The universe is weird.

I am a stranger here. Normally I post on omega forums. I see that both sites share a common login and user profile.

Heuer watches are my second favorite after Omega. I am not sure why. I only have 3 Heuer's and one says Baylor on the dial. The other is the remains of a sports timer.

The remaining watch is a rusted Valjoux 72 chronograph. The adventures in restoration of this watch are sprinkled about Omega forums. This is one of those watches which one keeps sinking more time and money into. I think when I am done I will have two watches. Currently it is dissembled waiting on my figuring out how to remove rusted screws.

That is not the reason for this missive. Actually what is weird are online auctions. I could rant about eBay. I could do so on OF. So then why make the comments here? To a room full of strangers. I guess it is because I missed out on adding a new Heuer to my collection.

For some reason I have no issue finding Omega watches or parts for under 60USD. Especially ladies watches. I also have a collection of perhaps a dozen Landeron Chronographs. Yet when ever I attempt to locate a Heuer, even a quarts Heuer the bids always skyrocket. Guess there are a lot less Heuers in this world. Good for the Heuer affectionados and collectors. One can easily admire what they can not afford. I am glad there are those whom the universe has blessed to be able to afford such fine things. Yet there seems to be more luck than skill when it comes to what one can and can not have.

Not much of a seller. As I noted on OF I would rather untangle a hairspring than use eBay or any other forum to sell a watch. Ebay does have the illusion of being a great place to buy and sell. Easy to use interface etc. It is pretty good for purchasing non Heuer watches. Goodwill is good for those impulse buys of cheap costume watches.

I have sort of a running gag, as I have quite a few watches, Of attempting to sell all my Bulova watches. Recently I found some Seiko scraps.

I managed to sell some empty Seiko cases for 1.00 each (well 99 us cents.) of which I might see 70 cents. The buyer on the other hand is out more like close to 10 bucks with eBay and the shipping companies getting the bulk of this. Do not really have any emotion about this. Mostly it feels like tasteless mush. Neither good nor bad. It is what is is.

So why the gripe. After all I like a lowball purchase as much as anyone. Good watches do cost what they are worth. It is unreasonable to expect to get things for way under their value. Of course we all would like that. But then the value of such things would be lower.

All week I have been watching some auctions such as this one. Most of the week it was in the low figures. I bid what I would for an Omega in similar condition. Yet the auction went for double what I wanted to pay for yet another project watch.

I lost my third favorite watch over the weekend. (Even if I find the parts of that watch it will never be the same.) I was so looking forward to possibly getting this as an anodyne.

No the universe does not work that way. One would think that perhaps the bulovas might sell this time or the seiko scraps be needed by someone who could truly love them. But no this was not to be.

Eventually I will find my next Heuer. I keep looking. It is out there somewhere.

My preference is for vintage Heuer. I sort of avoided the TAG Heuer watches back in the 1990s when I was actively collecting. Now some of them are vintage and have aged well. The watch I posted is not really a first choice more that the early bid price was low till the end.

What I really want to add to the collection would be a women's quartz TAG Heuer. I am also partial to chronographs. Not that I need any more, I have quite a few Mostly Landeron. I also like Venus 170s and anything from Lemania. The only Valjoux I have is the wreaked Heuer that sucks up all my spare change.

I like fixing watches. I do have quite a few project watches. Took an 18 or so year break from my passion. I also have a fascination with pipe organs, for which I work with the electronic relays. Visited Swizerland last spring, which re-sparked my interest in watches.

It really does come down to timing and luck.

I will know it when I see it.

I love project watches. So I tend to lean to the low end of things. I also like watches with character, especially if I clean and fix them up myself.

So things get curious and curiouser as Alice said.

I got a make offer in my email for one of the overpriced junk watches I have been watching for weeks/months. So I fell for it and lowballed the seller. I did not notice till I made the payment the watch is coming from Columbia. And may take a week to ship it. The seller does seem to have good feedback and seems to accept offers quite often. The negative feedback seems to be from a few expecting a working watch. The others wanting parts do give good feedback.

Anyway if I do get it this is is what I ordered.



The missing bezel will be problematic.

As I work with microelectronics on pipe organs, I am interested in seeing if I can rework the movement. Over the years I have programmed many clocks and often include clock display options in my controllers.

Before the pandemic the little AVR processors from Atmel were cheap. I have a small vial of them I got from a trade show. I also have access to a reflow oven and can do PC layout.

Another impulse purchase was 1.37LBs of junk chronographs from goodwill. (I was going to repurpose the cases and pushers, only to find the buttons are fake and molded onto the case core.) This is all another back burner project. Some of these crappy watches have nice designs.

Such will be a subject unto itself. But does require getting some decent materials to play about with. My expertise is with mechanical movements from the 1950s and 1960s. On the other hand many of the trade journals I collected in the 1990s cover the electric and electronic watches from the 1970s and 1980s. One article I like in particular deals with hacking quarts clocks to create astronomical dials.

I also noticed that the OP watch that inspired this thread may have been relisted. Or else the seller has more than one of these. One would not think they have unrealistic values and a high reserve. Perhaps I should consider getting a shill bidder for my auctions that tend to go no where.
Will be interesting what happens next.

My guess is a shill bidder driving the price up. The watch seems to have been relisted.

As can be seen the accepted price was 45USD plus the 35USD shipping. Seems fair enough if the case dial and hands are workable. Sure I would have liked to have gone 10USD lower, which would have made the watch and the shipping the same.

Unlike the Omega's and chronographs I have found the Heuer's especially the Tag/Heuers to be a bit more pricey. I suspect this is due to the smaller numbers of units produced or available on the secondary markets.

(Tag/)Heuer does have good marketing. Which is what makes me interested in such. Unlike Omega the company is more of a brand name than a consistent product. I have noticed more quartz models that the other Swiss brands. Quartz is kinda a fringe area for me.

Heuer also was more of a brand name, using movements from other makers. I do like my Baylor triple date with a marked Heuer movement. I think I read where the production from that era was dumped to Zales and other retailers like Sears. Would love to find more like that. Seems others feel the same.

Finally got the second watch. (on the left)
And because two are not enough, I bid on a third one and won this evening.


At least this one has a bezel. I had been looking at some others on eBay. Bit surprised what sellers are asking for in price, even for the parts.

The watch I recieved today I ordered on Dec 21 (see above) That one was actually only 32 plus S&H. Cheapest listed bezel is 45. Why I went ahead and bid on the GW one.

Can not get the back off the one I got today. Tried the ball and then gave it some character with a Jacksa[Sp] tool. The other thing that is strange is the dial is rotated, Yet I can set the time. The date seems to work when I cross midnight. Date wheel is bunged up. The crown also seems to screw down.

I may make a temp bezel out of Delryin so the watch does not look so naked.

I work with micro electronics (Pipe organ relays) So I am sort of curious how the electro mechanical stuff works. Which is a lot of the reason I got these.

I do not think this forum has a watchmaking section like the Omega one does. Or even if there is interest in self maintenance. May also be a while getting to these projects. I found enough parts to assemble 5 AS 1187/94 mechanical movements. I also acquired more Omega ladies movements and parts this week too. Not to mention the Val 72 in the top of this thread that inspired this madness.

I created a new thread for repair questions. https://tagheuerforums.com/threads/right-to-repair-ability-to-repair-or-the-watch-is-here.154692/

This thread seems all over the place. Suffice to say I now have all three watches in my possession.