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Thread: Dirty Dozen - a complete set.

  1. #1
    Grand Master Andyg's Avatar
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    Dirty Dozen - a complete set.

    Up for sale at Watches of Knightsbridge - estimate £35-40k

    Strong money especially when you add in the Buyer Premium.

    https://auctions.watchesofknightsbridge.com/auctions (lot 94)

    Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
    Friedrich Nietzsche


  2. #2
    Grand Master Wallasey Runner's Avatar
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    Maybe, but for someone with money who doesn't want the hassle of chasing after the watches individually they may view this as a golden opportunity. Also, some of the rarer watches do command high prices these days. Be interesting for someone with their finger on the pulse to guesstimate how much you would expect to pay for a full set. I've certainly seen some at £6k - £7k, but I'm sure others are cheaper.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallasey Runner View Post
    Maybe, but for someone with money who doesn't want the hassle of chasing after the watches individually they may view this as a golden opportunity. Also, some of the rarer watches do command high prices these days. Be interesting for someone with their finger on the pulse to guesstimate how much you would expect to pay for a full set. I've certainly seen some at £6k - £7k, but I'm sure others are cheaper.
    I wouldn't want to buy a ready made full set. The thrill of the chase is most of the fun of it.

    The rarest is the Grana. You'll be looking at £8K for a good one, maybe more. The IWC is probably about £5k. The Longines is getting up to £4k now. Best bang for buck is the Cyma as it's a Stainless Steel case, a more contemporary size at about 38mm and a relatively modest price at about £1k.

    I'd have put the full set at about £30K. That's before adding the buyer's premium from the auction house.

    Here's my full set plus a couple btw


  4. #4
    Grand Master Wallasey Runner's Avatar
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    Thank you for that, very informative and a rather impressive collection you have there.

  5. #5
    Grand Master Andyg's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by trident-7 View Post
    I wouldn't want to buy a ready made full set. The thrill of the chase is most of the fun of it.

    The rarest is the Grana. You'll be looking at £8K for a good one, maybe more. The IWC is probably about £5k. The Longines is getting up to £4k now. Best bang for buck is the Cyma as it's a Stainless Steel case, a more contemporary size at about 38mm and a relatively modest price at about £1k.

    I'd have put the full set at about £30K. That's before adding the buyer's premium from the auction house.

    Here's my full set plus a couple btw


    Lovely. many congratulations.

    Whoever does not know how to hit the nail on the head should be asked not to hit it at all.
    Friedrich Nietzsche


  6. #6
    A stunning collection.

    It'll be a lucky buyer that gets those.

  7. #7
    Master Mark020's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wallasey Runner View Post
    Thank you for that, very informative and a rather impressive collection you have there.
    This ^^

  8. #8
    Master
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    This is the difficult one to get but by no means the best of the 12. There's just not that many of them:


  9. #9
    Master
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    This one has the best movement. IWC caliber 83:



  10. #10
    Master
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    This is the prettiest. imho.



    It didn't look so good when it was found buried in a Welsh field by a guy using a metal detector! Above photo was taken on the Gower peninsula.


  11. #11
    The last Grana that I saw up for sale went for £15k including commission etc, this was around 5/6 weeks ago IIRC.

  12. #12
    Master RABbit's Avatar
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    I had to sell a complete set about 6 years ago to pay a tax bill; I got 10k then. The Grana sold for 3500 which was, I think, a record then. Amazing how prices have increased since then, I should have borrowed the tax money and kept the dozen for my pension fund!


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  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by trident-7 View Post
    This is the prettiest. imho.



    It didn't look so good when it was found buried in a Welsh field by a guy using a metal detector! Above photo was taken on the Gower peninsula.

    Lovely collection Trident, I have a modest Cyma from that group but that Longines is beautiful, especially with its history. Did it live up to its WWW rating with all that time buried ?

  14. #14
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    Quote Originally Posted by para-dox View Post
    Lovely collection Trident, I have a modest Cyma from that group but that Longines is beautiful, especially with its history. Did it live up to its WWW rating with all that time buried ?
    er...not exactly:



    Fortunately the watch made it's way to John Senior who made a fine job of restoring it. In John's own words:

    It was a struggle to get the movement out of the case, I ended up breaking the glass & forcing it out with the Robur
    glass press.
    Using a military movement that I had spare I salvaged the original main bridge to fit to it. The bridge was so badly discolored pitted & had lost its gilt finish after cleaning that I decided to make the rest of the bridges from the donor movement match it. I pickled them & then re gold plated them all so that they all more or less match for pitting & overall colour.
    I then fitted a new old stock dial, hands, glass, stem & crown.
    The case was pretty bad too with all 4 case bar ends loose, a gouge & dent on the bezel plus bruising to the sides so I got them laser welded.
    I refinished the case after getting it back from the welder this morning & here we have the results.




