Watch found in drawer! Clarté

The information from the mikrolisk database is attached. Please show photos of the inside and movement to get the most information from the forum.

I love these sort of watches.

Often they have an A Schild movement in them. Which are quite underrated. Others use eta (which is no part of the swatch group.) or other euboshe makers like FF (Fontmailon.)

The name on the dial makes all the difference with names like Enicar or Wakmann, Delbana etc being desirable, and those with complications like chronographs. Most of these as you have seen are retailer names to be sold in the corner jewelry shop. Often they have a Hong Kong case with a Swiss movement. Prior to WWII Switzerland was a low wage country were other countries (especially in the 1880s dumped their undesirable members of society.) There were hundreds of such manufactures, which went through consolidation in the 1920s and 1930s. Then a complete rebranding in the late 1990s early 2000s to recover from the collapse in the 1970/1980s.

Sadly such watches these days are cheaper by the dozen, as it take time to sort them. Such watches were 35 to sixty bucks new. Which was a lot of money in the post war 1940/1950s. I think this era was the peak of the vintage watch era. That such fine precise work could be done in the millions is amazing. That they still sell in the 35 to 65 range is a testament to an item holding perceived value. Now if only I could get the same in a 5 or 10 cent candy bar.

The downside is it cost the same to service a 35 dollar watch as it does a 1300 dollar watch or even a 5K to 10K watch. Since the focus is on the latter, a lot of people get sticker shock when they see the price of service.

My friend and mentor speculated such watches if taken care of could last 500 or so years on average. These watches were intended to be passed down the line. (but the way things were manufactured changed that.) The quartz crisis was just the symptom. What really changed things was Timex and the propped up French German and Japanese economies, what require buying the same thing every year (or three.)

Enjoy your watch.

This particular case is chrome-plated, so if the OP plans to wear it regularly, he should be careful to avoid excess wear and tear.

I forgot I actually bought this on impulse. I wanted the dial and handset.

more grist for the mill.

As a general rule, "Stainless Steel Back" means that only the caseback is stainless steel with the mid case being base metal (brass) with chrome plate finish.