Olma Caravelle Automatic 41 jewels
I got this watch from an online shop selling vintage or old watches. I did a quick research on it and the brand before getting the watch. Olma is an old Swiss watch maker that made nice automatic and hand wind watches. Many articles I've read about Olma state that it was popular in the Philippines during the 1960 and 1970s along with a couple other Swiss watch brands - Titus and Tugaris. This was perhaps due to these brands producing relatively inexpensive but good quality watches. By "relatively inexpensive" here, I am comparing them to the more pricey brands like Rolex, Omega, Longines and Tudor, which were popular but beyond the budgets of most people.
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| This watch kicked off my current fascination for vintage watches |
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| The face had a mat finish and the brand name and logo seems to have survived the 'ravages' of time or corrosion. The model name is almost gone and you can barely see the 'Swiss Made' inscription at the bottom of the face. |
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| The case shows some polishing (the seller probably did this to make it more attractive to prospective buyers) but the typical wear and tear are evident. The watch crown is somewhat unique. |
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| The back shows an embossed sailing ship - a caravel |
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| The movement |
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| A close-up of the movement before I had the watch serviced. Unfortunately, they finished before I came back for it and had already sealed the watch so I wasn't able to take a photo of the "after". |
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| At the back of the cover are etchings indicating the case to be a super compressor. This is an indicator of high quality found in many top brand Swiss watches. |
The watch is currently with my brother. My father tried it on but observed that it stopped many times. The watch is both manual and self (automatic) winding but I guess its movement may already have some problems in the first place. My brother told me he will have it checked with another serviceman. It's not easy to find a good one who is trustworthy with these kinds of watches so hopefully he finds one and is able to have it fixed.
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