Reply With QuoteOne word- lovely. Okay, one more- stunning!👍
Evening all
Its been sometime since I've posted but thought I would share this beauty with you, it's a recent acquisition I picked up of eBay in allegedly 'NOS' condition, what the Italian vendor meant by new old stock was photoshopped image and the watch actually having lead a very hard life.
I decided to persevere with the project so sent if off to STS for what I hoped was a partial repair cosmetic overhaul............. sadly not......... full service and complete overhaul however it arrived back today and I am thrilled.
They have lapped the case, refinished the bezel and polished the crystal, completely overhauled the movement and replaced quite a few parts an refinished the bracelet, the results are wonderful.
These Longines Ultronic divers are becoming increasingly rare and difficult to find, especially in good condition, play your cards right and you can still get one for sub £700 and the tuning fork movement (the same as the F300) is a stunner
I am delighted with the watch and whilst I know its not another 'which mass produce overpriced swiss divers watch should I buy' post I hoped that some of the forum members may appreciate the quality of this vintage behemoth
It's a monster and has a wonderful wrist presence, they aren't everyones cup of team but I love it, definitely a keeper and I am planning on it becoming my go to watch for daily wear, especially as despite it's vintage heritage and retaining is original crystal its still maintained its waterproof status
Cheers Tom
One word- lovely. Okay, one more- stunning!👍
I love that, very cool watch
Fantastic! Looks amazing now, well done.
Cheers..
Jase
Now That is nice
Thanks chaps, it wears very much like a 42mm PO (I know that spurns daft) but has the presence of a modern divers watch not a vintage one
Very pleased
Great watches, love mine. Nice to have a bracket too 😎
That's absolutely lovely. Deserves to be kept and worn. Good save :)
Holy moly that's a stunner and better than many of the recent reissues by various companies.
I used to own one of these. Great looking watches and I love the way the hour markers float above the dial.
Yes I could easily live with that
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Damn you Tom, just when I think I have almost all the hummers I want I see another to add to the list. That is stunning. And I want one!
Lovely - great looking bracelet
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Mine with the grey/green bezel says hello DS. :) The green doesn't show up in ads of the time for some reason. Mine was the strap version from new(different stamps in the caseback denote the different strap options).
With the reflections they're a bugger to photograph. For me anyway. :s
Very nice watches IMH. Don't seem to have been made in large numbers either. The Longines with the MOSABO movement are far less common than the same engined Omega f300's(and have more variable handsets. The Omega's seem to just have basically the one). Your Longines was only in production for a year(1972). Maybe two or three per year show up on the Bay, which by Bay standards is actually rare enough. And like yours mine came originally from Italy, which seems to be the hotspot for them(show up the (very)odd time from Germany too). Not a cheap watch when new. IIRC from contemporary adverts more than a Rolex Submariner and similar level divers.
They are a tough enough old thing, so I'm not surprised that yours is still "waterproof". For a nice change I got the full background of my one. Owned by an Italian doctor from new, worn daily and accompanied him on his outdoors pursuits, as he was a big fitness dude. Climbing, hiking, cycling and snorkelling. Only ever had battery changes throughout that time and he learned to do his own early on. Not a service from 1972 to 2014 and was still going.
Wibbs
Love the grey/ green dial and great background on your watch, I really like the design and they wear wonderfully.
Lovely watch, has real character to it. Definitely a keeper!
Like fine wine, tis just gets better with age, and looks strangely contemporary.
Love it.
I had the silver dress version, it was a great watch.
Perfect size and very stylish, not to mention extremely accurate.
ETA I didn't realise there was a diver version.
M.
Last edited by snowman; 29th April 2016 at 10:40.
Ah, my old one. Remind me why the hell I sold it???Originally Posted by benny.c
I used to own one of these. Great looking watches and I love the way the hour markers float above the dial.
Thanks for all the kind words chaps, the job sts have done is amazing, I will add some 'before pics' at some point
A US newspaper advert for them from 1974, so looks to be remaindered stock by that stage(dropped in price by about a third).
