It’s now a closed forum so if it does not work you might have to reapply for membership
Gotcha ... gotta check if my user name still works over there
It’s now a closed forum so if it does not work you might have to reapply for membership
Am in....ta
Can I just clarify a point for my own education more than anything else. Issued simply means the watch falls within a given series of numbers of watches known to have been supplied to the MoD.
The watch could have sat in the stores for years and been sold as surplus without seeing anything more exciting than a trip down the M1.
Clearly watches with history are more desirable and therefore more expensive and as we discussed in the Navigator thread the likes of Happy Jack's '81 Navigator with some history and photos of the Watch doing military service would be a collectors dream, but is this 'issued' thing a licence for sellers to ask more money.
Any thoughts guys?
Yep!
There is no guarantee an issued watch was on the balcony of the Iranian Embassy
It could have sat in a box in a cupboard
It could have sat on the wrist of the QM whilst he counted socks.
Documented history is far more desirable than purely issued, a watch with history sells for a lot more.
That said an known issued (divers) watch is quite a rare thing, the scarcity and the hunt is the major attraction (for me anyway)
Thanks for this, very much what I thought. So an issued number is preferable to a non issued number, but an issued number with associated history is top trumps.
I had an exchange the other day with a guy who said he was presented with a Rolex Comex diver watch for 10 years service, but the thing has sat in his bank vault since he got it and it is still covered in stickers etc. Probably still a £100k watch, but hasn't seen much service.
Equally, I remember a London dealer who was selling a Comex a few years back and it came with everything, a complete log, full history of the guy who it was presented to and loads of pics of the guy wearing the watch on dives. It added quite a bit to the asking price.
At the risk of showing my ignorance - what would be the situation with a Smiths W10 for example. Were these only available to the military and therefore a collector at least could be sure that it may have been worn by their personnel? Or, could Joe Bloggs get a civvie purchased watch and do a case back swap as mention earlier in thread?
It’s only recently that some military watches have been available on the civilian market.
CWC started selling to joe bloggs around 2005 when the military contracts dried up.
(Marathon started selling to the public about 2010)
Take your example of the Smiths W10. This watch was never sold to the public in its military form. i.e. T on the dial etc. So any Smiths W10 with a military dial and case back was an issued watch.
Same for the Hamilton 6b of the same era. The civilian versions of the watch had a different dial and case back (although some of these were bought by other militaries)
The US issued Hamilton’s from the 1980s were sold by Hamilton under the Khaki brand and then flogged in every outdoor shop and outfitters you can think of, they are all clearly marked on the dial with their retailer logo.
The IWC mk11 was sold to to militaries, airlines and available on the civilian market but there are subtle differences in the movement dial and case back that you can look out for.
A case back on a CWC (or other watch) could be changed and it would be hard to tell if the watch was from the same production run. There are small changes in details between production runs that can act as a give away so the person swapping would need to know their stuff, it is possible though.
To confuse matters even more the MOD watch makers did not always return case backs to their original watches at service. E.g. I have an 89 issued Precista diver that has a 88 case back.
Last edited by Sinnlover; 27th April 2021 at 18:07.
@Sinnlover
That's interesting to read. Good to know that a Smiths W10 would be a good option when looking for an issued example.
The info on the CWC case back swap when they were back at the MOD watch makers for repairs made me smile! I can well imagine them sitting at their workbenches and maybe even going as far as making a 'bitsa' watch from various parts and putting it back out out for service. They would have had no idea about the enthusiasm that now surrounds these watches and the importance/value/£££'s that collectors put on them today! As far as they were concerned they were probably just putting another bit of kit out for use?
There is an interesting discussion on this exact issue over on MWR
Early 70s CWC / Hamilton Chronographs use 100% identical interchangeable parts as both were made by Breitling. The MOD watch makers didn't really care about originality; as long as the same number of watches were retuned to use as they received for service they were happy. As such all sorts got swapped around. You can never be 100% sure of what you have. This did change in the late 70s early 80s.
