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How I describe condition

Vintage watches are described in a private language that flatters the seller. “Excellent for its age” means nothing. So here are the words I use, what each one commits me to, and what I will never write.

The case

UnpolishedOriginal bevels and edges, hallmarks crisp. Scratches and dings are present and photographed — that is what unpolished means.

Lightly polishedBevels still readable, lugs slightly softened. The usual state of a watch that has been worn for sixty years and serviced along the way.

PolishedBevels rounded and some case shape lost. It affects value and the price says so.

RefinishedReshaped, replated or laser-welded. I do not buy these knowingly; if one turns out to be, it is stated at the top of the listing.

UnpolishedThe flat bevel along the upper edge meets the case side at a sharp angle, and the tip is square.PolishedThe bevel has softened into a continuous curve, the tip has lost its squareness, the lug reads thinner.

What the wheel reachesThe dashed line is the original silhouette. It opens widest at the bevel and the tip, then rejoins the solid outline — from there the underside is one shared line, because a polisher never reaches it. Which is why the underside of a lug is where I look, and where you should look too.

The dial

The dial decides most of what a vintage watch is worth, and it is the easiest part to fake. Every dial here is photographed straight on and at 220% under the same light.

OriginalFactory print and finish. No restoration of any kind, anywhere on the dial.

Even patinaUniform warming of the surface or the indices, named by colour — cream, honey or oxblood.

TropicalBlack turned brown through years of sunlight. Sought after, and priced accordingly rather than sold as a defect.

SpiderFine craquelure in the lacquer. Stable unless I say otherwise.

MarkedSpecific damage — spotting, a scratch, water staining. Located by clock position and photographed close.

RestoredRepainted or reprinted. A redial is worth a fraction of an original and it goes in the title, not buried in the description.

OriginalFactory print and finish, unrestored.Even patinaUniform warming across the whole surface.SpiderFine craquelure in the lacquer, stable.MarkedSpecific damage, located by clock position.

Hands, lume and movement

HandsOriginal, period-correct replacement, or replaced. One of the three on every listing, never left unsaid.

LumeOriginal, partially lost, or relumed — and whether it matches the dial, because mismatched lume is the commonest tell of a mixed watch.

RateSeconds per day measured over fourteen days of wear, with amplitude. Measured, not estimated, and not the figure off the timing machine on day one.

ServiceMonth, year, and what was done. I do the work myself, so there is no third-party invoice to scan into the listing — what I can show you instead is the timing machine reading taken when the work was finished, sent on request.

MatchingWhether calibre, case reference and serial are consistent with each other and with the stated year. A watch assembled from three others is not sold as one watch.

Where lume sitsThe inset outline is the recessed channel. Lume in the hands should have aged to the same colour as lume in the indices; if the hands are brighter, they came from somewhere else.

Between the lugsThe case serial, hidden by the strap.On the bridgeThe calibre and movement number.On the extractWhat the archive records for that number.

All three have to agree with each other and with the stated year. This is why every listing here shows an open caseback.

Words I do not useMint. New old stock. Museum quality. Investment grade. Rare, unless a production figure follows it. Survivor. Honest — of a watch, rather than of a description. Every one of them asks you to trust me, and the point of this page is that you should not have to.

If I have described something wrongly

I am one person with a loupe, not a laboratory, and on a sixty-year-old watch I can be wrong. Take anything you buy to a watchmaker of your choosing. If they find something I did not disclose, send it back and I refund everything including both directions of shipping — beyond the fourteen days, for as long as it takes to get an appointment.

How a return works