Olma manual wind vintage watch

Olma manual wind vintage watch

One of our favorite vintage watch auctions featured a double and a good friend and I decided to share the bid and watches. The two were both manual wind Olma watches, and looked like they were in good condition. My first vintage Swiss watch was an Olma not counting my Swatch collection that has 25-year old models.

Classic watch face featuring lumed hands (they still glow once the lights are off)

Side view

Another side view of the watch

The watch's back showing it to have the following features: anti-magnetic, waterproof, incabloc, stainless steel. Fortunately, there were no other stuff etched at the back of the watch (the other one didn't either).

The watch crown features the Olma logo (signed crown).

I have not opened the watch to see the movement but this is likely one of those with 18,000 bph. I have timed it only once so far and it performed very well with only a very slight gain over the period I observed it. That period turned out to be a very solid 55.5 hours.

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Enicar ultrasonic manual wind vintage watch

Enicar ultrasonic manual wind vintage watch

I consider myself lucky to have acquired this watch through an auction. Enicar watches in good condition are hard to come by. I saw one being auctioned in another Fb page that was badly corroded despite the gold plating. This one looks great and functions very well.

The watch currently is strapless as I have not had the time to get an appropriate one for this piece. A nato or zulu strap did not seem to be suitable for this one.

Vintage watch face showing what I consider a very good patina.

Side view

Side view showing the crown

The watch back showing it to be of stainless steel, and the watch to be anti-magnetic. It doesn't say waterproof so have to be careful with this one especially during rainy days.

I already observed this a few times and on a full wind I can get 39 to 40 hours of accurate time from this Enicar ultrasonic. Again, not bad for an old watch. I will be posting again about this once I have found a suitable strap for this vintage piece.

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Preferred travel watch

Preferred travel watch

My good old Seiko Kinetic Titanium Auto Relay is still my preferred travel watch. I take this along with me whenever I am traveling to certain places for the first time. It is reliable and the kind of watch that few if any people will pay attention to ("hindi pansinin") whenever I am going around.

That's Amsterdam Central Station in the background of this photo taken from my hotel room.

Nevertheles, I now carry a back-up watch whenever I travel and that is usually something that I know to be reliable and preferably won't require a battery. If I know that I would be swimming or taking a dip in the beach then I always take one of my divers. My favorite would be my Swatch diver, which I have taken for swims in Palawan, Cebu, Bohol and Sarangani.

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Watch luminosity

Watch luminosity

I was checking which of my watches had lumes and which actually worked when lights were off. The older, vintage watches mostly had none and if they had, it appeared to be corroded or weathered. Anyhow, following are some photos I took of the watches that 'performed' well after I turned the lights off.

Hamilton King Khaki

Mido Ocean Star

Seiko Landmaster

Vostok Komandirskie

Speedmaster

I have to check the others and will post about them soon.
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On watch movements

On watch movements

I am quite aware of the importance of the movement of the watches I collect. I basically have Japanese and Swiss watches whose movements I have done some research on. A good resource for movements is in the following link: 

http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk

The site has an extensive archive for watch movements as well as other information on watches. Sellers will usually have information about watch movements but there are many, especially those selling watches as a hobby, who don't even show the watch movements so one might be surprised to see what's inside the watch and in what condition it is in. I have been lucky to be able to get watches with legit movements including those on the really old ones I've acquired.

I honestly haven't tried seeing the movements in most of my watches. I don't have the proper tools for doing so. So far, I have only opened a few including my King Seiko, whose movement is shown below.

Seiko 5626B movement on my KS beats at 28,800 A/h

The etch on the inside of the cover though does not match the  watch movement. This plus another marking led me to suspect that this was some sort of "franken" watch, deriving parts from different watch models.

Another watch I have had opened is my Olma, which is shown below:

Signed automatic movement with 41 jewels on my Olma Caravelle

Inside of the cover has a very important information about this watch. That is, it is a super compressor.

