What’s this watch? Navis....

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Norfolk

·Mar 18, 2019

Picked this up at the weekend in a vintage shop in Tarrytown for the princely sum of twenty bucks. The more I look at it the more charm it has. Blued hands. Red second hand. 17 jewel Swiss manual wind. Screw back case. Antimagnetic. But what is it?!! I can’t find anything online about it. The movement and caseback have a name scratched in. Anyone seen one before and can give me some more information. Would love to know.

 

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Dan S

·Mar 18, 2019

ETA 1080 family, no shock protection that I can see: http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&2&2uswk&ETA_1080

According to mikrolisk, NAVIS was a 1944 trademark of "Friedl Freres SA" in Reconvilier, Switzerland.

 

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Norfolk

·Mar 18, 2019

Thanks. It is a bit of an oddity.

 

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Dan S

·Mar 18, 2019

Norfolk

Thanks. It is a bit of an oddity.

I don't know. We tend to pay attention to the famous brands, but there are millions of old watches out there from obscure makers. They are often found by the dozen in zip-lock bags at thrift stores ... on expansion bracelets. 😉

 

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Vitezi

·Mar 18, 2019

Norfolk

Thanks. It is a bit of an oddity.

Obscure vintage watches are cool! 😎

 

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nttisch23

·Mar 18, 2019

What a great piece! There are so many vintage pieces that are hard to find info about, which makes it fun for people like us 👍

 

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Canuck

·Mar 18, 2019

Eta 1080 picture from Ranfft. Minor cosmetic differences, but that’s it.

 

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Jantar

·Mar 18, 2019

Reminds me of an Immerfort I have.

 

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pweingarten

·Mar 18, 2019

Agreed...I'm amazed by how many watchmakers there were...and aren't anymore. That's one of the great things about collecting. You never know what's around the corner in that big ziploc bag!

 

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redpcar

·Mar 18, 2019

There were many distributors back then selling Swiss watch kits with "Your Name Here" on the dial.