
A Helvetia boys size wrist watch from the 50s.... kinda cool.... these were a lesser brand from the house of Omega
An 1884 Rockford RR grade pocket watch. his great grandfathers watch.... not working but very cool..... I'll get that running one day......

And a 1944 30T2 sc pc Techron, the "RCAF approved" watch.... running and in decent shape, it had been his Dad's watch..

Not being into wrist watches at the time, they all went in a deal for a Ball 999B railroad grade watch, I kept only the Rockford.

But before you cast me under the wheels of the locomotive..... I did later get the 30T2 back and its now well serviced and in regular use.

 

We need a picture of the 30t2 to be able to believe that story...

 

ask and yea shall receive....... the survivors of my freind's bag of trash.
The Bulova, which wasn't traded off because its worthless....
The 1884 Rockford, on my short list of "get it running" pieces...
And the 30T2... now a favorite in regular use. Yes, people do toss old Omegas!


On another note.... I actually got this Hasler tachometer out of the trash can in the production manager's office. It wasn't working so he'd bought a digital tach and had tossed it as useless. After going through the usual "material removal" paperwork I think it took me half an hour to fix.

Problem is I only get to use it about once a year.

 

That Techron is equally beautiful as rare! Congrats on such a terrific find!