Pile of Watches

[Rented Mule]

So as I am driving to pick up my daughter from work I see a sign in an industrial park area for a large garage/estate sale. Intrigued I follow the signs and find that a group of neighbors rented a panel truck to bring all of their unwanted items to the parking lot of one of these companies in this industrial park for a big sale (I am guessing one of these neighbors owns the company whose parking lot was being used).

I take a quick look around and really don't see anything of interest until I come up to a table with about a dozen men's watches with a could of ladies watches tossed in too. I look through and don't see anything gold or even gold-filled. Most of these watches are not in great shape with cracked crystals, missing stems/crowns and lacking bands. There is a mix of countries represented with Swiss, US, France, West Germany and Hong Kong on the dials and backs.

I select a 10K RGP Bulova and a couple of others with 17 and 21 jewels and ask how much those three were. The guy responded $1 and then offered me the whole pile for $5. I figured at worst it would keep me busy the rest of the afternoon checking these out and looking them up so I handed over the $5 and continued on my errand.

Here is a recap of what I got.

First the mechanicals:

Here is the previously mentioned Bulova from 1964. Does not run.



Paul Garnier 21 jewels. Case made in Hong Kong. Movement is stamped 821. Could this be a miyoto movement? Does not run.



Pierre Le Blanc 17 jewels. Apparently this was a Chicago jeweler brand with imported movements. This does run intermittently but the minute hand is loose.



Belair 17 jewels. Does not run. American watch company that used imported parts. Case is Swiss, movement unknown origin at this point.



Here are four with 1 jewel Swiss movements. I do like the faceted/beveled crystal in on Hamlin.



Last mechanical was a crappy Timex.

OK, onto the electric/battery models:

I really liked the look of this Newport Electric from West Germany but even with a new battery it failed to work.



Neither of these worked either with a new battery.



The one ladies watch, an Elgin, did work with a new battery.

Any guesses as to what this rogues gallery might fetch in eBay? $20-$30? Possibly more?

 

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[mojjax]

Nice bunch of watches - I love the red LED . I got one for my birthday back in the 70's , I was the first kid in school to have one .

Iv'e bought a few since , I could never get them to work , so I put them in a junk draw on Ebay with other stuff mixed in .

 

[GibH]

I found one of the LED watches in a bag. I still need to try it with a battery.

 

[GarageSaleKing]

I would put the entire lot on ebay for 9.99 and then let it run. The worst you could do is double your money.

 

[EastCoastmetal]

Cant beat $5 for that bunch, nice haul!

 

[Rented Mule]

I would put the entire lot on ebay for 9.99 and then let it run. The worst you could do is double your money.

King, I'll probably sell the mechanicals in one lot, the lcd/led in another lot and the Newport Electric on its own. The mechanicals are probably only good for parts unless someone decides to try and repair either the Bulova or Paul Garnier.
The LED I think is a different collectors market. And the Newport Electric might actually have some value I'm going to play some more with the battery contacts etc. to see if I can get it going. Someone's got a non-working one with a broken crystal for sale on fleabay right now for $55.

 

[JimDon]

A nice collection of Mid Century watches. Nothing of any real value but fun. Let me know when you put the on the Bay. I need watches to practice service on.

 

[Rented Mule]

JimDon - yeah it was fun to go through them all and I find every new watch type/movement I look at increases my knowledge going forward. Not a bad education for $5.

I would like to put these up on eBay but unfortunately I have reached my category limit in eBay for watches, even though my total sales for watches is two and I only currently have three others listed. Based on what I read I guess I am locked out of selling watches for 30 days.

 

[trdking]

You didn't get hurt at 5 bucks. Make sure you are replacing batteries with the proper voltage (they may have the wrong battery in it when you got them) The LEDs are sensitive to wrong voltage and may be your problem. The german electric is hands down the score

 

[Spartcom5]

Most of the time you'll find these LED watches never work and worst than that if the original batteries corrode you'll have Mercury everywhere.