Almost missed this one............
Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2021 12:26 am
Many years ago I made the mistake of buying a wristwatch.Actually I didn't have much choice in the matter;I was in the Navy and really needed one. Went to the Navy Exchange(PX to others)and purchased a manual wind Timex for about $12 which in 1965 was a pretty good chunk of change for a 3rd class petty officer. It lasted about two years and one day I broke the crystal on it while loading weapons on an F-4. I left it in the ordnance shack one day after that and someone actually stole it!
Several years after getting out of the Navy I went to work at a Mercedes-Benz dealership and one of the guys who worked there was selling fake Rolex watches and other brands and I bought one. It lasted a lot less longer than the Timex did.
Another guy I worked with collected watches and had a really nice Omega diver's watch with a manual alarm in it that vibrated against your wrist to let you know it was time to surface. It was a great watch but unfortunately over time had lost it's,"watertight integrity" as a boat sailor might say. When I went swimming one day I noticed that the watch was about half full of water! Needless to say that was the end of that one!
It did start me off on collecting watches over the years and I have had some really nice ones;most of which got traded off for either other watches or knives.
So this story begins with me and my bride driving into Ann Arbor to a furniture store to look at coffee tables for the house. As we're driving along I spotted a large yard sale going on that looked like it had a lot of "man stuff" and I started to slow down to turn around. My wife said,"We can stop on the way home" and I said why not.
We found our table and was driving back and I drove past the yard sale again! This time my wife said,"Turn around!" and I did. Got out of the car and started looking around and wasn't finding much. A bunch of watches that were basically junk and a like amount of knives.Didn't look good.
As I was heading back to the car,I spied another watch in a case sitting by itself on a bench.Went over to look and saw it was a chronograph with a biker style wide leather band.Picked it up and looked at the name:It was a Breitling!
I was kind of skeptical as I knew that there were a lot of fake Breitling watches out there but I figured that even a fake one might be worth buying.
I went up and asked how much it was as there was no price on it and the woman said,"If it came from that table over there it's five bucks". I paid her and started walking back to the car and started winding the watch. To my surprise the sweep hand started moving!
I wound it all the way and shut off the chrono movement and re-set it. Looked like it worked all right.
Told my wife that it was probably a fake but it was definitely worth the five dollars I had paid for it.
The next day I took it down to my local jeweler to have him check it out as I didn't have the tool to replace the case back if I took it off. He pulled it off and checked it over and said,"Yes it is a real Breitling and checked the serial number and determined it was made some time in 1967! He also said it was likely worth about two thousand dollars!
I wind it faithfully every night about 11 pm as my friend and watch repairman told me to always wind it at the same time and it will lengthen the life of the main spring. I still keep it in the box that it came in but have discarded the original leather band as it was in pretty rough shape. I have also had it serviced once and replaced the band with an original Breitling bracelet that I had bought for my other Breitling. That one I swapped a 1966 Chevrolet Bel Air sedan to get it about 35 years ago with my friend Bob who got me started collecting watches.He still asks me how,"his" Breitling is and when I'm going to let him have it back.He may just get it back someday.
Anyway that is the story of how that one almost never was...........Here is a pic of it in it's resting place.
Several years after getting out of the Navy I went to work at a Mercedes-Benz dealership and one of the guys who worked there was selling fake Rolex watches and other brands and I bought one. It lasted a lot less longer than the Timex did.
Another guy I worked with collected watches and had a really nice Omega diver's watch with a manual alarm in it that vibrated against your wrist to let you know it was time to surface. It was a great watch but unfortunately over time had lost it's,"watertight integrity" as a boat sailor might say. When I went swimming one day I noticed that the watch was about half full of water! Needless to say that was the end of that one!
It did start me off on collecting watches over the years and I have had some really nice ones;most of which got traded off for either other watches or knives.
So this story begins with me and my bride driving into Ann Arbor to a furniture store to look at coffee tables for the house. As we're driving along I spotted a large yard sale going on that looked like it had a lot of "man stuff" and I started to slow down to turn around. My wife said,"We can stop on the way home" and I said why not.
We found our table and was driving back and I drove past the yard sale again! This time my wife said,"Turn around!" and I did. Got out of the car and started looking around and wasn't finding much. A bunch of watches that were basically junk and a like amount of knives.Didn't look good.
As I was heading back to the car,I spied another watch in a case sitting by itself on a bench.Went over to look and saw it was a chronograph with a biker style wide leather band.Picked it up and looked at the name:It was a Breitling!
I was kind of skeptical as I knew that there were a lot of fake Breitling watches out there but I figured that even a fake one might be worth buying.
I went up and asked how much it was as there was no price on it and the woman said,"If it came from that table over there it's five bucks". I paid her and started walking back to the car and started winding the watch. To my surprise the sweep hand started moving!
I wound it all the way and shut off the chrono movement and re-set it. Looked like it worked all right.
Told my wife that it was probably a fake but it was definitely worth the five dollars I had paid for it.
The next day I took it down to my local jeweler to have him check it out as I didn't have the tool to replace the case back if I took it off. He pulled it off and checked it over and said,"Yes it is a real Breitling and checked the serial number and determined it was made some time in 1967! He also said it was likely worth about two thousand dollars!
I wind it faithfully every night about 11 pm as my friend and watch repairman told me to always wind it at the same time and it will lengthen the life of the main spring. I still keep it in the box that it came in but have discarded the original leather band as it was in pretty rough shape. I have also had it serviced once and replaced the band with an original Breitling bracelet that I had bought for my other Breitling. That one I swapped a 1966 Chevrolet Bel Air sedan to get it about 35 years ago with my friend Bob who got me started collecting watches.He still asks me how,"his" Breitling is and when I'm going to let him have it back.He may just get it back someday.
Anyway that is the story of how that one almost never was...........Here is a pic of it in it's resting place.