I recently had my Gruen Precision serviced and before doing so opened the back myself to see for myself the movement on this old but reliable piece.

Signed manual winding movement on my Gruen Precision. The mechanism is quite clean for an old watch. This was well-maintained by the previous owner(s).

Inside the cover shows where the watch was made and I was happy to see that previous watch repairs didn't leave their marks (usually etched on the inside of the cover) on this watch.

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Timex manual wind watch

Timex manual wind watch

I acquired this watch last year for two reasons: 1) It was a Timex assembled in the Philippines, and 2) it was priced really cheap. I had wanted to have a Timex for quite some time as I knew they assembled the watches in Cebu. I've seen the many models on display at Mactan Airport but could not quite decide about what to get. I was hesitant partly because most of the models were quartz watches. I have nothing against quartz watches as I own not a few of these including Swatches and Seikos. Only, I wanted to have something that's both collectible (for me) and reliable.

This watch is a manual wind and quite uncommon for a Timex today. And so I bought seeing nobody seemed interested in it. In fact, it got only a few likes compared to the other old watches being sold in the same site.

Simple watch face with arabic numerals, a date feature and water resistance indicated

The watch is in good condition and "assembled in the Philippines" was the real decider for me to get this watch.

Side view showing the crown

Another side view of the watch

This is a relatively small watch at 32mm wide except for the crown but it had 19mm lugs so you don't feel and look like its a small watch. I recently timed it on a full wind and it lasted about 42 hours. It also kept good time through this period; keeping up with the reference clocks I used for comparison.

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Cortébert manual wind vintage watch

Cortébert manual wind vintage watch

Cortébert was considered a luxury brand during its heydays. Unfortunately, the brand suffered much during the onslaught of quartz watches (mainly from Japan) in the 1970s. It was not among the brands that survived but surprisingly was not resurrected later like other Swiss brands that are now actually masquerading as such.

The watch face is elegant with the sub-second adding appeal to this piece.

Side view showing the crown

Another side view

The case back

Closer inspection shows the engraved letters are in Cyrillic or Russian

I am usually wary about something etched or engraved on vintage watches I am interested in. For example, old Seiko watches from Japan might have inscribed on their backs the name of the person who originally owned it including perhaps an indication it was given as a gift (birthday? wedding? retirement?) or recognition for service. I generally avoid those watches. I was not able to see the writing on the case back on this one but based on what I've seen, these are translations of what is originally inscribed at the back and so are not names or other undesirable (for me) information.

I've timed this watch and the first time it lasted about 39 hours on a full wind. The second time it ran for 48.75 hours. It kept good time compared to my computer's clock and my other more dependable watches with no significant losses or gains in time over the period I was comparing it with other clocks/watches.

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Enicar automatic vintage watch

Enicar automatic vintage watch

I got another Enicar watch. This one is an automatic but I don't know about the movement yet. There are the desirable ultrasonic models of Enicar that are supposed to be the really good automatic movements for this brand. It doesn't say ultrasonic anywhere on the watch so I assume this is just a "regular" automatic model.

I quickly got this after the seller posted it. The watch looked like it was in great condition and was I glad it really was when I finally inspected it after it was delivered. Of course, it has scratches on the glass as well as the body but these are acceptable given the apparent age of the watch. The watch does not feature complications such as a day or date so I guess the movement is more efficient this way.

Side view showing the dauphine hands and the scratches on the watch body

Side view showing the crown, the nice red second hand, and more scratches

Older watches are supposed to have 'waterproof' instead of 'water resistant'

I timed this watch and it ran a little over 38 hours. Not at all bad for an old watch. This one probably came out in the 1960s-1970s. Again, it runs well and gained only about 2-3 minutes through the 38 hours I was able to observe the watch. I am comparing this to my other watches that I know are in great condition and the digital clocks of my computer and phones. I like this watch and it has become a regular in my weekly rotation.

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