As some of you will know I have several relatively modern watches. The last few years I have been looking at vintage watches. I think I might have written something to that effect on this thread some time ago.
Anyway, the other day I was rummaging through some boxes and found my dad’s old watch. My dad passed away in 1991. I got his watch and put it away at the time.
It is a Buren, Swiss Slender automatic. What was amazing, it started working the minute I picked it up and moved it about. Consider it had been sitting idle for some 27 years that is quite something.
I remember my dad getting this watch. I must have been at primary school at the time, around late 1960s’ or thereabouts. My dad wasn’t a particular material man. He was more the intellectual type buying endless books. But whatever he bought, he always liked to spend good money to make sure he got good quality. So I was pretty sure this was most likely a pretty good watch at it’s time.
Surfed around a bit and found out that indeed these Buren automatic were quite advanced for their time. They were one of the first companies to introduce mini rotors to drive the winding mechanism. Which meant the watches could be quite slim.
I phoned around a bit to find somebody that could do a proper overhaul. Found a very nice vintage watch shop in Leiden.
https://www.tijdloos-leiden.nl/en_GB/
I spoke to the owner, Paul, at length. He was very familiar with these watches and said he had all the spare parts in stock. So I took it to him. This is a little shop and Paul takes his time, so it took about 10 weeks before the watch was ready.
Paul did a great job. He took the whole watch apart, all seals and some other small parts were replaced. The casing, face, handles etc are all still original. So they show the wear and tear during my dad’s lifetime. The total cost of the overhaul/service was Euro 250,--
I put a new strap on it. My dad had a metal strap put on at sometime and I never liked it.
I am very pleased with it. It runs perfect again. It is an old watch, so I do need to be a bit careful with it. Especially water is a problem for these old watches. I put the watch on my wrist the day I picked it up. The next day it was full of condensation. I’m not aware I got it wet, but then with any of my modern watches I wouldn’t even notice. Just washing your hands might get some drops splashed on on it. Also, I wear my watches on my right wrist, which means the crown tends to be facing up a lot!
I phoned Paul in a panick and returned the watch to him. He opened it up again, dried it out, put some more grease here and there and it has been fine ever since.
I don’t wear it everyday. It is more a watch for special occasions. It is almost a dress watch although the strap is a bit casual. These day that doesn’t matter much.
According to Paul the value of this watch could be somewhere between Euro 600-800. I have been keeping an eye out on some online auctions. Havent seen an identical one. I won’t sell of course. But I find it interesting to find out.
I would like to think that this watch passes on to one of my kids in due course.
As it so happens at the time I found my dad’s watch we also had an overseas friend staying with us. She lives in Barbados and she had a fifty year old Tudor and a fifty year Rolex with her. Belonging to herself and her mum. Both watches weren’t running very well. I checked with the official Tudor and Rolex folks. But it would take thousands of Euro’s to service these watches. So, I took both of these to Paul as well for a service. He did a good job on those as well. Just for a couple of hundred Euro’s each. The Tudor value is similar as to the Buren. The Rolex is probably worth a couple of thousand Euro’s. Again, our friend isn’t looking into selling these watches. Like mine, these watches have been in the family for a long time and get handed down from mum’s to daughters which I think is highly appropriate!
Jeroen