Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Inside My Swap Meet Watches


The insides of most of the watches I've gotten at the swap meet look like the one below . . . made mostly with plastic components. 

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But a few are a bit different. This inexpensive-looking Armitron watch for example. The back plate was held in place by four screws, unusual, and easy to remove. 
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And the inside contained mostly metal and not plastic components. Surprising yah. Also, the rubber gasket was thick and not flimsy, and it held together after I pried the watch open.
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This plain-looking Timex surprised me too.
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It had a huge battery in the middle of the watch with the watch components all nestled surrounding it.
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I bought this watch at the swap meet this past weekend. I've come to believe that the best made watches are Swiss made, and I wanted one. So when the seller said, "It's $10 because it needs a battery.", I jumped on it.  
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It's a quartz watch so the parts are pretty minimal and don't look especially outstanding to me, but it does say "SWISS" on the plate. The battery is bigger than any of the ones that are in the cheap batch of batteries that I got from Amazon, so I need to get one. 
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I also got this Seiko watch this past weekend. It's a wind-up watch and the band is broken.  It was only $1. It actually worked for a few hours after I wound it. 
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I "oooh"ed when I opened it up.
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10 comments:

Honolulu Aunty said...

Ooooooh! Nice surprise!

Chet Colson said...

I have two Seiko watches,that don't work. Really nice watches for formal occasions. I used to take it to Sears to change the battery; they no longer provide the service. I took it to Chinatown to try and repair, they wanted to charge me an arm and a leg to fix it; guess they figure they have a captive audience.

jalna said...

Really, Aunty!!

Chet, if you just need batteries, Wendell takes his watches to Hawaii Watch Service Center in Chinatown. The guy charges Wendell around $6. If you turn left onto King from River Street, it's on the left hand side. It doesn't look like a watch repair store. It has bags for sale hanging outside. A long time ago, the guy scolded me for trying to take photos of the bags.

Chet Colson said...

Thanks Jalna, I'll check it out. Thanks for the heads up, I won't take pics of the bags....lol.

K and S said...

ooh wow...interesting!

Mark Shelby said...

I love your watch stories and pics Jalna! I got my first ever watch from Wigwam Stores in the mid 1960's. It was a Waltham. It was a divers style watch that us surfers liked to wear and it was waterproof. Maybe you can look out for one in your swap meet travels. At the time they seemed a little unknown. But their quality was famous going back to the 1850's! I always considered Waltham the Swiss watch maker of America! I always sought out very special rare unknown things.

Here a wiki link with info. You can search the net for more info about Waltham watches.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltham_Watch_Company

Susan said...

Swiss Army are pricey watches!

jalna said...

It is yah, Kat.

Mark, I'll be looking for Waltham watches at the swap meet!

Susan, no way could I afford a brand new one.

Leslie's pics said...

is this gonna be your retirement job?

Kay said...

Oh my gosh! What are you going to do with all those watches?