Mitka saw this watch on eBay, and as he knows that I quite like Accurist watches, he pointed it out to me. The seller claimed that these watches were never sold, as the screw-down crown violated the Rolex patent at the time, so the watches were destroyed. A nice story, but I couldn’t find out if that was true or not. I’ve written to Accurist, but haven’t gotten a reply so far.
The case is in very nice condition.
The case back gasket has become hard, but it’s easy enough to find a new O ring that fits.
The dial is in very good condition, but oddly enough, I can only find “Marinograf” watches by Accurist. So maybe this is a re-dial???
The cap of the crown has come off, and the thread on the pendant tube is damaged. I will have to replace the crown and pendant tube with a new screw-down crown.
The ETA 2452 is also in good condition. It’s been serviced before, as there is a lot of lubricant around.
The bottom plate with date ring. This movement doesn’t have a quick-set date.
I start putting the movement back together after having cleaned the parts.
The base movement is back together and beating.
With a new mainspring, the movement has a very decent performance indeed.
The bottom plate ready for the dial.
The hands got new luminous compound, and I also put a new luminous dot onto the bezel ring.
The crown is now a generic screw-down crown, which is a bit of a shame. I hope Accurist comes back to me with my query, and maybe an original crown?This is actually my first diver’s watch. I’ve tested it wet to 10 bars, and it holds up well, as all the gasket surfaces on the case didn’t have any pitting whatsoever.
If you have any information about this watch, I’d be very interested to hear about it!
I have a dive watch with exactly the same case, bezel and crown cap style. The brand name on mine is HOGA, on which there is precious little info. I’ve also seen one on the forums which was branded by Elgin, so it could be that these were generic cases companies used to market their own dive watches.
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Any update on the story?
No, Accurist said they didn’t have it in the old catalogues, and I haven’t heard from anyone else. Interesting …
Hmm. The early Rolex “oyster” cases with a screw-down crown were based on Borgel designs from the turn of the century and – later – designs by Perregaux and Perret*. It looks like Hans Wilsdorf / Rolex acquired the Borgel and P&P patents in 1926, but Swiss Patents only last 20 years so I cant see this having much of an impact on Accutrist in the 1970s 😉
Absolutely right. What I don’t understand is that I can’t think of any watch brand using screw-down crowns until the early 90s – it’s the only construction that properly works if you want a waterproof watch for diving. There has to be a reason why nobody else used that construction. Oddly enough, I have googled this issue to no end in English and German, but I am only drawing blancs.
The Vostok Amphibia (1967- ) has a screw-down crown with an idiosyncratic wobbly stem to accompany its other idiosyncratic bits. Whether the Accurist story is true or myth, respecting western patents certainly wasn’t common in the USSR…
Hope not, screw down crowns on most divers since the 50’s and some before eg: Doxa, Seiko, Citizen, on and on………..
very nice. What year would you say? it has a nice vintage feel
My guess is early 70s …
Very nice watch! Been drooling all over it ever since it enter the workshop.
The Movement was made from 1955 to mid sixties, so I would guess that the watch is early sixties…
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&2uswk&ETA_2452
Should have looked at ranfft.de!
Looks like the watch is about as old as I am, and I finished it on my birthday. Almost as nice as the birthday present that Mitka gave me – an EternaMatic Golfer! I am sure he will write a blog post about the watch soon 😉
I spent over an hour online today trying to find anything about Rolex bringing litigation over their crown design, and found nothing ….
Actual story or not, though, that’s one great watch!
Wear it in health!
Accurist came back to me saying that they couldn’t find the watch in any of their old catalogues – they had no knowledge about it. This might also have to do with the fact that the company has recently been taken over by Time Products UK Ltd.
The seller of the watch promised to enquire with the watchmaker who told her the story about the Rolex litigation, and I’ll keep you posted about the outcome of that.
very interesting. Is the dial original or restored? It looks genuine.
It reminds me a little of Omega’s old dive watches of the 60’s.
The dial appears to be original – I couldn’t spot any signs of a restoration.
Very nice! I’d intended to bid on that watch actually but forgot in the end.