Watches rescued from the junk box. One is a 1950s 'Roamer Chronometre' with H.Samuel on the dial. The other is a 1970s H.Samuel 'Everite' watch. H.Samuel was a UK high street jeweller, selling established watch brands and commissioning own-brand watches from many mid-range Swiss makers: it is stil in business.

The Roamer Chronometer is in desperately poor external condition and looks like the previous owner cherished it 'to death'. The gold plate has almost gone…

Junk Box Rescues

Does anyone have experience of Mathey-Tissot generally, and especially automatics such as the the dress/casual models with Swiss made STP1-11 or -21 (model H1450ATAN (no name)) or the Catena SA100 (model Zeus) movements?

The STP1-11/21 is an ETA 2824 lookalike while the Catena SA100 seems quite different and therefore intrinsically more interesting.

I don't much like the MT Zeus's dart markers, while the H1450ATAN (pictured below) is more attractive to me and is also currently heavily…

Mathey-Tissot Automatics – user experiences?

In August I bought a Militado ML05 with VH31 which worked perfectly and which I liked so much that I bought a second one with a different dial.

The new watch immediately showed a problem. It was not possible to set the minutes accurately. When pushing the crown in to start the watch the minutes hand would often jump forwards or back half a minute. Then, as the watch ran, the minute hand would often not move for up to 30 seconds resulting in the watch not displaying the right…

Militado ML05 / VH31 time setting inaccuracies

Beijing Double Rhomb – unknown 17j model

This classy little watch appeared briefly on AliExpress; it is the style which I can’t help buying: retro, steel, small and a bit quirky. It was described as 'Original inventory' – presumably 'new-old-stock' and not marked "China Made".

Double Rhomb was a brand name for watches exported by the Beijing Watch Factory known for good quality watches for around 50 years. I don't know the model, or its…

"Original inventory" Beijing Double Rhomb Impressions