Antiques hunting

There’s an antiques market on the first Sunday of every month at the Nelson Mandela Square in Sandton. The stars finally aligned and I got the chance to go. This was my experience:

I felt small. There were quite a few stalls, maybe twenty or so, selling everything from teaspoons to clothes, with a good portion of the stuff being premium. To put it in perspective, it was my first time seeing a Piaget in person. The first stall I stopped at was managed by a woman with some rather large spectacles. She looked like an antiques dealer and collector, which was new to me, as I’m used to buying from small town shop owners and the occasional weirdo. She had three pocket watches and a Movado wristwatch in her display box. One pocket watch was an American Waltham, another was a Longines and the third was unbranded if I remember correctly. I didn’t bother looking at them, as I knew I couldn’t afford any of them. I couldn’t afford the Movado either, but I’m more interested in wristwatches anyway. It was likely from the ’50s and somewhat well-priced too. I didn’t take any pictures at the event, so you’ll just have to imagine it. The dial had a nice patina on it and the condition was overall good. Funnily, when I spoke about watches and mentioned that I am a collector, she asked if I owned any IWCs, Longines and other more expensive brands. I do not. I laughed and mentioned that I have parts of an IWC movement in my drawer. I guess that’s the downside of collecting at my age, no one expects you to be financing your hobby with Christmas money and money earned from odd jobs and sales stretched out to last the year.

The next stop for me was an even bigger display of watches. The man at the stand, Bruce (more on him later) entertained me for a while as I chewed the fat and handled some watches. One interesting find was an Omega Seamaster almost like mine. It too was a service watch from the City of Johannesburg City Council, albeit an automatic version with slightly different engraving. It likely predates mine (mine is a ’78 model) by a few years. He had a ton of Omega Seamasters and a very nicely kept Eterna Centenaire. Interestingly he also had a Heuer stopwatch amongst the lot. I’ve been looking for a stopwatch for a while now, so it caught my eye.

Further ahead was a Jaeger LeCoultre Albatros with an expansion bracelet retrofitted. The original bracelet is likely in a hot tub drinking Martinis with Kurt Cobain and Michael Jackson. The bracelet is integrated, so the expansion bracelet was cut to shape. It’s not original or as good as the OEM bracelet, but it was very well done. I was thoroughly impressed with the workmanship. That was way too expensive for me, so I left to look at a nicely patinad Rotary (which, in my honest and correct opinion, was overpriced) and another Heuer stopwatch. The stopwatch was mint, with the original box and sticker on the aluminium case. It was the same model as the one Bruce was selling, but twice the price. Despite that, I still think it was fairly priced for what it was and the condition it was in.

The last memorable store was again managed by an older English lady with spectacles. She had a very nice Mido and Camy Jet-Star for sale. A very nice blue Kienzle Boutique ladies watch caught my eye too. Kienzle is nothing but trouble when it comes to servicing, so I admired it from a distance. Some of you may be surprised that I didn’t jump on the opportunity to buy a nice gold automatic Camy, but I have my reasons. The dial wasn’t perfect. Sure, it was fine, but when I’ve got two NOS examples and one that is either NOS or hardly ever worn, it’ll stick out. It had a dial similar to my Nivada Antarctic Spider, which was cool, but in some spots it had an almost orange-peel-like appearance. That’s either water damage or decaying lacquer. To buy it, I would have needed to borrow a bit of cash from the parents.

So I borrowed a bit of cash from the parents and bought Bruce’s stopwatch instead. It was nice, a Heuer 1/10s with a seven-jewel movement. The case was aluminium with a black painted bezel and caseback. I didn’t pop the back, but it ran fine. One exchange later, I walked out of the mall with a very nice Heuer stopwatch. I was already in seventh heaven thinking about how I would time my pasta to the nearest tenth of a second and make the most precisely boiled eggs.

I got in the car and as I took a picture to do a google reverse image search, it stopped. I stopped and reset it. It stopped again after ten seconds. My pants were brown already, but I can’t imagine what they would have looked like if I was wearing white. I called Bruce and chatted a bit. Thankfully he was okay with giving me a refund. I ran back to the mall and returned the watch, disappointed, but understanding. Mechanical things are just like that. No debt, no stopwatch, nothing. The lesson learnt there was that I should have trusted myself. There was a nice Junghans stopwatch for half the price for sale online. It runs, but I don’t have a picture of the movement. It’s a gamble, but it provides exactly the same specs as the Heuer, (except for the fact that the Junghans times sixty minutes while the Heuer timed fifteen,) at half the price. I’ll probably buy that. The auction ends at the end of the month, so by August, if you don’t see me with a Junghans stopwatch or some other trinket, just know that someone who owes me money hasn’t paid me yet.