Vintage? Sea-Gull ST5 handwinding

 

 

This one belongs to a friend of mine. He just got it and I went over to use office to check it out. He bought it as new old stock from a seller I recommended to him (the same seller I posted earlier).

His cyclops lens thing seems to have gone missing, and some marks on the crystal, and the strap probably not original.

Still, it's a real beautiful watch. About 36mm diameter case, looks bigger than it should, and robust Chinese movement. I didn't get it because it was way above my budget, but oh now I'm really envious.

What could have been...

I saw two vintage watches online that seemingly available for purchase:

A manual-winding Citizen which I never seen before, and a brand called Alco I never heard before, also handwinding. Both don't have a seconds hand, have roman numerals, and very nice clean design. So far so good, but when I inquired about it the seller told me that he had already sold the Citizen... 

Well, ok but look at that Alco, it is such a classic beauty! I especially liked the super large & clean dial, thin bezel. So I asked about it and the seller said, yes, he has it!!

Yes!!! SCORE! I thought, then we discuss payment etc...

...but suddenly the seller said he went to look for it, but couldn't find it. :(  According to him that means he must've sold it at some point and forgotten about it..

Oh well, I am so disappointed to finally get a chance to get some real classic beauties, but it is never to be. Hopefully, it is still somewhere around at the seller's place, and there is some chance he will find it and send it to me.

Vintage Sandoz Automatic -Repaired!

Yes! The vintage Sandoz automatic that was in a bit of a sorry state which I found is now back in my hands, and ticking away happily! I am so stoked about it.

The lug was not bent back as mentioned previously, but I will leave it for now. A longer springbar was used to hold the strap in place.

The ever compulsory pictures to accompany this post (iPad pics first, as I'm now at office without my trusty camera):

Enjoy.

Vintage Sandoz Automatic

Wow, this one is old. I don't know how old, but, it definitely is very old. Behold, my father's vintage Sandoz automatic. I have never heard of the name Sandoz but apparently it has been around since 1870s. Sandoz in the 1970s was split into several companies, according to Wikipedia, all of them named Sandoz but split into 4 areas of production, due to licensing. This became 4 separate brands, Sandoz Singapore, Sandoz Hong Kong, Sandoz Swiss and Sandoz Spain, each with their own line of products. 

Now, that means that, I am just really guessing here that this watch is either one of the post-1970s one, or the pre-1970s product. As the watch has the "Swiss Made" on it, it maybe the Swiss one. But really, I have no idea.

Condition:

When I found it, the second hand has fallen off sadly. And it doesn't tick. I can wind it, but it won't work. I have since cleaned it up a bit, and brought it over to my watch guy to have a look. He says he can see some rust (uh oh) but if that clears up there doesn't seem to be anything else wrong. Hopefully we can fix it.

The lug on the lower left side has also bent, most likely as a result of a fall. My watch guy says that he won't be touching that as he doesn't want to be held liable for breaking it off... fair enough. Well we will see how that will work out. Hopefully I can get it at least ticking again, and reoiled and serviced.

Citizen Newmaster Automatic

This is a Citizen Newmaster Automatic 21 Jewel. It's fairly beat up, since the crystal is dome shaped and goes way beyond the bezel, and I believe this watch is AT LEAST 20-25 years old. It runs immediately the moment I picked it up. If anyone can help me date when it is manufactured or what years this particular model runs through before discontinuation, would be great.

I'm not sure, but it seems like that the bracelet is not original, since it is made of pretty cheap stuff - not whole pieces of metal but folded metal, but the whole watch is VERY lightweight. The date is at the 3 o'clock position. Quite a small watch by today's standards, something like less than 40mm (I didn't check).

The watch still works, it ticks right away with the slightest movement. Awesome. I think it needs to be serviced, cleaned up & polished, given a quality leather strap and it should run just fine.

Old Seiko 6139-6012 Chronograph Automatic

Old Seiko 6139-6012 Chronograph Automatic. Using the Seiko date of manufacture calculator, this timepiece is actually manufactured early 1970s - May, 1970, to be exact.

(Watch belongs to my friend)