Rescuing older watches and more
I was just going to add some more Bulova Marine Stars to my older posts, but decided to go ahead and start another post about the how they came to be on my wrist. I started thinking about everything I went through to get some of these watches working again and decided to explore that part of collecting.
I guess this will be my fourth post on neo-vintage Bulova Marine Stars. If you have read any of my previous posts on the subject you know I love those 90s Marine Stars and can’t help myself when I run into yet another beauty as I ramble around the web. My goal for this post is to be less dense on the details of the watches and more about what happens when you see something you like and either forget or ignore some things that will it cost you if you bring it into your collection…
While I am using some Marine Stars to elaborate on the issues, it could really be any watch. Each of us has our own favorites that are hard to resist even when we know better. We fall for them every time, or, almost every time. Sometimes we are in a place where we can look away, or postpone it for a while at least.
I mostly buy preowned watches so I know there will be some some issue to deal with. Part of the fun is trying to find an overlooked gem in the rough. I end up paying more to fix a rough example then I would just getting one already in good shape! One problem though with these old Marine Stars is you may never find another one the same, so there might not be any donor examples for parts. I suppose, like all watches, if you look long enough, one will eventually pop up some where? Like I said before, you find one when you are not looking for it.
Half the time I find watches while looking for something else! But you know when you see something that just hits you. It fits the look or feel you like but is something you haven’t seen before or didn’t even know about. It could also be a great price too, but has some issues. You see it and have a vision of what it could be. Once I make the decision to go for it, I go all the way.
I do a lot of looking on eBay, so I see the listings below the one I clicked on, because they are “similar” to what I was searching. It is maddening because they are lots of time better than what you have been searching for! “Why didn’t this show up before!”, I scream.
Anyway, these two Marine Stars have been “projects” because they were not working and did not have have their original bracelets when I found them. I was not looking for these models, but I was looking for Marine Stars in general.
This first one, a 1992, 98A12, chronograph alarm, I just thought was so cool looking; the dull silver gold and black. It just looked subdued, not shiny. There are shiny bits, particularly the dial gold parts, but that flat sliver finish with the gold and black is may favorite thing about this watch. That matte silver finish gives it a tool watch feel? I just love to look at the bezel’s alternating gold and grey bands. It is still a two-tone 90s, like most of my Marine Stars, but it takes on a whole different look. The black dial is different too, since most of my Marine Stars have white dials. I think this watch was also offered with a silver dial?
I wasn’t looking for a chronograph, or an alarm function. I just liked the way it looked. It was cheap, and as usual, the listing didn’t give any details on the workings of the movement. Lots of watches I look at are not running, and the owners don’t know what is wrong with them, so they just say in listing, “needs new battery”. I have come to learn that this can mean any of several things:
- Really just needs a new battery, but is working.
- Seller has no idea why watch does not work but assumes it is battery.
- Seller knows nothing about watch and maybe just got it to sell.
- Seller knows battery is not the problem because they tried to put a new one but watch still didn’t work.
Now, I sometimes send questions to seller to get more details about what they know. I quickly know when they have no idea about watch and are just trying to get something for it, so: Needs new battery.
I appreciate the seller that puts “For Repair” in their listing instead of “Needs New Battery”. Then at least I know they are more up front with the notion that there could be more problems than the battery. I can usually tell by overall condition of watch what I am getting into. I always accept full responsibility for whatever preowned watch I purchase. Even if the listing contains flat out lies. I shop on the cheap usually, so, I don’t expect much. Its a gamble. The higher the price, the more assurances I look for.
Anyway, this watch also came to me not working and without the bracelet! Now I know, after getting many old Bulovas, that one cannot just find another original bracelet. Most of these 90s Marine Stars had unique bracelet designs by model and even were integrated into case with three-lug designs, So, there is no easy fix for replacing or repairing a bracelet. This watch has standard lugs and 20mm spacing, so there are lots of options for after market bracelets or other type straps. Still, I normally try to get original bracelets or straps for watches I buy before trying other options.
