Another good guess for South American provenance, but nope
🤦
Thank you, Gavin - It is not Cartier
Excellent, Jim. Second win in as many "Wot's in the box" competitions. Keep this up and I will have to come up with a prize.
The watch is a red gold Cyma.
Valjoux 22 inside
Caseback shows it to be a Swiss gold case - a key thing when buying from South America
The case number is 8 for 18K gold, 958 is Cyma's internal code for the Valjoux 22, and 05 is this case style.
And this watch is all about the case. It's big, beefy, bold case with a very thick bezel.
The lugs are fascinating. Multiple facets create a diamond-cut appearance.
You can imagine how easy it is to destroy these with a sloppy polish. Let's savor them a bit
One almost never finds this case in any kind of decent shape.
The seller's ask on this was quite high as a result, and I stared at it for a very long time. But she proved quite receptive to a reasonable offer and utterly reliable otherwise - not the first sound seller and good find I've made in the murky markets of South America.