The "engine" :)
IMH these rank right up there in the battery powered world as far as quality of construction goes. A "super Accutron", Geneva stripes and all. The IWC, Baume & Mercier, Eterna etc have the same finish, only the nameplate changes. The Omega that use this ESA movement have a gilded frosted finish. I suspect they were able to distinguish their movements because they bought in so many of them and were by far the largest customer. They also sent them in for chronometer testing, which you rarely see on the other makes(I've only see two Longines with it). It was pretty much down to paying for it as they were tested using the mechanical chronometer criteria which even on a bad day this movement would easily pass. Here's an Omega advert with one of their f300's front and centre.
The price comparison is interesting. More expensive than the PloProf Seamaster, a good chunk more expensive than the Speedy, which was only four quid more expensive than the basic "dress watch". The electronic was the Future(™) and priced accordingly. I love seeing how things have changed so much in the interim. :) Now where's my Tardis…
They look to have done a fantastic job alright. Not a shock mind you. :) These watches with this movement have definitely climbed in price in the last few years, especially the Longines. I got mine a couple of years ago for 300 euro(about 250 sterling at the time). You'd want to be extremely fortunate to snag one at near that price today. Unusually the Longines hummers are generally more expensive than the Omega, which is the reverse of normal proceedings. I suppose relative rarity is the big factor. On any given day on the Bay you'll have a couple of pages of Omega f300's but maybe only three or four of the Longines ones and rarer again the diver. Plus I get the feeling that as many of the mechanical vintage have climbed beyond some people's price comfort zone, more are looking to the higher end battery powered vintages which are a "bargain" for what were once the very top of the line.
Certina also produced Chronometer versions of their Certronic models.
Having worked on hundreds of these over the years, i am still hard pressed to tell an non chronometer movement apart from a Chonometer one.
As all, if the components are all servicable and within specs, can be tuned to very high overall accuracy. So I suspect nothing more than marketing.
Although much less than the Accutrons, these movements are subseptible to small variance caused by ambient temp and position so day to day reading can vary slightly.
I did, a few years ago, tuned the very same Longines model to an average of 4 seconds a month, which is well within Chronometer specs.
And I am certain there are many owners who also enjoy incredible accuracy from this old obselete horological tech.
Back to the watch in question, the orange bezelled varity is by far the most common, though common suggest they are abound, which they are not.
I have seen very few green versions like Wibbs's, making those very scarce and I am sure that there is a blue version also.
This I have never seen, so could just be a myth.
Though in truth, any of the ESA 9162 Divers are pretty uncommon, the f300 120m, f300 Skindiver, Eterna Kontiki, and Super Kontiki, and a rumour there was a Zenith Divers model.
Anyway, wear it on its old boots in good health, and mine , which I don't have anymore, gives yours a wave, Tom.
Last edited by keitht; 29th April 2016 at 14:24.
An absolute stunner of a watch. Thumbs up for the STS job
regards
Terje
COOL AS FUCK
I was just thinking the same thingAh, my old one. Remind me why the hell I sold it???
Certainly has the cool factor.
Looks great on the wrist.
Mitch
What a great looking dive watch, plenty of orange which I love, I'd happily have that in the box as part of the rotation.
Good looking watch, it'd look ridiculous on my tiny wrists though.
Very nice indeed......
Coolness!
They did too. I forgot about them. :)
+1.Having worked on hundreds of these over the years, i am still hard pressed to tell an non chronometer movement apart from a Chonometer one.
As all, if the components are all servicable and within specs, can be tuned to very high overall accuracy. So I suspect nothing more than marketing.
Handy thing about these 70's lug less type designs is that they're not that large lug to lug so although a large enough watch they can wear "smaller" than many of that dial size. I've twigs for wrists and it doesn't look odd.
I like this. Lots.
Love the orange bezel too, but I do have a thing for orange highlights on watches.
Off to ebay to scan the adverts :)
Anyone know what the 'battery disconnect facility' mentioned in the scan above is? Is it just hacking the watch? I always assumed I'd be doing some harm to the movement leaving these hacked or is it safe to do so?
