Vintages watches on eBay

[urologist]

Hi all--

BF has decided he DESPERATELY wants a vintage watch from his birth year.

Does anyone have any experience purchasing these, and could tell me what to look for?

Are there any reputable resellers (brick and mortar or eBay)?

Thanks!

 

[BigPurseSue]

Hi all--

BF has decided he DESPERATELY wants a vintage watch from his birth year.

Does anyone have any experience purchasing these, and could tell me what to look for?

Are there any reputable resellers (brick and mortar or eBay)?

Thanks!

You should talk to watch repairers/buffs in your city. Tell them your price range, tell them the sort of thing your BF is interested in. Chat them up.

How to find them? Look in the phone book under clock repairers. Talk to a lot of them. Their interest and expertise varies widely.

The thing about buying on ebay... (Understand building and repairing clocks is one of my little hobbies, but I'm nowhere near as good at it as some of the watch repair buffs I know in my town.) Any watch you buy may need cleaning and repair and that can be extremely expensive if it's a vintage watch. You're talking about $80/hour with a minimum of a couple hours work. When you buy a watch on ebay you have no idea of what condition it's in or how it will arrive.

There are also a lot of really bad Chinese knock-offs on ebay that are being sold as the real McCoy.

You could easily end up with a broken turkey that will cost you $300 to repair if it can be repaired.

So I advise...befriend local watch repair collectors/buffs. Find someone who's really good and let them help you find a great watch.

 

[saligator]

^^^I second that. Go local first.