Watchlords

Addendum to the thread: while I thought that in one week Hodinkee can't score more flops than the ones I've listed, it appears that - actually - they can! I really wrote this BaB a day too early...

Let's have a look at the most recent Bring a Loupe, and what our dear Isaac calls a Technos (sic!) ref.FHF 969...
https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/bring-a-loupe-may-24

Now, it appears that Mr.Wingold has never heard of FHF, one of the largest Swiss movement manufacturers ever, which happened to have accounted for the vast majority of movements produced in Switzerland in the 19th century, and which in the 20th still remained a really large supplier. Moreover, he can't tell an FHF movement when he sees one, and doesn't quite have a habit of doing research.
Here's the listing...
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Technos-Skindiver-FHF-969-4-with-Heliium-Valve-/303159341459?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l44720&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true

And the picture of the case back:

Of course stamped 969-4. The title of the listing refers to the movement, not a reference number. Now, if someone happens to know the second thing about the meaning of markings, they know that in the 1960s and 1970s Technos had the habit of stamping the calibre number of the movement used on -where else - the case back. Took me a minute to find a listing at Chrono24 for a Technos Sky Diver using an ETA 2472, and stamped...

Pic filched for reference purposes

And here, dear Isaac, is your "ref." FHF 969-4...oh, and look, what do you know, it's a Technos-signed one!
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&0&2uswk&FHF_969_4

I'd say "shock and awe", but Hodinkee's "expertise" and its verily appalling level is no longer shocking. It's just sad.

Well, another one bites the dust.

Also, there's the IWC that he's hyped, and which appears to be a redial - which has been pointed out in the comments.

Unless IWC would have done such a shoddy job with aligning the subdial and the recess, and unless they'd have been more than liberal with aligning the minute track to the applied markers, I strongly doubt that that's the way this dial left the factory.

Woo-hoo, and that's another flop on H's part. Great Scott... Carry on as you do, Hodinkee boyos, and yours truly won't ever have the BaB readers waiting for another instalment for too long.

The sub dial aperture looks ok; maybe not properly realigned following a service, or got it's China rattled a little bit and knocked out of alignment due to dried up adhesive or whatnot. The lettering and track looks pretty good for some re-dial person to schlock up the sub dial like that. IDK. The markers at 11, 1, 5, and 7 look like they are supposed to be lined up on the points of the, uh rhombuses, parallelograms (?) stick, idk, sticks is good.

I wanted to see if the margins on the sub dial would be correct if the thing was lined up proper, and look at the markers, however, a cursory search for a ref pic revealed none.

3Flushes wrote:The sub dial aperture looks ok; maybe not properly realigned following a service, or got it's China rattled a little bit and knocked out of alignment due to dried up adhesive or whatnot. The lettering and track looks pretty good for some re-dial person to schlock up the sub dial like that. IDK. The markers at 11, 1, 5, and 7 look like they are supposed to be lined up on the points of the, uh rhombuses, parallelograms (?) stick, idk, sticks is good.

I wanted to see if the margins on the sub dial would be correct if the thing was lined up proper, and look at the markers, however, a cursory search for a ref pic revealed none.

The seconds subdial wouldn't just get misaligned during service. This is a stamped recess. The markers at 11 and 1 (especially at 1!) don't seem to align well...
The subdial is the most incriminating factor here.

The use of this IWC font - and how much space it takes - is also a suspicious thing. For "tank"/rectangular watches, IWC had a different logo - "IWC" in an elliptical frame, with "Schaffhausen" underneath it. Took much less space. This looks like someone used a font template made for a much larger dial.
Here's the logo used on such "tank" IWCs:


And here, a redial sold by Zeitauktion:

Note that it's the same model as that original, only repainted by an ape. The font isn't bad... In fact, it's very good. Only the restorer made the same mistake of using the font for a larger dial. Look at the minute track - it's all tilted.

Another redial:

Here, the redialer made an effort...but fucked up the subdial, the markers on which stick out beyond the frame and the recess.

Note how the subdial printing is executed on the original - the one on the watch hyped by Hodinkee doesn't come even close to that level.