Vintage Watches

Hi everyone,

I recently went through some family heirlooms and rediscovered two watches that have been sitting in a bank vault for years. After taking them to a Rolex dealer for an assessment, I’m now looking for some advice on what to do next.

The Watches:

1.Rolex Oysterdate Precision (6694/0, Serial: 2048751) - 34mm, from around the late 60s?

The Rolex dealer confirmed the winder mechanism no longer seals properly and recommended a full restoration, which, in Italy, can only be done in Milan. They estimated the restoration starting at €1,800 but estimated it would likely cost around €3,000.

The watch had a non-original strap (and even non-original fixing pins), which I’ve since removed. While I’d like to keep it, the restoration costs seem steep unless there’s significant sentimental or resale value. They recommended not to wear it. Would it make more sense to sell this as-is, and if so, where should I look?

Tavannes Gold Pocket Watch (Early 20th Century - gold case 1916) This one is in fantastic shape! The Rolex dealer opened it up and confirmed that the mechanism is working perfectly, with only minor surface oxidation.

It has an engraved leaf design on the inner casing, and the movement is marked as Tavannes

I’d love to preserve and maintain this piece properly.

What I’m Looking For:

1.Storage & Maintenance Advice

The Rolex dealer suggested storing the watches in a sealed container with silica gel sachets, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on the best long-term storage options for both pieces.

The Tavannes is in good condition but might benefit from a light service or oiling. Can anyone recommend a trusted watchmaker in Europe?

Selling the Rolex If I decide to sell the Rolex, where’s the best place to do so? Is it worth trying to find a collector who might appreciate it, or should I go through a reputable dealer or auction?

Thanks in advance for your help! Any insights on these pieces, maintenance tips, or selling strategies would be greatly appreciated

Riva | unknown movement Unknown manufacturer | 4 jewel movement Unknown manufacturer | pocket watch movement? Rewac | 17 jewels movement

Heya! I thought I'd mention that I've been doing a bunch of development on the optical Timex Datalink watches! I have been carefully sniffing data from the original Timex software with a logic analyzer, and have fully reverse engineered every Datalink protocol, the serial Notebook Adapter, and even the CRT syncing graphics! This means that every Datalink device, including every Timex and Motorola watch, all PDAs, and the funny e-BRAIN talking toy is supported!

For those that aren't familiar, the Timex Datalink is a watch that was introduced in 1994 that is essentially a small PDA on your wrist. The early models (supported by this software) have an optical sensor on the top of the face that receives data via visible light.

The original data transfer method involves drawing patterns of lines on a CRT monitor for the watch to receive with the optical sensor. CRTs use electron beams that draw scan lines one-by-one from top to bottom, then it returns to the top and repeats for the next frame. This means that the electron guns turn on when its drawing a white line, and and turn off when its drawing the black background. This produces flashing light as the graphics are drawn, which is ultimately received by the optical sensor and decoded by the Timex Datalink device.

For laptop users, Timex also offered the Datalink Notebook Adapter. Instead of using a CRT monitor, the Notebook Adapter simply flashed a single LED light. This adapter is fully supported by the Timex Datalink software, and sends the same data as a CRT.

However, Notebook Adapters are rare and expensive now, so I reverse-engineered one! Here's my timex_datalink_client Ruby library communicating with my DIY Datalink Notebook Adapter to emit data to a Timex Datalink watch!

And if you want to try the reverse-engineered CRT graphics, I got you covered! I reverse-engineered that, too!

As a fun tidbit, these watches are flight certified by NASA and is one of four watches qualified by NASA for space travel! Here's a shot of James H. Newman wearing a Datalink watch on the Space Shuttle for STS-88!

Here is my Ruby library with all options for all watches reverse-engineered into a tidy model-based syntax!

• https://github.com/synthead/timex_datalink_client

Here is a Notebook Adapter emulator that is fully compatible with all Timex software on old and new machines, and also works with my library too!

• https://github.com/synthead/timex-datalink-arduino

And if you have an anchor that happens to contain an electron beam and wanna try it, here's my library for drawing graphics to a CRT to transfer data!

• https://github.com/synthead/timex_datalink_crt

This has all been done over months of careful effort with lots of VMs, Pentium machines, Windows 98SE, logic analyzers, and solving data puzzles little by little. On July 4th, 2023, I'm proud to announce that I have reverse-engineered every Datalink device with 100% feature compatibility! This is definitely a passion project by all means, and I thought I'd pop in and share this passion with y'all!

Enjoy!

I believe we have 3 more to find. I especially look forward to the Red Baron one. They all have new crystals and straps.

This was my grandfathers watch and possibly his fathers too. If anyone knows any info on this I’d be very grateful. It might be from the 40s but I’m not sure.

I know next to nothing about this piece.