A little bit of advice please.

[Matt]

There's this chap who is a bit of a personal hero of mine and had a fairly vast influence on my academic career when I was younger. He wasn't so famous then but he's become a bit of a household name recently. He owned a watch and that watch ended up in a museum where I have seen it a few times and, quite properly, lust after it. It's one I loosely look out for and every so often actually search bloody hard for.

Well it's come up... sort of....

The case is exactly the same. The particular case is stupidly rare and I've only seen it on ebay a couple of times. The crown is spot on. The numerals are exactly the same style, size and so on, but very slightly, I mean checking back and forth between two side by side photographs to be sure slightly, different. The mix of indices and numerals is spot on but the indices are very slightly fatter in this one with a sliver of lume. The original has an inner circle that is very slightly darker, while this has an inner circle that isn't much darker, if at all. The hands are all wrong with lume and a different shape, But the originals are just gold wire and I have plenty of those I could swap. The wording on the dial is very slightly different with one word moved from below the maker's name onto a subdial, the jewel count added and four extra numerals. I assume, with good reason, I think, that the movement will be identical.

The watch itself is underpriced, but in somewhere like Guatamala with heavy postage and the promise of import duties. I've certainly been buying a few too many watches recently so I really should think twice about another one. If it was identical I'd snap it up at four times the price but it isn't. It's identical with really really almost, but not quite the right dial and hands. On the other hand, it's the closest I've ever seen that wasn't well into four figures and holds out the possibility of picking up exactly the dial down the road...

So do I or don't I?

[tribe125]

I have a feeling you will always see the differences rather than the similarities. It will never be quite right, it will never be entirely satisfying. The right dial might never come along, the right watch might come along.

With the Guatemalan watch you can only be sure of having something in a drawer - but I know that’s not necessarily a deterrent for you.

[Matt]

I have a feeling you will always see the differences rather than the similarities. It will never be quite right, it will never be entirely satisfying. The right dial might never come along, the right watch might come along.

With the Guatemalan watch you can only be sure of having something in a drawer - but I know that’s not necessarily a deterrent for you.

That's exactly what I'm trying to work out. It's an interesting watch in its own right - a very similar case to that Zenith I bought the other month, but it's the last gasp of Borgel and comes with a soft iron core and substantial water resistance. It's one of those just post war watches that really is up to a modern standard. I also don't own a single watch from this company, which is a bit odd! I'm leaning towards it, it really is close enough, I think, and apparently is fully serviced - due diligence suggests that others have been happy that their watches actually have been!

[tribe125]

Is it a Movado, by any chance?

[Matt]

Are you a witch? How the tupping hell did you work that out?

[tribe125]

[Matt]

Apparently I wanted it quite a lot when which came to shove - and the previously insane idea that someone might work out what it was led to an itchy trigger finger. I also realised that Albania (Yes, Albania is in the same mental space as Guatamala fo me. Don't ask why) is in the EU so no nasty surprises. There's a lovely 565 omega in Bogota that I'm not going to buy now though...

So:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264416950014

The one I'm blaming you for buying:



compared to:

The one Turing wore while writing Computing machinery and intelligence:



See the similarity? Now I'm off to bed to muse over where I put that odd bonklip that I bough in anticipation about three years ago, perchance to dream.

[tribe125]

Well... you could always have that dial refinished to something closer.

I don’t know what it would cost, and I don’t have anyone to recommend, but it’s a thought.

And I’m completely innocent. You did it yourself.

[skywatch]

All I can say is, you pick some good heroes! Congrats on the new-old Movado as well!

[Matt]

Well... you could always have that dial refinished to something closer.

I don’t know what it would cost, and I don’t have anyone to recommend, but it’s a thought.

And I’m completely innocent. You did it yourself.

Yeah, that's what the Bene Gesserit always say. Next time I visit, I'm bringing a ducking stool and a small pond...