looks like s**t... but it works.

Got those, “If this watch could talk…” scars. I really do love those, too.

I think it looks pretty awesome to me!! 🍻

I actually passed on a vintage item recently that actually looked too nice. If I want nice, I’ll get something new. Vintage should be visible to me.

i agree 100%

No,you're wrong. It looks freaking cool!

Absolutely nothing wrong with that dial , that vintage look is amazing

Age and normal deterioration is one thing, but this looks like something that could benefit from a bit of an internal cleanup.

TBH, it looks like mold spores or something and I'd want to limit any further damage. Don't worry, there is almost no risk in this cleaning up completely.

i was joking. i bought it exactly because how it looks. love it! 🍻

it does.

it really does look like mold. the thing is, i like it the way it is. but as you said, i'm risking further damage.

It could be a fascinating story. The owner could have been on many interesting and even dangerous adventures with this watch. I would guess that more likely, his life was not any more exciting that any random person you would pick out on this site. This watch could have been to Tibet, but judging by the author's exact description of this watch looking like shit, and by the actual photograph, it was owned by an ordinary guy who took poor care of it and exposed it to a lot of dampness and dark conditions and now all we have is some moldy scratched up old watch whose only points of real and not imagined interest are the obscure brand name and the fact that it still works.

I like to fantasize when I see a beat-up old watch too, but from what I've seen, we watch collectors tend to greatly over-romanticize them.

But isn’t the point of fantasy to lift us above the mundane? 🤔😉

It is indeed. And I enjoy every watch I see, in whatever condition, even the "virtually ruined" condition. But I just don't subscribe to the "more beat-up the watch is, the more interesting life the owner of the watch had." I'm guessing plenty of fascinating people wore really great watches for years and years and still managed not to beat the cowboy hell out of them.

My Dad had a Vulcain watch that he wore to work on the railroad every day for many years. When he retired, he pretty much retired the watch too, but it stayed in a drawer away from harmful temperatures and moisture. You could tell it was well worn but still in remarkably good shape, all things considered. Anybody can neglect something, it takes no effort at all.

If you had bought both the vintage watch that you thought looked too nice and the author's watch shown here and showed them both to me, I would have been much more curious and come up with a better story in my mind about the previous owner of the well-maintained watch.