My mom bought another bag of junk jewelry from the thrift store today and it has a potential treasure in it. She came to me for confirmation so I, of course, come here. She buys these things for the fun of looking for a treasure and I think this might be the big one but I don’t want to get her hopes up. She suspects that the person who put it in the bag didn’t know what automatic meant, or that they couldn’t read it because they don’t usually put functioning watches in these bags. She said once she started moving it around, it started running perfectly (and silently).
Anyway, the watch appears to be a genuine Certina watch. But, there are some discrepancies from what I can find online.
The watch:
It is small, a lady’s watch.
It is silver in color but she has no idea what material.
It has a number engraved on the back, which follows the pattern of a Certina watch I found on a Swedish auctioneer website. The number is 1106 011 6113103
It has what appears to be the Certina symbol on the little windy thingie (why would an automatic watch have a windy thingie?)
There are no numbers at all on the face. The 12 is represented by two lines. Every other number has 1 line.
Under the 12 marks, it says Certina. Under than hand, it says Mayfair. Under Mayfair, it says automatic (yes, the a is lowercase). Under automatic, it says swiss made but you can only see it if you tip it just right.
There is no Certina symbol on the face and this goes against all the pictures I’ve found online.
There is no second hand and this also goes against what I’ve seen online.
She can’t see any way to open the back and she’s afraid of damaging it.
The band:
Where the band connects to the watch, it says 10gpf cap
Every link on the band says: Speidel patent and a patent number. I think she said it say stainless somewhere also.
When I checked the Certina faq, it said the only way to know if a watch is genuine is to buy it from a Certina retailer. But their retailer search doesn’t even have an option for the US. I don’t even know who she could bring this to for a cleaning since all work on Certina watches are supposed to be done by authorized people.
What little I know: vintage ladies’ watches tend not to be especially valuable compared with mens’. They often don’t have a second hand. And there are watches where the case is genuine but the movement has been replaced - you’ll need to look inside.
Thanks tellyworth. She’s not too concerned with resale value since it’s unlikely she’ll sell it unless it’s worth a huge amount of money. She’s been looking for a small, delicate, automatic watch and almost spent $70 on one earlier this week. Having one from a famous brand that still works would totally make up for the fact that it doesn’t sparkle.
Her eyesight is pretty bad. Next time I see her, I’ll see if I can see how to get the back off.
Only way to know for sure is to take it to a reputable* place to look at it and give you an estimate.
I did that with a watch of my mom’s that she got from her mother and we found out it is worth a fair chunk (it’s an off brand Rolex, I forget the exact brand name but it has Rolex workings inside and works beautifully now that I got it fixed).
*I had suspicions about the first place mom took it to and made her go get it back ASAP. I have a feeling if she hadn’t it would have disappeared.
It’s quite likely it’s not all that valuable. It’s an older ladies automatic with a replacement Spidel band. eBay value is probably $30 - $70 at most. There is relatively little interest by collectors in women’s automatic movements.
I assume this is a mechanical watch with a mainspring rather than a battery-operated watch? Once wound down, the movement needs to be wound back up. Then motion from your arm and wrist keeps it wound while you are wearing it. If you haven’t worn it for some time, it needs to be wound again.
Also, as Richard Pearse said, so you can set the time.
Wow. I can’t believe I asked that question. I am such a dumbass. :smack:
That’s more than enough!
Up til now, her best find was a tiny 18k cross on an 18k chain that she was about to throw away because she didn’t see it in a tangled mess of Mardi Gras beads. Luckily I saw it in time.
These junk bags are like her version of gambling. She might get 2 or 3 bags for $10 each and find nothing but junk and then find a bag for $5 (like this one) with a potentially $50 watch that still works. She loves it. She has a jewelry box almost as tall as I am (about 5’) filled with the stuff she finds. She actually does wear a lot of the stuff she keeps. She throws out garbage and gives the rest away to her friends and family.
The only time she has ever sold anything was when she had a huge pile of broken silver stuff. She got $115 selling it for the silver.
So for now, she just wants confirmation of what she thinks she already knows - that this watch isn’t a piece of crap and that it’s worth getting cleaned and showing off. She loves showing people the stuff she finds.
Yes, but your Seiko is powered by an electronic quartz movement, isn’t it? I’m referring to purely mechanical automatic watches which are mainspring-powered. They do require winding by the stem if worn down. If you shake them, they will start to run, but not for as long as a fully-wound watch.
Nope - you’re thinking of the Kinetics I think. Seiko 5, an inexpensive automatic. The same movement (7s26) is used in lots of Seiko automatics. Can’t be wound by the stem.
