Titus vintage watch

I have a memory of my father purchasing a watch back in the 1970s. It was an automatic watch as he didn't like the manual winding ones. He also at the time probably didn't fancy the quartz watches that were then becoming popular since these were not as highly regarded as the automatics and manual winds (old school?). Tatay liked this watch and Mama knew this as she even had the watch repaired perhaps more than a couple of times than I remember. That watch was a Titus and was lost somehow. Maybe it got lost when we had our home renovated in the 1990s while I was studying in Japan.

And so I tried to look for a Titus that resembled the one Tatay had. I found several watches at vintage watch pages on Facebook. I fancied some and bid for a couple that I thought resembled the one my father had before, minus the steel bracelet that was quite unique for watches back in the day. Tatay doesn't like the gold stuff so those models were definitely out. It had to have a silver or white face.

I finally found one and it did take a little luck to win it in an auction. I guess others who were usually active in auctions didn't fancy Titus watches so I got this one cheap.

Old Titus automatic watch with day and date features with a leather strap.

A close up of the watch face shows its age and some wear and tear. The day function is consistent with the late 60s to early 70s when 'President' models were popular after the original popularized by Rolex.

Titus' logo on the crown

Back of the watch showing the company name, Solvil et Titus, which was originally a Swiss brand. Titus and many other smaller Swiss watch companies suffered from the rise of quartz watches in the 1970s. The quartz movements were battery-powered and were more accurate than many of the manuals and automatics, and were a lot cheaper and therefore affordable to most people wanting to have a watch. Solvil et Titus is now Hong Kong-based and while retaining the brand and perhaps the quality of watchmaking, is no longer considered a Swiss brand.

Watch on my wrist

I used it a few times before it stopped and I notice something seemed to be amiss with the crown and adjustments. I could adjust the day and the date properly and when I attempted to at least restart the watch, it wasn't 'charging' properly and stopped soon and quite frequently. I took it to a watch repair shop where they opened the watch and discovered a corroded crown that was affecting. This was among my concerns when I bought the watch. It is actually risky in the sense that you really don't know how long these will function well and if they bog down, if you will be able to have them repaired. And will there be spare parts for the watch? It is still with the repair shop and hopefully they can find a replacement or fix the crown soon as I intend to give the watch to my father as a present on his 79th birthday this coming December 1.

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