Vintage Ladies Longines Cocktail Watch in 9ct Gold

[paul]

I've done it again with this vintage ladies 9ct gold cocktail watch that I picked up yesterday at the car boot sale - it cost me a whopping £3 !!!!

Some house clearance guy had a few old watches, couldn't see anything of much value, this was in an Accurist box, I opened the box and there it was, I knew within .001 of a second that it was a genuine Longines and was probably gold, I closed the box quickly as knew if I started getting it out and insepcting it then other people would notice it..I asked how much ? The seller put his hand out as if for me to pass him the box so he can have a look before so he could decide the price - I knew as soon as I he seen it then he would notice it was a good un and probably put it aside to have checked out by a big dealer so I pretended not to see him and picked up another rubbishy old quartz watch, not sure what happened then, he got distracted, I kept my poker face and then he just said ..'ohh 3 quid then' ..think he just seen the word Accurist on the box and assumed thats what is was, anyway was a huge stroke of luck for me, and I 'reluctantly' handed over the £3 !!!

I got the watch home and dated it by the serial number via vintagewatchresources.com and it was 1965.

I've had a 9ct Longines ladies gold watch before now and the case was 3.5 grams. Its pretty much the standard for a ladies gold watch, they average about 2.5 to 4 grams, a standard red 12 gold watch is usually 4 grams. I took the movement out and the glass and weighed the gold, and the case weighs a whopping 8.5 grams, thats a heck of a lot of gold for a ladies watch, most mens watches don't even have that much gold. The back itself weighs 2.4 grams and the front which is flared and quite thick weighs 6.1 grams.

Have listed the item on eBay - item number 230604388542

For a standard Longines ladies gold watch I would probably expect it to sell at around the £100-£150 mark, but the flared design and amount of gold on this model should mean it will sell for more, and I am estimating it to sell at around the £200 mark - was pretty much spot on with my last 2 estimates.

Only listed the item at 8pm on Sunday and by 8am on Monday already had 4 bids and price was up to £51 - so who knows what it will sell for...will be using the profit to buy an iPhone as need one for work so hopefully the sale of this watch will go towards paying up to half !!

[lordy]

nice one ! You never know one day you might find that elusive Patek Philippe worth millions !! I think this will sell for £150 ish, but you never know... thats my guesstimate..

The movement itself a 19.4 cal 17 jewels is being sold on the net for $130

Longines 19.4 cal watch movement

and theres about £87 worth of gold, so should easily get £150...but I guess any higher will be all about the design, if its considered Art Deco looking enough then more people will like it, the flared case is different, and the size, its bigger than the usual ladies watch, so that could appeal to bidders as well. Guess a lot depends on the day...good luck anyway hope it goes over £200 !!!

[paul]

we were both well off !! sold at a disappointing £108 !!

Could have scrapped it for £87 and sold the movement for £20 and would have saved on fees. Anyway still a good profit so better look on the bright side !! I guess there not so much money around these days so really should be happy seeing that it cost peanuts.

Was banking on £150 for this watch, am sure I could have sold it to a watch dealer at the market for about £125 in cash, but nevermind, its done now... back on the hunt for another this weekend !!!!

Missed out on a flip clock yesterday, someone paid a £5 for it, I was seconds too late, looked like 1970's had a dial with hands but a flip day and date calendar underneath, sure it could have got into the 100's...they are another thing to look out for..some can fetch into the £400's