  15. #15
    Master Geronimo's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by RABbit View Post
    I had to sell a complete set about 6 years ago to pay a tax bill; I got 10k then. The Grana sold for 3500 which was, I think, a record then. Amazing how prices have increased since then, I should have borrowed the tax money and kept the dozen for my pension fund!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    very foolish, as you said, you should have borrowed for the tax man and kept the set!...

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by trident-7 View Post
    er...not exactly:



    Fortunately the watch made it's way to John Senior who made a fine job of restoring it. In John's own words:

    It was a struggle to get the movement out of the case, I ended up breaking the glass & forcing it out with the Robur
    glass press.
    Using a military movement that I had spare I salvaged the original main bridge to fit to it. The bridge was so badly discolored pitted & had lost its gilt finish after cleaning that I decided to make the rest of the bridges from the donor movement match it. I pickled them & then re gold plated them all so that they all more or less match for pitting & overall colour.
    I then fitted a new old stock dial, hands, glass, stem & crown.
    The case was pretty bad too with all 4 case bar ends loose, a gouge & dent on the bezel plus bruising to the sides so I got them laser welded.
    I refinished the case after getting it back from the welder this morning & here we have the results.



    Wow! Amazing job. I think all the Dirty Dozen had a lead seal that the case back bore down onto. I should imagine after the case had been off a few times that the lead was compressed and wasn’t watertight anymore. Anyway, John Senior has carried out a lovely job, looks well on that brown strap too.

  17. #17
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by para-dox View Post
    Wow! Amazing job. I think all the Dirty Dozen had a lead seal that the case back bore down onto. I should imagine after the case had been off a few times that the lead was compressed and wasn’t watertight anymore. Anyway, John Senior has carried out a lovely job, looks well on that brown strap too.
    I think you could be right about the lead seal. Even when new, WWWs were at best water resistant compared with today's standard. I wouldn't be surprised if this Longines had spent 50+ years buried in wet welsh mud.

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by trident-7 View Post
    er...not exactly:



    Fortunately the watch made it's way to John Senior who made a fine job of restoring it. In John's own words:

    It was a struggle to get the movement out of the case, I ended up breaking the glass & forcing it out with the Robur
    glass press.
    Using a military movement that I had spare I salvaged the original main bridge to fit to it. The bridge was so badly discolored pitted & had lost its gilt finish after cleaning that I decided to make the rest of the bridges from the donor movement match it. I pickled them & then re gold plated them all so that they all more or less match for pitting & overall colour.
    I then fitted a new old stock dial, hands, glass, stem & crown.
    The case was pretty bad too with all 4 case bar ends loose, a gouge & dent on the bezel plus bruising to the sides so I got them laser welded.
    I refinished the case after getting it back from the welder this morning & here we have the results.



    Wow, that's awesome. The finished result is absolutely beautiful.

    Sent from my Pixel 3a using TZ-UK mobile app

  19. #19
    Master Geronimo's Avatar
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    A COMPLETE SET OF GENTLEMAN'S BRITISH MILITARY "DIRTY DOZEN" W.W.W. WRIST WATCHES

    is this the same set, if so, it is cheaper this time round ;-)

    https://auctions.watchesofknightsbri...1-ab6a011055af

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by trident-7 View Post
    er...not exactly:



    Fortunately the watch made it's way to John Senior who made a fine job of restoring it. In John's own words:

    It was a struggle to get the movement out of the case, I ended up breaking the glass & forcing it out with the Robur
    glass press.
    Using a military movement that I had spare I salvaged the original main bridge to fit to it. The bridge was so badly discolored pitted & had lost its gilt finish after cleaning that I decided to make the rest of the bridges from the donor movement match it. I pickled them & then re gold plated them all so that they all more or less match for pitting & overall colour.
    I then fitted a new old stock dial, hands, glass, stem & crown.
    The case was pretty bad too with all 4 case bar ends loose, a gouge & dent on the bezel plus bruising to the sides so I got them laser welded.
    I refinished the case after getting it back from the welder this morning & here we have the results.