Another problem with these old Marine Stars without bracelets is that it can be difficult to find information or images of them to know what kind of bracelet they had! I can imagine from looking at so many Marine Stars or other Bulovas of the time; it probably was the dull silver coating with gold coated center links? I did see a similar Bulova chrono, with white dial, that was not a Marine Star, that had the same movement as this. So I had an idea of the bracelet, but its still hard to find one. At this point, I just have it on an inexpensive maroon nylon single pass that has a vegas gold kind of stripe. I like it. There are lots of things I could try.
The other problem with this watch was the movement; the Miyota 3531 or 3S31. As it happens, I have a few watches with this movement. That is part of the problem with this watch; it became one of a group of problem watches. This means I start to delay getting repairs done.
As I found out, its hard to find parts for or more of these movements. One watchmaker said he couldn’t help me. I tried getting other “needs repair” watches with this movement as donors, but some of those were not usable. Its funny, I hate to cannibalize a decent watch to get parts for another. I try to find one that is pretty bad off. Finally I found a couple of working used movements in Italy. My favorite watchmaker has been able to get this particular 3S31 going.
Its just a nice looking, fun watch that I want to keep alive for a while. The size is great; 39mm x 45mm x 10mm. It would even lay flatter if I had it on a two-piece or bracelet instead of the pass-thru NATO.
Rescuing a Gem
This next Marine Star moved right up to my favorites zone. Its a little newer; 1997, but seems older? By the time I ran across it, I had seen so many two-tone 90s Marine Stars, I thought I had seen everything. But, it had different details and a nice balance to the overall design. It wasn’t too flashy and the gold bezel tabs reminded me of Tag Heuer(TH) 1000 or Super models, only more rounded. It has all the hallmarks of the category; low quartz design, two-tone, diver flavor, small size and those lovely rounded edges. Here was my dressy diver. Those bezel tabs and date as 6’o’clock were different. Its another mash-up of several TH models and years.
I have never seen another example of this model, so I don’t know what kind of bracelet it had. Sadly, all I could find is four links online, but no image of the whole bracelet. I even bought another beat up 92 MS t see if its type of bracelet would fit. It didn’t. I thought of doing a hybrid bracelet/leather like the TH S/el with link coming off case, then leather for the rest? My problem was the missing first links.
The links look great and match the delta shapes on the 12 and 6 positions of the bezel. Too bad. I’m guessing it had a jewelry style clasp. Would have been nice….Someone cut off the pins holding the first links to the lugs, but left part of the pin in the drilled lugs. It was tricky for my watchmaker to get them out. The stubby lugs have a 12mm gap so it was going to be interesting to strap it.
When I got the watch and cleaned it up, even with all its issues, it was just so nice I had to get it going! The case and bezel were not that scratched. The cool “old style” Marine Star back was scratched and worn. I just love the smooth rounded shapes.
This is one of the Marine Stars I have that has “Swiss” on the bottom of the dial, next to model number. It has a Ronda movement, but has Bulova/Hong Kong inside the case back. As I have discussed in earlier MS posts, I’m not sure when and why some models got Swiss or Japanese movements when they were assembled in Hong Kong? Generally I find the Swiss movements to be robust, but I’m not sure what my watchmaker had to do to get it going?
I ended up getting a custom notched strap from VGreen in Canada. It was a gamble since I had not tried them before and the cost is much higher than I usually pay for a strap. The navy Epsom leather strap is very nice, and works great. I replaced the brushed silver buckle with a vintage gold one I had. Interestingly, while viewing images on their site, I saw that several owners of older Tag Heuer S/els have also used VGreen straps to replace their originals. It was hard for me to move from a bracelet to a leather strap, but I really like it. I would do it again if I run into a situation where no replace or repair for the original bracelet is not possible.
The watch measures 38mmx43mmx9mm, so is nice and compact with a vintage feel. Most of my watches fall in the 36-42 mm range. I absolutely love it and am glad I went through all the cost and effort to sort it out.
These are just two examples that show what happens when you get attached to an older watch and decide to go the extra mile to get it working. Each watch is different and I have done this many, times.
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