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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Purchasing a Russian Chronometer - or American??
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Apr 5, 14:10 -0400
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2012 Apr 5, 14:10 -0400
Then buy from one of your British dealetrs. Especially if they seem to be knowlegeable, chek them give a warranty etc. > Well that is exactly my concern - I want a chronometer, not an > international > posting saga... > Hamilton 21 two day chronometer, serial number(?) 8800. It looks quite > austere on the outside - simple silvered face. When taken out of its metal > casing it reveals a beautifully shining clean and well running movement. There is an widespread opinion that Hamilton 21 is the best chronometer (of classical traditional kind) ever made. Russian Polet/Kirov is very similar to it (I compared Hamilton 21 repair manual with my real Polet). The whole Polet movement looks really beautiful. Some say that the whole movement is gold plated, but this is not the case: my Polet "passport" tells the exact contents of gold and jewels in the movement parts. The dial, is just silver paint. > What is for sale is just the chronometer in its casing - the gimbals and > the > wooden box are missing This seriously affects the resale value. People like genuine shining mahogany boxes. For example, Polet in the simple gimballed box with one glass lid costs about 30-40 percent less than the same Polet in a 3-tier double box. (I was told that the outer box was just thrown away when chronometer arrived on a ship, because there was no place for it). Not surprising. Rich people buy them to display on a shelf, not to keep time. Soviet deck watch (simple large pocket watch, not a chronometer) sells for $1000 if it is in the baautiful box:-) Alex.