Hi All!
I've nearly completed a sell-off of half my collection, and since it's more focused and my tastes are more developed, I thought it would be a good time to share. I only started collecting about 6 months ago, but when I pick up new hobbies, I go deep fast and let them take over my life, and that's what has happened this year with me and watches. I quit Twitter after 5 years of being an addict right at the beginning of this and that made transferring that addiction to eBay as natural as switching from beer to wine.
Fortunately I was able to partially fund my habit by learning to do simple repairs on digital watches I could flip, and by scouring flea markets for watches I could flip, or at least use to build a collection at below-ebay-prices (though I still spent a pretty penny on eBay)
The Keepers:
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Vintage Seiko Chronographs
Both really lucky jewellery store finds. The silver dial is from '69 and I believe it to be a true drawer watch, possibly never serviced and running great. The black dial needed repairs but came out great after a full restore.
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Vintage Seiko Digitals
I'm sometimes surprised I don't see more Seiko digitals on this forum.
S229-5019 Pulsemeter - A lucky watch repair store find. Works great! 1982
0634-5009 - NOS with box and papers 1976. Pull out crown!
0439-4019 - eBay parts watch rescue 1977
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Casio Steel-cased graph watches
These are somewhat rare and not widely collected and represent, I think, an underappreciated chapter of Casio's history since they tend to get overshadowed by G-Shocks. I started buying the plastic cased, non-G-shock, pre-illuminator, late 80s early 90s round models because they brought me back to the Sears catalogs I used to thumb through as a kid, but learned I much prefer wearing the steel ones and sold off the plastic.
DW-7700 Flight Planner - the prettiest digital I know of, and rare as well
TRW-201 Tachy Meter - NOS with tags!
TRW-300 Yacht Timer - NOS with tags! Goes great with yacht rock
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Casio Tri-graph Ana-digis
Another underappreciated Casio series. Like the above, I started with the plastic variants because that's what I had as a kid, then sold them for the metal versions. I posted a longer thread about these here:
http://wristsushi.proboards.com/thre...-complete-sets
AW-200 White - Bronze plated, it has developed a great patina
AW-200 Blue - Mint condition YJ purchase, original bracelet
AW-20 Skyline Racing - A very rare racing club watch, and mint, unworn at that. Possibly a lone survivor, at least in this condition. I'm dying to know more, but information is scare. Paid a pretty penny for it (relatively) but would gladly would have paid 4x more
AW-210 World Time - I LOVE the map LCD on these
AW-20 World Time - My companion on a trip to Australia recently, and will always be a favorite for that
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Digital Classics
Tissot Data Recorder - eBay parts lot rescue watch. What do you do when you're an esteemed Swiss brand and your whole world is falling apart due to technological changes you can't keep up with? Sell your soul by making over-complicated digital monstrosities. I do love it though.
Timex Data Link - The first computer synced smart watch. It synced your calendar and address book being reading it off your computer monitor with an electric eye while the monitor flashed bar codes. Gave this to my dad new in '95. He never wore it once, then gave it back to me this year. If you look closely you can see the Windosw 95 logo on the lower strap which brings back waves of computer geek nostalgia for me every time I look at it.
Citizen Windsurfer - eBay parts rescue watch from India
Casio Marlin - I just love showing this to people I meet wearing the modern re-issues. "Nice retro Casio bro! Mines from '85 :-)"
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The Russians
The haul from my first eBay bender, before I knew what I was doing. I sold many as well.
Poljot 3133 Okeah Re-issue - The watch I paid the most for (but not the most valuable). The best watch ever to come out of Russia IMHO. It's simply beautiful
Luch 3055 - Another blue beauty. This is a late 70s electro-mechanical that used a quartz oscillator to power a mechanical gear train for a sweeping second hand. Like spring drive, but before it was cool, and with a brilliant art deco dial, raised Cyrillic logos and blue striped hands.
Raketa Perestroyka - For wearing with my red t-shirts
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New Mechanicals
Seagull 1963 Pilot's Watch Re-issue - Made in China, with pride and history
Seiko SKX 7S26-0020 - Gotta have something I can wear in the rain
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LED
Bulova Computron Driver - The 70s called. They want their watch back. A low ball eBay bid that surprisingly won
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Swiss Quartz
Maurice Lacroix Tiago Carbon Fiber Quartz Chronograph - Gift from dad on my 22nd. The only watch on this list I owned before I started all this. Hadn't worn it in nearly a decade. It's not something I'd buy now, but I do love it.
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Bonus Watch
A priceless (relatively) NOS Seiko A239-502A World Time time capsule I found, improbably, at a local antique mall. Still has all the stickers on it and everything. More details on this thread:
http://wristsushi.proboards.com/thre...239-502a-world
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What I sold
As I said, this was only half my collection. I sold:
- Several Russian mechanicals. They were cool, but I felt I had too much money tied up in mechanicals that wouldn't be worth fixing when they (inevitably) broke
- 2 East German Ruhlas. Also too cheap to keep. If it's mechanical, and you wouldn't pay to fix it if it died, sell it
- Several Russian Elektronika digitals: cool, but can't compete with the Japanese on quality or style
- Electro-mechanicals: Way too unreliable to keep. I had a nice Citizen Cosmotron and a cool Elgin 105. Also still have a really nice Accutron, which I sadly ruined trying to change the battery.
- Plastic digitals: I had an impressive collection of plastic, round cased pre-G-Shock Casio "graph" watches and a couple Seikos, but I would always reach for the steel when I got dressed, so I sold them.
- Time and date only Seikos: I guess I just like complicated watches, because I had a few 7006s and Seiko 5s that just didn't have enough going on to interest me
- Indy brand quartz: I had a Mr. Jones Time Traveler, and a Momentum Base Layer. Both are fashionable independent brand quartz watches that that look great and got me compliments when I wore them, but they didn't have character like the vintage watches.
What's next
I'm saving for one big name Swiss chronograph - probably an Omega - for my 40th birthday. I figure I have to have one, even if I'm a Japanophile at heart. Then I'll be after:
- Seiko 6139-6005 Pogue
- Seiko 6117-6400 World Time
- Casio CFX-200 Scientific Calculator
- Giugiaro 7T28
- A Lange & Sohne Datograph Perpetual Calendar (I wish)
Thanks for tuning in! Hope you like my collection
