“You can only help someone who wants to be helped.” NWA: some Cyma I bought online.
We're all suffering from a watch addiction. You can only be helped if you want to be helped. I don't want to be helped. This is my latest purchase, a vintage Cyma that's about 90-ish years old, judging from the movement. (P.S. if you know anything more about this watch, please let me know.) I won this baby at an auction and it'll be delivered soon. It passes my Chinese Pork Test™, which means that it costs less than three servings of spicy pork and rice at the local Chinese place. I'll have to see if I got a good deal. The movement probably has seven jewels, but I can only be positive once I have it in my hands and see the number engraved under the balance. It's about 30mm in diameter, which is a size that I am open about loving. I'm glad most men buy watches bigger than 30mm and with shock protection, which makes older pieces like this a lot cheaper for folks like me.
No shock protection.
Boy does that scare me.
One drop and it's game over. One. Drop. I am not particularly clumsy, but this one will certainly be babied a little more than my other watches.
Can any military watch aficionados perhaps enlighten me on the "H" engraved into the caseback? I doubt it's a reference to that one Tool song, but I could be wrong. I remember hearing somewhere from some guy many moons ago that letters mean something in casebacks of watches like this. I could also be wrong on that; it may simply be the manifestation of that nasty LSD trip I had the other day. (Jody from JOMW was reviewing a new watch, but I was the watch. "Hello and welcome! Today I'm reviewing the latest NH35 AliExpress Micro, the Ryan_Schwartz No Date Special... I love the freckle at nine o'clock and the misshapen nipple at four-thirty." I couldn't stop screaming.)
Time will tell how well this Cyma fits in my collection. I'm sure I have a keeper.
Feel free to debate with others in the comments pertaining to the pronounciation of "Cyma." Don't argue with me, because I'm right. I say "see-ma," because the brand got its name from the Latin "cyma" which is also the root of the French word "cimier," meaning crest or hill. Now that I think if it, I actually pronounce it more like "zee-ma," but ignore that I said that.
A famous Dutch saying: “𝘕𝘦𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘣 𝘫𝘦, 𝘫𝘢 𝘬𝘶𝘯 𝘫𝘦 𝘬𝘳𝘪𝘫𝘨𝘦𝘯.”
What I like as much or more than the engraved “H” are the watchmakers scratches in the inside of the case back. Someone cared enough to service it, back when service records were chicken scratching inside the case back. 👍🏻
What I like as much or more than the engraved “H” are the watchmakers scratches in the inside of the case back. Someone cared enough to service it, back when service records were chicken scratching inside the case back. 👍🏻
I also see the scratching as romantic. I do it to just about all of my watches that I service as a nod to the past. In a way, it's sad that it's stopped being done, but I can understand customers not wanting their watches to come back damaged, even if the damage isn't always visible.
I also see the scratching as romantic. I do it to just about all of my watches that I service as a nod to the past. In a way, it's sad that it's stopped being done, but I can understand customers not wanting their watches to come back damaged, even if the damage isn't always visible.
I’ve bought a few sweetheart cheap non-running vintage watches to learn/practice watchmaking on. One cadaver that could not be fixed had years of service scratches, so it was cared for before the setting lever pin sheared off.
I bought a cheap batch of watches, a few of which I could salvage, and some beyond help. But none had service scratches, making me think they were abandoned rather than cared for. Good examples to learn on and interesting how you can gain a small insight into the history of a watch through small details like this.
It’s ki - ma, as in chimera
"It passes my Chinese Pork Test™, which means that it costs less than three servings of spicy pork and rice at the local Chinese place."
I may have to adopt this unit of measure!
"It passes my Chinese Pork Test™, which means that it costs less than three servings of spicy pork and rice at the local Chinese place."
I may have to adopt this unit of measure!
Is that metric or sae?
I too am avoiding any help for my addiction……I will let you know when I’m done