Interesting feedback. As I said, I am very tempted by a 1983 CWC RN Diver with the fat hands and lumed bezel, but it's too close to the SMP 2264 to justify having both together.
Incidentally, I wear my 2264 on a NATO strap with shoulder less spring bars, which minimises the risk of the bar popping out and, in the absence of lug holes can be removed with pliers. That destroys the bars, so I tend to leave it on a NATO for long periods
However, and this is something I have thought about, the SMP 2234 GMT offers the same handset and the GMT function, with much, much better lume than my Rolex GMT 16710. That matters when you're travelling across time zones (remember those days) and you wake, jet lagged, in the middle on the night, on the far side of the world. That's when it really helps to be able to read the time at a glance. So a combination of a SMP GMT 2234 and a CWC 1983 RN Quartz could work very well. And the surplus value, or cash as others call it, would buy something interesting...
Incidentally, whilst I found my SMP's bezel a little hard to turn when I first got it, the application of a few squirts of silicone spray fixed that, and it's very easy to turn, now, with wet or dry, gloved or bare hands.
Yup, I did the same shoulderless spring bar and snip route with my 2231.
I'm still being stunned on a daily basis how legible the CWC and the 83 hands are; it is hands-down the brightest lume on any watch I've owned, and the hand legibility (white surround! :) ) is also the clearest. I've often worried that I'd regret selling the 2231... but I have to say, this watch has completely removed that worry. It (less brand boastability) is better suited to my wants/needs ... and the delta between the sale/purchase left me with >£1k in my pocket.
The 83 quartz reissue is very nice and £700 ish is the mark. Might be worth considering Eddie's Broadarrow PRs3 and has the wider hands that so suit this type of watch. Build quality is as good and with date feature. 10 year battery life puts it above CWC imo. Much rarer too!
It's interesting tracking the pricing of a couple of the modern English brands in the sales section. Gives a bit of comparative groundtruth on value retention, which is invariably significantly worse as far as I can tell- but the brands don't seem trigger any internet bitterness. ...and Oris et al have already been mentioned.
There's a psychology article waiting to be written on this!
The early collectible G10s have risen in price over the years as decent examples become harder to find and most collectors keep hold of what they have. The Navigators have always been difficult to source with few coming to market and the prices of those on e-bay in recent times have pushed into 4 figures.
It's always interesting looking back at old threads from 4-5 years ago or more and looking at people's opinions on pricing and what they paid for theirs. They would be horrified if they had to pay today's prices.
A lot of rubbish out there. A guy has just listed two 1982 Fatboys both with 1980 dials.
The same guy has another early watch and is giving the buyer the choice of having the dial put in upside down so the crown appears on the left hand side. I was going to message him and ask if he could put the movement in backwards so you can see the movement through the crystal
Last edited by Wallasey Runner; 3rd May 2021 at 13:27.
Hard to take a photo that explains why, but for the £650 I paid s/h the reissue is great value. If i lost it, and liking it as much as i do, I don't think i could avoid paying £900 for a replacement.
You can't take this design any further, the bezel insert lifts the whole thing. I've had a few of the Broadarrows over the last 15 years and both quartz and automatic versions of the regular diver, this is better than any of them. I look at it and find my self saying "thats right". I can't price that.
Apologies for the strap, curiosity got the better of me:)
Go have a look at the Watch and examine the hands, then look at his other listings including two 1982 Fat boys with 1980 dials and tell me this is someone you would buy from.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114791020...oAAOSw5DpgOKir
Unless it was you who listed this stuff
When you've done that, you can remind me what the point was that I missed...
Sorry, I was being amused by you describing a destro watch as 'having the dial in upside down'.
The destro thing is a 'tool' thing, that some think is a left hand thing... but really is mostly about not fouling the back of your hand .. if you want an instant illustration, put a dive watch loosely on your left wrist and give a punchbag one good left handed dig.... you'll understand straightaway :D :) :)
Last edited by Brauner Hund; 6th May 2021 at 20:14.