Olma Caravelle Automatic 41 jewels

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.

This watch kicked off my current fascination for vintage watches

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.

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.

The back shows an embossed sailing ship - a caravel

The movement

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".

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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Of collections and model airplanes

Of collections and model airplanes

I have several hobbies collecting various items of interest to me. When I was much younger I had several collections, too, including stamps (I was pretty much into philately at one time) and coins. My stamp and coin collections started with the stamps and coins Tatay brought from his trips overseas particulary from Japan and Indonesia. He made a lot of friends from different countries and they exchanged greetings on Christmas and New Year for a few years. It was later when he participated in an international training program in Tokyo when suddenly we had mail coming from many countries including Africa, Europe and Asia when I was encouraged by my mother to start a collection. She and a close cousin even bought me albums for where my stamps can be organized.

My coin collection started with Japanese coins but I eventually got more from various countries thanks to an uncle who was a seaman. His pasalubong to me were coins from the countries whose ports their ship called on.

Fast forward to the present and I now have a few active collections including my humble watch collection (mostly Swatches that I use regularly) and model airplanes. The planes aren't the kind you assemble from so many parts but rather the ones airlines and shops typically sell as scale replicas of their own aircraft. I only collect planes from airlines the wife and I have flown on. And so there are not so many of them but they have already occupied a good amount of space on my office shelf.

British Airways model plane being assembled. This was purchased by the wife during her most recent trip.

Qantas and Cathay Pacific model planes mounted, and British Airways model underway. I got the Cathay and Qantas models from a toy fair where one booth was selling models. I was tempted to purchase others but I had to keep by my code about airlines we have flown on.

The challenge for me is to find models of planes I've flown in the past and that includes one of the now defunct Northwest Airlines (acquired and now flying as Delta) and another of Egypt Air. I also don't have JAL and ANA planes. I hope to get one from each airline soon as well as those from Asiana and Korean Air.

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