Watchlords

http://forums.watchuseek.com/f11/bring-brain-xxi-4628573.html#post45177261

Hello and welcome to the newest instalment of Bring a Brain! As always, this watchdog/comedy series will cover some true gems, which might well be the mediocre kind of gems badly researched, or indeed "gems" to stay well away from. A slight warning to some: if humour offends you, and your sense of humour is inexistent or it's on the "accountant with all limbs in a cast" level of stiffness, please stop reading now. Lads and lasses, this is your Bring a Brain!


First of all, a selection of listings from the shop of our favourite advertorial site.

First, let's have a look at this Enicar.
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/vintage-watches/products/1960s-enicar-sherpa-super-divette?variant=2139186069519

Took them years to learn, that Super-Compressors made for Enicar had bayonet backs, not screw-in ones. But look, they did. Good. No movement pics? Well, not much to say about it, then, it's a big "nope." Lume removed from hands, overall condition: poor to mediocre, with tons of filth on the case and bracelet.

Rolex "Red" Submariner:
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/vintage-watches/products/1970-rolex-submariner-reference-1680
Misaligned crystal, and for a specimen with the bracelet missing, they charge what they previously did for one with the original bracelet all there. Sorry, this just isn't right. All the talk about it being uncommon and coveted is nauseating - they seem to have offered a number of them in the past, so it's not something that surfaces once a year.

Now, this Rolex Explorer 1016:
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/vintage-watches/products/1986-rolex-explorer-reference-1016?variant=1792673021967
This happens all too often with the Rolexes they sell - movement obviously misidentified. Of course it might be stamped 1575 (thought it looks like it's a part of a "0" that's lurking through one of the apertures in the rotor, the one right over the calibre number), but it is a 1570. Why? Obviously, because the 1575 features a date.

Submariner 5512:
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/vintage-watches/products/1967-rolex-submariner-reference-5512?variant=2073445007375
Judging by the aging to the lume on the hands and deterioration to the hands, so inconsistent with the all-too-pristine dial lume with hardly any aging to it, I'm not sure if all the parts of this watch rolled out of the factory in the same watch. That said, the dial could be a replacement.

And, what a surprise, another Rolex
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/vintage-watches/products/1990-rolex-oyster-perpetual-date-reference-15200?variant=2139184726031
Paraphrasing their routine, what you should know: case likely polished, bracelet stretched, crystal reinstalled by someone who didn't have a clue about how to do it. I wonder if that font is correct for 1990 - I'm not sure if it is.

IWC cal. 89:
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/vintage-watches/products/1970s-iwc-reference-805-in-yellow-gold?variant=1792444006415
There doesn't seem to be a lot to be found about the ref. 805 anywhere. The watch could have been assembled in 1970, but the movement serial is for 1965, case - 1967. Also, what are tritium markings doing on a no-lume dial? Rolex was known to be careless enough to do that, never seen that on an IWC. "By the pricking of my thumbs..."

Zenith A385:
https://shop.hodinkee.com/collections/vintage-watches/products/1970s-zenith-el-primero-a385
On the strictly technical side, this doesn't look good - old grease/filth on the movement, rust by the stem. The fact that they claim the lume is all original is rather disconcerting as well - seriously, beige lume on the hands, and almost completely black on the chrono hand and the markers? Ummm...I take my liberty to doubt that.


Now, let's move to another shop. They know no limits. They know no movement pictures. They know nothing. Lads and lasses, T&H!

This Longines has, sadly, already been sold:
https://theoandharris.com/vintage-watch-shop/vintage-watches-sold/longines-8/
"Natural aging." Well, the process behind that can be called this way...No, no it can't. "Natural rusting"- that's more like it.

Wanted to go through their YouTube videos, but I couldn't. I have too little time to spare to waste it on them.


Yet another shop with plenty of issues and some of their offerings, for example, this one:
https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1947-eterna-gilt-jumbo-screw-back-cal-852s
If it has been polished, it's not a "barn find." What I find disconcerting, is that a large percentage of their listings are for watches priced at almost twice the Hodinkee prices for similar stuff, and Hodinkee prices already are beyond bad. This, however, is worse, since most of them appear to have been tampered with - especially the cases. 4500 euro for a watch attacked with Cape Cods in the past? Sorry, but that's not a fair approach.

Resist mocking it, resist, resist, resist...Well, that lasted about three seconds. "Follow your spirit, and upon this charge..."
[url]
https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/ ... namel-dial[/url]
Cape Cod'd. Nope.

https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1946-eterna-cal-852-gilt-dial-brevet-case
Another overpriced case that's been tampered with.

https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1942-iwc-schaffhausen-jumbo-hermet-gilt-dial
No traces of use - well, that's the thing with the Cape Cod cloth, that it's used to remove them. That it bears no traces of use can be said of NOS, but not of a restored case. Sorry, but that's very misleading.

https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1945-ulysse-nardin-jumbo-calatrava-18k-rg
Calatrava Houdini + victim of capecodclothicide.

https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1954-omega-ref-2800-2-caliber-266
Episode I: The Phantom Tamper

https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1946-omega-jumbo-ref-2506-1
Episode II: Attack of the Cape Cods.

https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1945-tissot-caliber-33-3-jumbo
Episode III: Revenge of the (black)Smith

Another replate and refinish:
https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1942-lemania-15tl-jumbo-ghost-dial
Episode IV: A No-Hope

https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1960-iwc-schaffhausen-ingenieur-ref-666-ad
Episode V: Dremel Strikes Back

https://vintagecaliber.com/collections/all/products/1950-eberhard-extra-fort-jumbo-monopusher
Episode VI: Return of the Cape Cod

Jokes aside (if someone didn't take the warning and happened to read on - let me remind you, that comedy is not about being gravely serious as if at a funeral), it's not like I'm suggesting these restoration jobs are badly done - quite on the contrary, the quality of the refinishing is great, but the point is, that these are more overpriced not even more than the mediocre/junk stuff sold at Hodinkee, they're more heavily overpriced than immaculate pieces which never have seen the slightest form of refinishing, sold in other shops known for heavy and unjustifiable overpricing.
If these watches would have been a watch restorer's advertisement, not sales listings, if I'd have a wreck to refinish, I would consider having them do that. It's a bit of a pity, that such skills go into selling watches of reduced collectible value for comically inflated prices.

That's all for this Bring a Brain - hope that those who enjoy it, have enjoyed as always, and those who needed some more perspective got just that.
Until the next instalment, take care! Bring a Brain will return if necessary.



*BaB WL edition note - never mind the caveats meant to fend off some perpetually offended wimps, Donkey fans and trolls at WUS

MK, thanks for the jab at Theo & Harris, who not only offer the worst buys on vintage imaginable, but manage to be as obnoxious and smarmy as anyone I've ever seen on the Interwebs; those YouTube videos make the mushroom barley soup creep right back up the esophagus. Ultra well done.

TemerityB wrote:MK, thanks for the jab at Theo & Harris, who not only offer the worst buys on vintage imaginable, but manage to be as obnoxious and smarmy as anyone I've ever seen on the Interwebs; those YouTube videos make the mushroom barley soup creep right back up the esophagus. Ultra well done.

They're far worse than Hodinkee, so they should have seen Bring a Brain coming

As to VintageCaliber, the guy who runs that has acted in a rather obnoxious way, and proved himself to be an utter idiot when it comes to watch authentication - he scored a major fail with an Eterna, and when I pointed that out, he questioned my expertise, and that of everyone who chimed in, and who were well-versed in everything Eterna. So, he deserves a barrage, that sorry peddler of Cape Cod-polished, 6-8x overpriced watches.