Hi Everyone,
Not sure if this is in the right discussion for this post. I thought I would share with you a bit of watch nonsense I have been working on in the past few weeks. Sorry about the low res phone pic.
I picked this Charles Vogele up on a certain online sales site 6 months ago. No, I have never heard of the brand either. It was frankly, a wreck when it arrived. But there was something I could see in this that reminded me of a Breitling watch I have on my halo list. So I bought it for $16.00 as a bit of fun.
It neither worked as a watch nor acted like a typical slide rule, as the movement was non functional and the bezel was fixed into place. The compression fit glass was scratched beyond repair and the sub dial hands were missing. The Myota Ym55a quartz movement was not that easy to procure and in the end I had to import one from Japan. The lume is shot and the general dial fit leaves a bit to be desired. I think that accounted for the sub hands not being in place as there was a great deal of misalignment between the spindles and the openings in the face. It probably did not come out of the factory like that, one would presume.
I replaced the necessary parts and put it on a rally strap for fun, and presto, one working watch. It keeps good time, but is a bit of an oddity. I did a bit of light machining and made the fixed bezel work as a rotating one. It was all there, just had not been operated on, I guess to save on costs. Just a small groove in the back of the bezel and aligned with a groove machined into the case upstand around the glass. A deformed spring clip I had as a spare, as you would typically find on one of these watches, and it all works.
The thing I like about this watch is that it seems to have attached itself to my wrist every day for the past fortnight, and it looks like becoming an everyday wearer. I took it to a building project close out on Monday and I was not really concerned by the general building debris around me. Too scared to wear a Ling on site, so this one might be a good stand by. Total cost so far is about $85.
If anyone knows anything about Charles Vogele (I assume its a Seiko brand) then I woudl love to know more. I have tried through the ether, but not much info out there on this model. Its a CV7571. Closest I have come to anyhting like it was a promotional watch made for the introduction of ANL flights on the Boeing 777.
Thanks for looking.
