Sunday, July 6, 2008

Vintage NOS craze

For a while, I was into Vintage NOS, mainly Swiss Made and a few Japan Made. But gradually I start to streamline my collection of Swiss Made along modern & classic Oris designs. The Japan line will be mainly along Seiko, Orient and Citizen makes.

Vintages are low priced and pleasing to the eye imo. Most of them have medium sized cases around 32mm to 37mm and lug width around 16mm for some. These are the watches you will "put-on-and-forget" and you hardly notice they are there. Good for formal evenings as you do not want a massive Diver / Pilot watch to burst your cuffs.

So here is my Vintage collection and some have already found their new homes!

This is a CAMY Jumbo Jet 17J Hand Winder. The CAMY ticks quite resonantly. It seems most of the vintages I owned had very clear sharp ticking when fully wound. I supposed the early days steel cases are not as thick as modern watches and so one can clearly hear the "heartbeat"! The CAMY logo reminds me of a dove inflight carrying a rose. A symbol of peace perhaps? Swiss Made stamped Geneva on dial.
An elegant OCTO Incabloc 3422 Hand Winder in steel. A good collectible timepiece as it is lume-free, so no worrying about lume material collecting on the inside of the crystal after prolonged usage. This OCTO has a stunning silvery sunburst dial. At certain angles, the dial appears white and tones to a silver grey shade.
This is a pre-owned PAGOL 1000 SW506. It had a cross-hair black dial with the trademark Coconut Tree above 6 o'clock position. PAGOL was very popular in Singapore in the 60s - early 80s. A forum-er emailed me saying the PAGOL brand has been developed into a new branding named PAGOL-Elite and has some presence in Vietnam.
This CRONEL "Diver" 17J Hand Winder came with her original hang tag which has already turned yellow over age. Singapore's climate is hot and humid, and so it is very suitable for the development of mould on paper! Well, I don't think she is a real Diver due to the bi-directional bezel. The dial color is one of the rarest I have encountered - greyish midnight blue or sort.
Isn't this a photo-copier brand?! In the early days, RICOH made precision instruments like watches . This RICOH 21J Automatic has rounded edges, making the watch look bigger than fact. The doom cystal also adds to the depth and volume of the watch. There is a raised red flower above 6 o'clock. It looks like a Lotus, a symbol of purity rising among the filth in Buddhism.

Most Singaporeans associate Titus with Solvil et Titus, and the first watch shop that comes to mind is - City Chain. Solvil et Titus is a Hong Kong brand developing fashion quartz watches. So this actual old stock SOLVIL ET TITUS GENEVE 3983 is the real thing. I am amazed by the the high pitched spinning of the rotor. The dial is a textured blue with minute raised pyramids on them. The bracelet is also a Titus original.
But recently I have moved out of the Vintage craze! And this watch has just found a new home.

1 comment:

dappled grass said...

Hi! I'm a Singaporean who came across your blog via an Internet search. My dad has a Pagol watch too, and I've been trying to find out more about it. Just wondering if you'd be able to tell me more about Pagol?