Watch hunting - win some, lose some (vintage Birks Eterna content)

Collecting vintage watches isn't always about landing a high-end "grail," it can also be about the fun of the hunt for something interesting and collectible. A few weeks back, I was scrolling through auction listings, and this caught my eye ...



Pretty exciting paperwork: JLC, Movado, Titus, Eterna, Citizen. So I zoomed in and ... crap, nothing. Oh wait, what's that at left? Looks like "Birks" (i.e. the Canadian Tiffany), and down below the pinion a barely visible "Eterna"! The lot was listed at the auction house that sold no watches, mostly furniture, so this was probably just part of an estate. Nothing in the listing about the watches at all. The Eterna looked good to me at first glance. I chatted with @Tony C. about it, and he also liked it (many thanks, Tony).

Fast forward a couple of weeks and I won the lot for not too much money. Waited for the shipment and ... darn, no documents. Just the watches thrown together in a ziplock. The Eterna was nice, however. Not a jumbo cal 852 as I had dreamed, but an appealing 35.5mm cal 520H circa 1946. All consistent, and as good as I could hope for from the photos, TBH, and even running nicely. Interesting early Eterna-H shock protection, and a pretty movement.



So I contacted the auction house about the missing papers, with no response. It was a bit of a saga, with many messages and voicemails and the customer support calls with Invaluable. But long story short, they eventually found the paperwork and shipped it! I waited patiently ... and voila ...



Haha, gotcha. Unfortunately, the Eterna papers (warranty and receipt) are for a ladies' Eterna. Actually, it looks like the owner had some nice watches, including a Memovox and some sort of Movado. He also cared for them well, since there was paperwork for later overhauls. Lots of interesting paperwork, from Italy, France, Switzerland, London, Israel, Japan, and La Jolla, California. Of course, none of those watches were in the lot. Just some junky wristwatches and the Elgin PW.

Oh, the Elgin. It's a size 18S, grade 287 from 1909. Seems to be a mid-grade watch, all there and in good cosmetic condition, but wound tight and not running. Maybe someone will want to fix it up. Let me know and I'd be happy to send it along.



[EDIT] The sharp-eyed may also notice a bank note in the original photo. Unfortunately it was for 10 Finnish markka, which would be worth about $2 USD. Unfortunately, it hasn't been legal tender since 2002.

That Eterna is stunning. I have a soft spot for these old field watches. That Elgin looks as if it would clean up nicely.

Nice score Dan, I have a soft spot for old Birks watches just because I'm Canadian.

Now how did a furniture auction house come on your radar, that's wild? And how do you find the time to do your day work, be active on multiple watch platforms and scour for watches, I assume you need some sleep!

I was browsing auctions using Invaluable using the search function for watches. LiveAuctioneers is the other site I sometimes use.

Sure, I will post some photos of that tonight.

To make this searchable: Citizen Seven Star instruction manual.


30mm chrome-plated ACRA. 🤪

Thanks so much Dan! I somehow missed noticing your post earlier.

Spectacular. Lemania?

I doubt that Birks made watches, more likely it is a private label watch made by a well known manufacturer, and it looks very much like a Lemania military chronograph. I don't have an RCAF Lemania chronograph to post, but this is my series 2 RAF Lemania. If you have a photo of the movement, that would answer the question.