Getting info on your vintage watches Archive letters.

A place to discuss vintage watches.
Post Reply
River Rat
DWC Tribal Council
Posts: 12663
Joined: Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:00 am
Location: Montana

Getting info on your vintage watches Archive letters.

Post by River Rat » Thu Jun 15, 2017 6:19 am

We vintage collectors are a strange bunch. We like finding the history of our watches. Like on some WW1 watches there will be inscriptions on them and you can trace the owner or on issued watches there will be issued marks on the case back that tells you a lot. And also on vintage watches you can contact the watch co it self were they give the date of manufacture plus movement and case info and country it was sold in and some times if it was sold to a government for a military purpose. There are three watch company's that do this I have now dealt with all three. Here are the links for them if there are others post them I know IWC and Rolex I bet do this service. I am doing it in order of who does the best job.
No 1 https://www.longines.com/customer-servi ... thenticity
Why there No1 they do if for Free if you get a email version or paper version you pay shipping or if you send your watch to them to be inspected the best way for authentication you pay shipping and import duties if any and that service is totally FREE there number one and any one in the world can use it.
No2 http://www.zenith-watches.com/en_en/extraits-archive
Because they will do it for any body in the world but they charge you for the service not cheap ether I just paid and I hope the info I learn like possible military service makes it worth while or maybe the first owner they sold it to. But knowing the movement and date of manufacture and country sold in can be cool.

No. 3 https://www.omegawatches.com/planet-ome ... no_cache=1
Omega why because not as easy as the two above in the USA you can't get one directly from there web site like every body else in the world they say laws and other crap on line from some folks but sounds like American politics and probably has to do with parts and watches or any thing else that makes more money and they have more control in the USA. But the two above have boutique in the USA why are they different with getting archive info they mite be different when it comes to parts and other stuff. And Omega charge about the same as Zenith so not cheap if you live any were but the USA you can get one. Here is one I got and I had a time getting it.
Image
I went to there site found out we in the USA are not allowed to have one. Well they should at least tell us on there site who we can contact in the USA if we have to go through a middle man so US swatch can get there cut or give us a Free email version were it's not breaking any rules they say are in place were us in the USA are treated right it would improve there customer service. I tried a local store that sold Omega watches the DWC crew in the bay area goes to he tried to contact swatch no luck. Then Andy one of our mods who is in England got me one since he can go on line like Zenith and Longines. Strange Longines is part of swatch some one told me why do they not have a arm tied behind there back like Omega were they treat customer better and get you archive info. We vintage collectors some times buy new watches but if we get treated wrong we remember that trilogy set sure looked nice but I will keep my money in my pocket. By the way that Omega SHOM now owned by another member of the forum like keeping it in the family. A shame until they change I got a Omega 53 RAF, Omega Speedy cir.1972, vintage Omega 300 that I would love to get a archive letter's for but not jumping through any hoops makes me feel like a second class citizen. We in the USA want to be treated just like any body else go on line and order a archive letter why are other watch co smarter they know it's only a piece of paper that would make vintage collectors happy I think they got more pride in the there watch company's and there history and want to provide it to every body some thing Omega don't want to give to us in the USA.
On Omega archive site

Important: The “Extract of the Archives” is only available in English.
US Customers: Extract of the Archives currently not available.
Been that way and maybe before or since 2013 that's the year I found out we in the USA are treated different than the rest of the world 4 years and going.
Last edited by River Rat on Thu Jun 15, 2017 9:03 am, edited 5 times in total.

User avatar
aikiman44
Tiki Extraordinaire
Posts: 9438
Joined: Fri Dec 04, 2009 7:50 am
Name: J

Re: Getting info on your vintage watches Archive letters.

Post by aikiman44 » Thu Jun 15, 2017 8:00 am

Nice sources. Too bad about the difficulty, though.
"We'd better synchronize our watches."

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 91 guests