Just the hack like you said, as far as I'm aware anyway. I think they specifically mentioned the battery disconnected as well because some other battery driven movements stopped the hands, but kept power running to the circuit. Or at least that rings bells in my head. But that is my head so… :s :)
wish it was mechanical, Qz give me the feel of "expire" date
Cheers Wibbs, good point about other battery watches, though I guess the only advantage of that is being able to store it over a significant period of time without draining the battery. Be interesting to know as it might save a few £ in battery changes and make my watch box a bit quieter 😉
Wow defently a winner! Very sweet looking watch. The orange finish on the bezel really makes it
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I've been wearing it for a couple of days, all I can say is that I've owned 5513's, sea dwellers, planet oceans and a whole host of mid 70's divers, I Lena belting mkii ploprof which I've had for 9 years and of all of them this wear the best, it's uber uber cool and had an awesome presence!
I love it
Qz = Quartz?
These aren't Quartz.
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Yeah I love mine too.
+1. electromechanical tuning fork. The only movement I can think of where the escapement also drives the hands directly. Longevity? They seem to be pretty tough. The main issue with them from what I recall(paging KeithT :)) are the date wheels, where the plastic ages and can chip the teeth if date changes are made at the wrong time. Generally affects the dates around 30,31,1,2. NOS ones are available(a few on the bay as we speak) and you can even get remanufactured ones made from steel which solves the problem for good. The index wheel could wear too and coils can go open circuit, but again NOS can be found. For now at least. There were also enough made that spares donors are likely to be around for a good while yet. They're a far safer bet IMH than the very early quartz where spares can be a real headache and a working spares donor is a near requirement.
On the back of D's thread, I had a wee search on the Bay and the watches with these movements are still pretty good value. OK the rarer ones like divers and some of the Omegas and the chronograph ones catch a premium, have climbed in price and can be very hard to find, but outside of them if anything the prices have softened a little since I last looked. EG among the daft dealer prices, there are private sale Longines examples just over the 200 quid Sterling mark, ditto for a couple of the Omega. Even the very rarest of them including the chronographs can usually be had for under/around the 1000 mark.
Yes the date wheel broke on two tuning fork watches I've owned.
M
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Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Paul (Electric Watches) has replaced a couple of mine with the steel ones- IIRC around £130 with a service but then it should be good for another 40 years.
Yes date rings are a common problem, although ageing plastic is no doubt a factor the damage is normally brought on by owners advancing the date manually whislt the date change wheel is still in contact with the teeth.
This then chips away tiny bits from the underside intially and causes the tab to slip when in contact, which in turn takes larger chunks away.
It only takes a small peice to render that particular tooth useless, though manual advancement is normally possible in all but extreme cases.
The metal ones are not always a good fit IMO, and you can normally see the edge of the teeth through the date aperture.
Seen from the top, any damage is not obvious,
But from underneath, those small chips are all it takes.
Coils can and do fail, more often than not its the T-coil, and of course theres the indexing.
Most index wheels problems are started by a dry or damage clutch wheel, if not lubricated properly this can exert far to much torque to the drive.
You can normally tell your clutch needs attention if the second moves when you are time setting.
If this is the case, as long as you only move the hands forward you may be fortunate enough to escape immmediate problems, but if you turn than counterclockwise its likely you will cause permanent damage to the index wheel, and possibly the pawls as well.
Pawls/clicks can sometimes cross or become misaligned. There was a factory fix for movements that were affected by this, which was bascially nothing more than a small tube pressed over the retaining pawl pin.....thus reducing the distance the pawl could move.
The movements are very well engineered and certainly do not deserve the low opinion held by many, as the problems associated with these is no more or less than any other 40yr old.
As donors and parts are still to be found relatively easily ownership should not be a cause for concern, unlike many othe rmovement types of the era.
The range and design is huge, from IWC to Imado, solid gold to SS, chunky monoliths to dainty dress...surely something for eveyone.
Modern batterys are no problem as the movement(s) were designed to run 1.35-1.55 alike.
And in terms of value, certainly for most of the well known Swiss brands, what other vintage peices can you buy from a few hundred quid.
Sure there is, was, an Zenith Allegro example on Ebay for a BIN of £150, doubt you could even get a nasty twotone quartz Defy from the 80s for that money.
Last edited by keitht; 30th April 2016 at 14:13.
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