Vintage Constellations. Show and tell

I bought this in 2002 off ebay from a shop in Melbourne (Watchco, I think). It is a 168.018 gold capped model (looks to be unpolished) originally purchased in Singapore 1968 (a duty free purchase no doubt). I had it serviced and it came back with the correct hands, band (cross hatched leather as in catalogue pictures) and crown. A couple of the hour markers dropped off during use (you can see one varnish flake at the 10 o'clock marker because of this), but all seems to be in a stable condition now. I do love it and wear it occasionally, but 35mm feels a little small now.

Nice! I've never seen a C-case connie with arrow hands, mine are all baton. Looks cool, original or not.

A black Constellation. Congratulations 👍

The jumbo has landed.....14777. 1962 with extract from archives....

First time I have got my 37mm connies together,
From the left is -
14395, 504 movement
14777, 561 this is currently my daily watch
14777, 561 new addition in nearly unworn condition
14777, 561 ribbon dial, not seen another SS example.

Today I want to let you guys share one of the totally stupid adventures i'm undergoing to perform from time to time. I picked a few days ago a black dialled constellation from chrono24. Don't say "oh no.. another redialled one with idiotic proud buyer to delude" unless you see the pics. Then of coarse you should do so 😀. I thought first to perform one of those famous grandfather heritage stories, but how to manage the "chrono24" icon off from the pics ??? Anyway. I saw that watch and my feeling is that it could be a real treasure. The multiple cracked glass prevents a clear view to the corsshair dial, but I have the impression its OK. Original crown but heavily polished bezel, no view to the engine (I know, I know..), original bracelet but with corrosion and partially wrongly mounted. It comes from a pawnshop in G ermany. Krefeld, a town of mostly poor workers and precare social situations. I still don't have the watch in my hands but here are the auction pics for your consideration. Don't worry to blame me of stupidity but at least you cant say that I don't deliver a funny summer story. Of coarse I will keep you updated as soon as I have it in my hands. Ah, to make it worst, I payed 1.150 Euros for it. Now the pics:

Enjoy your summer and have a good time. Keep you updated I promise.
Stefan

As promised I will finish the above story. The watch arrived to me and it appeared to be just as expected. In my endless naivity I thought I could give this crystal a quick polywatch treatment and then everything appears to be brandnew. A russian friend of mine said to me: "in Russia we say, if you want to give god a good laugh, telle him about your plans..". No further comments. That crystal didn't want to get rid of its deep scratches and it drove me mad in trying to fix this. Thanks to some kind guys who shared their successes and fails with saving scratched crystals on OF and using all kinds of stuff and being hours over it, the crystal became clear and unveiled a nice dial. Also the movement was quite nice. Now I will provide pics from the service at watchguy.uk where the watch has been finished right now. I'm curious for you comments. Can't post all pics, but if you want here is the shareable link:

https://watchguy.co.uk/cgi-bin/library?action=show_photos&wat_id=3997&tk_id=6090008


This is the dial just got out of the case.


The backside of the dial - it seems that there was someone really upset the day he had to plain those rivets....


The movement after service reassembled


The watch finished. I think I got some unmerited luck with that risky purchase. Many thanks to Johannes at watchguy.uk who takes care of my connies and tries his very best to get them back to life. And maybe some day I find the courage to show you my total fails....

Here’s mine.

167.005 with special 551 cal movement serial number.

Selling if anyone’s interested.

Always love little piepan on bracelet but strap can be nice for a change, especially original vintage Omega strap 😜

This thread deserves a bump. Let's see what people got out there!

(My previously posted 2852.)

Here's my 2852

A couple of thousand off yours, but still within the 20,000, also 18k.

I am so glad i found this thread. So many beautiful watches to compare. This will surely help me decide on my first connie.

Been obssesed with Connie lately 😁😁