Serendipitous watch.
Didn't know I was going to acquire a watch yesterday afternoon. Mrs. noelekal gets off an hour early on Fridays and we took the time to visit a new little antique store that has opened in our small town. Once inside I immediately asked if they had any old watches. The lady behind the counter allowed that she thought her mother had placed a box of watches under counter. She fished the box out.
It was a tangle of cheap-o, out of style, fashion quartz watches, mostly womens, and not worth the effort it would take to place the mess in the nearest waste basket. Down at the bottom was a wretched Seiko. Filthy, green with verdigris, and with a horribly scuffed crystal and on an equally tarnished and filthy Twist-O-Flex. Shook the watch and it wanted to run. Was missing the crown.
Payed $5.00 tax included and brought the poor thing home, removed the Twist-O-Flex and applied copious amounts of Mother's Mag Polish to the case and crystal followed by a treatment of Poly Watch to the crystal. In the course of the clean up the watch began to tick hopefully, almost as if it was wishing for a spa treatment.
With difficulty I set the time by the bare stem, stuck a used strap on it and donned it for the rest of the evening. This morning it was still running and on time, ticking merrily and showing me what it could do. Been wearing it all day and it continues to keep time very well. Can't set the day/date feature without a proper crown. Hah! Cleaned up, the raggy case almost looks florintine and the crystal cleared up immensely.
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It's a Seiko 5126 7000 showing to have been produced in April of 1969. Who knows? Perhaps it was originally purchased by a serviceman who bought it in a PX in Vietnam. Actual history is likely not nearly so interesting as that; it likely belonged to a rancher around here who beat it to death in the course of its existence. Probably isn't worth even featuring in a post here, much less spending funds to rehab, but it tickled me that it still works.
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