    Stunning watch, my Grandad wrote me a book about his life, he was attached to the parachute regiment as a radio operator for a time during WW2, he was issued a Longines just before Operation Dragoon, he was part of the sub operation Rugby dropped in a Hursa Glider which crashed, he hit his head in the crash and it off him partially deaf, his tin hat was flattened to his head, I would love to know what happened to it. There are a few watch stories in the book...

    Anyway, I digress, would love to pick one up but they are selling for £4K+ nowadays.

  21. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheFonz View Post
    Stunning watch, my Grandad wrote me a book about his life, he was attached to the parachute regiment as a radio operator for a time during WW2, he was issued a Longines just before Operation Dragoon, he was part of the sub operation Rugby dropped in a Hursa Glider which crashed, he hit his head in the crash and it off him partially deaf, his tin hat was flattened to his head, I would love to know what happened to it. There are a few watch stories in the book...

    Anyway, I digress, would love to pick one up but they are selling for £4K+ nowadays.
    Make that £6495

    https://finest-hour.co.uk/product/lo...-watch-c-1945/

  22. #22
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    Quote Originally Posted by seabiscuit View Post
    Took a look at that link and I just want to climb through the screen and put that on my wrist. Thanks Seabiscuit for that link.

  23. #23
    Master
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    Quote Originally Posted by kneadking View Post
    Took a look at that link and I just want to climb through the screen and put that on my wrist. Thanks Seabiscuit for that link.

    You’re welcome. Mind you, check out what’s on offer on the website A Collected Man. Some quality vintage military watches. Mind you, the prices are on the steep side.

  24. #24
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    I don't think Finest Hour are representative of the wider market. £4 - 4.5k should still get you a nice Longines WWW imo.

  25. #25
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    I have caught the bug. All I can look at is www DD watches.

    Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

  26. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheFonz View Post
    Stunning watch, my Grandad wrote me a book about his life, he was attached to the parachute regiment as a radio operator for a time during WW2, he was issued a Longines just before Operation Dragoon, he was part of the sub operation Rugby dropped in a Hursa Glider which crashed, he hit his head in the crash and it off him partially deaf, his tin hat was flattened to his head, I would love to know what happened to it. There are a few watch stories in the book...

    Anyway, I digress, would love to pick one up but they are selling for £4K+ nowadays.
    That's a really cool story. I wish my grandfather had written a book about his life. Definitely a family treasure you have there.

    Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

  27. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Faiz View Post
    That's a really cool story. I wish my grandfather had written a book about his life. Definitely a family treasure you have there.

    Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk
    Most definitely, I hope to have it published one day, it is a really unique story about where he grew up, Clydebank, he worked in the ship building industry when Clydebank was the centre of the universe for building luxury liners, the first he worked on was the Queen Mary that is now permanently docked in Long Beach California. He was also in the Parachute Regiment during the war as well as a few other regiments and was on some commando raids with the Lovat Scouts in Italy..

  28. #28
    Craftsman Euan Begbie's Avatar
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    Very very cool collection.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  29. #29
    Craftsman TAFKARM's Avatar
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    A Grana is 15k on its own

  30. #30
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    what about this one? wirth the money? original?

    https://www.ebay.nl/itm/Record-Briti...4AAOSw-EheUGHY

  31. #31
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    Finest Hour

    Quote Originally Posted by seabiscuit View Post
    You’re welcome. Mind you, check out what’s on offer on the website A Collected Man. Some quality vintage military watches. Mind you, the prices are on the steep side.
    I bought a watch from this website, I did negotiate the price down a little. It was still expensive, but you do get excellent service, and the watch was superb. i'd trawled through a load of watches about 500-600 cheaper but none were as good. And as the old saying goes in collecting "buy the best you can afford" ( I can't afford that Longines though !)

  32. #32
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    A compete set, that is a proper achievement.
    I've been contemplating about trying to get there but the chances just seemed to be too slim.
    Someone is very lucky to acquire this set, although i do agree that the pleasure is the hunt.

  33. #33
    Master Geronimo's Avatar
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    Smile Darn right...

    Quote Originally Posted by Cas86 View Post
    A compete set, that is a proper achievement.
    I've been contemplating about trying to get there but the chances just seemed to be too slim.
    Someone is very lucky to acquire this set, although i do agree that the pleasure is the hunt.
    Darn right, but I was glad when it was over...
    https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...chasing-a-myth!

  34. #34
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    Quote Originally Posted by Geronimo View Post
    Darn right, but I was glad when it was over...
    https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.p...chasing-a-myth!
    I got lucky with the Grana. Chris Herbert (before he set up Finest Hour) was selling a full set. The Grana was still available so I snapped it up. And a fine example it too.

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