My first 'old' watch

The first old watch that I bought was a hand-winding Titoni Airmaster. The original was given to a friend after I discovered that the movement said 'Pagol' instead of Titoni as it should have. The one pictured below is a similar one I got recently. Works fine and the movement looks in good condition but the dial could be better and the date-wheel is trash. These movements are fairly common and I'm sure I will come across an organ donor one of these days.

The elegant lugs are a hallmark of Titoni watches of the period and its suprising that you don't see them more often as they look really good IMHO. However this is only if they are fitted with a strap as generic metal bracelets look really awful as they can't fill the gaps especially at the edges of the lugs. The original metal strap covers this area well but these are quite rare. The dial is pretty much traditional in design except Titoni usually have an insert just above the 6 o'clock marker. I've heard that this is a Swarovski Crystal.... any thoughts?

This is a simple gents watch from the sixties, powered by an ETA2409 movement. This is a simple movement but the fact it has 21jewels (in a hand-wind) shows that it was probably slightly up-market as a lot of watches during this time were only 17Jewels. You can see three of the additional one the train bridge(the three jewels in an oblong plate held by a screw, there will be one more on the dial side. There is no real quickset on this watch but you can wind it back to around 8(pm) and it will roll over. Previous watches without quickset required you to wind the watch forward until you get the date you required..Not so much a problem when you only owned one watch, then you only needed to wind it forwards 24hrs for the months with only 30days (more for February) but its a pain nowadays as I usually wear a particular watch for only a few days at a time.

The case-back style is also peculiar to Titoni. Instead of the usual six slots, you find a 12-sided 'nut' which can easily be opened with an adjustable spanner. Note, if you want to open one of these watches with an adjustable spanner, use a new one or at least one in good condition where the jaws have nice flat edges. The 'lands' on the caseback are quite shallow and a worn spanner will slip and scratch the case-back. The original Titoni tool looks like an oversize bottle opener with the end in the form of a ring-spanner but is almost impossible to find now.

Overall, a nice honest watch, it wears well on the wrist too..

This is another similar model, but this time from the late 70s or early eighties. Similar styled dial but it now has minute markers. A nice touch is the red-arrow tipped secondhand. Here you can see the gap when you use an incorrect steel bracelet. The bracelet in this case is an original Titoni, just not for this watch.

It has an ETA2763, in this example it looks good..no water damage, bodges by previous owners etc. Movement holding screws are present and correct. This movement is slightly newer and has a proper quickset. You can pull the crown out halfway and advance the date....aaaah progress.

Original crown too...

Caseback doesn't look too bad

Bye for now,......