Watch collecting journey with a Portuguese twist

Hello OF members,

First of all, sorry for the long post, but I wanted to share my watch collecting journey with fellow enthusiasts rather than people who wouldn't really care. 🙂

I've been collecting watches for around three years. I started with modern, affordable pieces (Timex, Yema, etc.), but before long I found myself reading more and more about vintage watches and their history. That led me to buying my first vintage watch: an automatic Omega Seamaster ref. 2577 from 1951.

As a first vintage purchase, it wasn't perfect. Although it was fully original, it had been heavily polished, the dial had some uneven scratches, the hour hand was incorrect, and one index was missing. Despite all that, I fell in love with it. I sourced the correct parts, replaced what I could, and restored it as best as possible. I enjoyed it so much that I sold my entire modern collection and decided to focus exclusively on vintage watches.

After three years of reading, learning, buying, and selling, my collection now consists of:


Omega Constellation ref. 2852
Universal Genève Polerouter ref. 204503
Longines Conquest Calendar ref. 9004

Alongside those, I also keep a modern Seiko chronograph for daily wear and a Baltic MR01 as a dressier modern option.

If you're wondering what happened to the Seamaster—yes, I eventually sold it. As I learned more about vintage watches, I couldn't ignore the heavy polishing and the slightly damaged dial. It was a difficult decision, but it felt like the right one.

Now for the second part.

I think part of every collector's journey is trying to uncover family connections—searching for watches that belonged to a father, grandfather, or another relative. So I started asking everyone in my family if they had any old watches tucked away. Although I come from a modest family, I was lucky enough to find two special pieces. They not only have a family connection but also a strong link to my home country, Portugal. (I've been living in Luxembourg for the past 20 years.)

The watches are:

Cauny Royal 2000 (Cauny has a huge following in Portugal—at one time, almost every Portuguese family seemed to own one.)
Hertig (a rebranded Certina sold in Portugal).

Now for the twist:

Part of watch collecting is also hunting for bargains. While browsing one of Portugal's classified ads websites, I came across a listing for an Aquastar Genève 1701 with very poor photos, but something about it caught my attention.

I contacted the seller, who turned out to be an elderly lady. She didn't say much, only that the watch had belonged to a family member who had been a diver in the Portuguese special forces. I paid by bank transfer—she had never even heard of PayPal, She then shipped the watch to my aunt in Portugal.

This week I went there to pick it up, and I was amazed by its condition.

Before collecting it, I started reading about Aquastar and discovered that, apparently, some Aquastar 1701s were issued to Portuguese special forces during the Portuguese Colonial War. That made me wonder whether this could be one of those watches.

I didn't want to keep asking the seller for more information, as she gave very brief replies and didn't seem interested in writing much. Nevertheless i let you enjoy some pictures 😀

Pics

Thank you very much for your word Tony 😀

It makes sense the possibility of a special engraving i will look into this further to try to find out more. For the moment i am enjoying the watch a lot.

portuguese (import?) stamp / hallmark on my IWC cal 83

I sure will Ron_W, thanks 🙏🏼

Love that!!

Thanks 🙏🏼 it is good to know from other collectors that you are heading in a good direction.