Vintage, classic and cheap: Paul scores a Certina.
Check this out:
Purty, eh? 60s-vintage Swiss mechanical handwind, Certina brand, from Ebay. Movement is nice, signed crown, screw-down caseback, chrome steel case, blued markers, nicely aged hands, lovely sunburst dial.
It’s surprisingly modern looking. 38mm, quite well sized, and a nice timeless style. This one keeps amazingly good time, a few seconds per day off and a lovely slow-beat movement.
Oh yeah, with shipping? Fourteen bucks! Certina is one of the better of the Swiss brands that went under in the quartz revolution, so you can find ‘em way cheap.
More info:
- In this post, a nice listing of high-value vintage brands to look for.
- This post explains all about Certina, it’s what got me started
- This one explains how to refinish a case…this one has bubbles in the chrome, might be a good test case since the cost was so low.
- There’s a bit about the movement on this page. 19800VPH, 44 hour power reserve, 12.5 ligne.
I find myself enjoying the hell out of this watch, all out of proportion to cost. It’s understated, classic, inexpensive and very well made. I probably got lucky in that it arrived looking better than the pictures implied, but no matter what I’m very pleased indeed.
Highly recommended.
