**** Mfas lockdown edition **** round four ****

[is that my watch]

Ladies and gentleman this is the fourth round of the more for a score comp we have been doing.


For those that may not have seen them before we do a comp every now and then when members ask for it been doing them from almost the start of IWL... so the plan buy a watch has to cost under £20 pounds ( or what ever your local currency is to that sum ) plus post (here most try to get the post as part of the £20 pounds - but did say a small amount was over look-able if not excessive )


Then you wait for them, and clean and fix them up if they need it and see whose one wins the most votes and they win a badge .. the glory ..bragging rights... etc etc


Ok next two pulled are : 1) tribe- m-watch - 6) ismy - timex



1) tribe- m-watch

The M-Watch

Back in the early 1980s, I read a magazine article about a new breed of watches. These new watches were made from plastic, they were cheap, and you could change the battery yourself. There were two watches standing ready to take over the world, and they were the Swatch and the M-Watch. I wanted an M-Watch - and I couldn’t find one anywhere.





Mondaine has an M-Watch model today (a different design), so it’s natural to think that M stands for Mondaine, but it doesn’t. M is for Migros, and Migros had their M-Watch made by Mondaine. Migros, sometimes called ‘the orange giant’, is Switzerland’s largest supermarket chain, and it’s Switzerland’s biggest employer. The company logo features a large orange M. The M-Watch was sold in Migros stores and was also known as the ‘Volksuhr’ or ‘People’s Watch’. The main difference between the M-Watch and the Swatch is that the Swatch had more vigorous promotion and better access to international markets.

The M-Watch had to settle for being a local cult and was eventually dropped. When Migros brought it back (as a 30-year anniversary model), Mondaine went to court, saying that the name and concept belonged to Mondaine - but they didn’t. Migros eventually won the case, with the court accepting that M was for Migros, and that the originator of the concept was Pierre Arnold, Chairman of Migros in the 1980s. Part of the evidence was this watch, which showed that the M originally stood alone (rather than hyphenated as M-Watch), and was a representation of the ‘orange giant’ M.





I’m not going to have a precise memory of a magazine photo from nearly forty years ago, but everything points to this being the watch I wanted and couldn’t find. Tellingly, it’s the sort of thing that I still like today. This picture from a later article says: “The success story began with this model: the first M-watch from 1983”.





The one I have bought appears to be an original from 1983, rather than the anniversary model that caused a fuss thirty years later. The case back shows that it was made by Mondaine, and the anniversary model was made by somebody else - hence the court case. So this is the ‘Volksuhr’ that lost to the Swatch, and later led to a legal debate on the meaning of M. It also shows that the Swatch wasn’t as uniquely inspired as we might think - a supermarket had the same idea.




The watch is in pretty good nick. The mineral crystal has some scratches, and the plating has been worn away from the crown, but it’s perfectly wearable. The strap will have been replaced at some point, but may well be correct for the model. It works, and it’s accurate. But the watch itself is secondary to the story, historical and personal.



6) ismy - timex

well have a thing for the timex Q time I have had five or six different versions of it this was a very nice example and the tat lot I bought had two versions in it that I got working and two other timexs one I got to work the other was not good so three working out of a £19 quid tat lot was very fair.

sold one of them for the price of the tat lot one for half the cost of the tat lot and keep this one even thou I like it will probably flip it as do have even a better example I found in another lot.

so to be fair pricing was £19 and some change for the lot and £3 ish for post came to £22 ish and it work fully accept for the dimple for quick change seems stuck in but could probably fix that but ant got round to it as set it by going round the clock and it works fine that way. and auto changes fine too and does have the original bracelet too I had to sort out some stretching and lost bars but all good now was a minum repair on it just polishing ,cleaning swap and clean of the battery contacts and new bat and was good to go.









voting will be done as a view-able vote so those on tapacrap who want to vote can just say here and then when voting finishes will add those to the score on tallying up .. every one is welcome to vote whether they enter anything or not


As always Ismy

[is that my watch]

easy vote for me so one for mr tribe

[crownpuller]

Aw, ma'an; another one where I'm torn...
On the one hand there's the 'educational' aspect of the M Watch, which until this comp. I'd never heard of...
On the other hand there's the nostalgic aspect of the Timex; and in this case, a very clean & straight one...

Some further pondering required...

[is that my watch]

Aw, ma'an; another one where I'm torn...
On the one hand there's the 'educational' aspect of the M Watch, which until this comp. I'd never heard of...
On the other hand there's the nostalgic aspect of the Timex; and in this case, a very clean & straight one...

Some further pondering required...

yes I too was hoping for a diff pick but suppose if you got to go out it's better to be a good hard choice then easy

[tribe125]

Modesty forbids and the Timex is rather nice.

FRA20NCE for me.

[is that my watch]

Modesty forbids and the Timex is rather nice.

FRA20NCE for me.

yeah need to look in to the Q range more as seen some with franc on the dial some with England and some from somewhere else was it swiss ?

[OhDark30]

Indeed, another tricky one!
Both examples of understated cool

(The M watch is very close to the dial of a Braun alarm clock I still have & use from the same era. Won’t picture it cos it’d be distracting from the task at hand)

Now decisions, decisions

[Matt]

They are both lovely, but the M watch has captured my imagination and looks so cool. I think it’s the first time I’ll be trying to buy a competition entry!

[is that my watch]

They are both lovely, but the M watch has captured my imagination and looks so cool. I think it’s the first time I’ll be trying to buy a competition entry!

mine are always for sale

[tribe125]

They are both lovely, but the M watch has captured my imagination and looks so cool. I think it’s the first time I’ll be trying to buy a competition entry!

You can have this one by the end of the week.

No charge.