re: #539 Blind Frog Belly White

As you might know, I’m a watch guy - vintage, not modern, but I follow a number of watch forums. General opinion of Invicta is that they offer attractive designs (generally “homages” of other company’s designs), but their QC is spotty and their customer service sucks.

Hamilton is part of the Swatch conglomerate, better quality, higher price. Lots of Authorized Dealers.

A vintage automatic chronograph is a risky and potentially expensive proposition. Buying ANY vintage watch on Ebay is a minefield, adn I say this as someone who has bought over 200 watches on Ebay.

First, there’s the question of wear. Vintage watches will have been used. Maybe used up. Back when mechanical watches were all there was, owners would take their watch in to the watchmaker every year or two to get them completely disassembled, cleaned, inspected, worn parts replaced, and then reassembed, lubricated, and regulated. It was part of owning a watch. With the advent of the quartz watch, a lot of mechanical watch owners stopped getting them serviced, let them run till they stopped, and picked up a quartz watch. Watchmakers, to keep their business alive, often resorted to ‘dip and swish’ cleaning, which left a lot of dirt in the worst places.

Now, as vintage watches become more popular, these get dragged out of Dad’s dresser drawer, and put up on Ebay. But because a professional service runs between 100 and $400, most of them don’t get that before they are listed. Beware!

Second, speaking of service, a chronograph will cost you at least $400 to have serviced properly. We watch collectors have learned that you need to assume that EVERY watch you buy needs to be serviced, no matter what the seller claims. Unless the seller is known to you, do not assume that ‘watch was serviced’ means it was done right. Chronographs need careful adjustment to work right. My old ‘Watch Guy’, who had at that time 40 years of experience, wouldn’t touch them, instead having his partner who trained in Switzerland fix them.

Third, and related, ‘running and keeping good time’ doesn’t mean a lot. A watch running very poorly - low balance amplitude - will still keep time within a minute or so a day on the bench. It won’t run that well on the wrist. And if it wasn’t serviced, wearing it is slowly destroying it.

Fourth, there’s money to be made in vintage watches, especially popular brands and models. For example, the highly prized Omega Constellation - there is actually a cottage industry built around faking these. Reprinted dials, new cases made to look like genuine Omega cases from the 1950s, often lesser Omega movements, sometimes cobbled together from several different movements. There’s an entire website devoted to helping collectors determine authenticity.

We vintage watch collectors say that KNOWLEDGE is your sword and shield. It keeps you from getting screwed, and sometimes allows you to get phenomenal deals by knowing more than the seller. Lack of knowledge makes the purchase of a vintage watch a sketchy proposition.

Thanks for the most informative post!

I’ve decided to go with this: timestore.cz

It’s a good price, and I’ve had good luck in general with Citizen or Seiko watches in the past. There was one vintage Seiko I had, and many years ago, I pawned it because I was in financial straits, and now I regret it deeply. A Seiko bullhead that I picked up for $35 and had it fully restored by a professional watchmaker. One of these:

They sell for a hell of a lot now on E bay.