Roffensian wrote:
vintage wrote:
The interesting thing is that the seller says he got the watch from Richard Gilbert who authors The Complete Price Guide to Watches which I think most of us are familiar with. Gilbert also sells watches on Ebay. You'd hope he would know an authentic piece when he saw it.
I would cut Gilbert some slack for not recognising some of the visual cues - he can't be an expert on every brand, but the export code is fundamental and unforgivable in my books - if the seller's story is true.
I never look at the export code as the only reason to discount a vintage piece. I would think plenty of watchmakers during the mid 1900's would use what they had as spares to repair watches. Generally customers in for repairs are cheap sob's and want their watch running again for minimum funds. If the watch otherwise is correct with serial numbers, reference numbers, or what have you, I wouldn't be completely turned off by the wrong import code. It's an easy fix if that's all that's wrong. I don't think that's the case with this one though. I can't remember seeing a Breitling mans watch from the mid 1960's that didn't have a reference number. There's something wrong with that dial too.