In the previous post, I deferred details of what shall now be known as “Paul’s Swiss Folly.” I’d been looking for a vintage dress watch ever since I found my Certina. While lovely, the Certina has serious finish problems arising from chromium plating on a cheap case. Not fixable without an electroplating shop, so I wanted something better made, low-key, in stainless steel.

While in Hong Kong I read about Berne Horology in a show floor magazine. They have thousands of vintage watches, and the owner is famous. One afternoon I made the trek and spent a couple of hours gazing at watches, almost all Swiss. The really nice ones were well out of range (Omega and Rolex mostly), but I found what looked like a bargain:

It’s a Girard-Perragaux Gyromatic, an early automatic watch with center seconds and a very low-key appearance. From the fonts and lack of ‘G-P’ logo, it’s obviously been redialed, and the case shows signs of heavy polishing to remove wear. 

Screwdown caseback.

Nice crown, not easy to wind but not really required since its automatic.

Here you can see a bit of the polish job.

When I looked at it, I could see that the second hand skipped oddly while running, but it was one of the few there that I liked and could afford, so I convinced myself that it was just loose on the cannon pinion, which was a repair that I could do myself. (Hah!) The movement, which I had him show me in the shop, looked clean, rust-free and maintained. (Lack of mangled screws, friction marks, etc)

I bought it for about $400 US and left happy. It actually keeps excellent time, very low variance and precise within seconds per day. The skipping seconds hand is bizarre, and after a while you also notice rotor noise. When I got back, I took it to a watchmaker I trust, Asim Gunalpt of San Diego. 

His diagnosis? Complete overhaul required, new rotor bearing, and possible other problems related to the second hand. (I had tried reseating it myself to no avail). Total cost of $300 or more.

Currently, it’s sitting in a mailer on my desk. I may send it to Jose Sotto who’ll do the work for less. It’s a very painful reminder that, even if you think you know the score, there are no great deals out there and what you don’t know or assume can cost you money. I didn’t lose that much in the great scheme of things, but it was enough to be painful and I’m not likely to recommend Berne Horology to anyone else. The fake ‘Cartier’ strap with misspellings was another clue I ignored - I told myself in the shop that of course they’d just stick cheap straps on their watches to sell them. I also overvalued the recommendation from the watch magazine, and should have asked him to fix the second hand on site.

It’s never fun to get taken advantage of, so hopefully this can help someone else out there. Either spend the premium to guarantee pedigree and condition, or stick to trustworthy brands.