WATCH POP

By the time I learned of the one-time practice of recasing steel Swiss watches in gold in South America, I'd already bid too high to lose. I was bidding on two such watches, both cased in 18k pink gold. One was an automatic Omega, the other a manual Longines. Luckily, I now believe, I was outbid on the Omega and let it be, but I ended up buying the Longines, a 35mm Flagship supposedly circa 1950.
Yet I might get lucky, right? Supposedly the watch's dial and movement are original. They certainly looked super-clean in the photos. New as I am to all of this, I'd never seen a dial quite like the one on this Longines. It was the highly stylized numbers that got me.
If anyone would care to tell how screwed I am or am not, please go right ahead.
Thanks,
Kyle Wow, Kyle, this is news to me! Was it common to do this?
I know that some Swiss makers, such as Omega and LeCoultre, would ship uncased movements & dials to the US in the 1950s-1960s and contract with S&W or other American case makers to fabricate cases. I assume these cases were made to the watch companies' own specifications.
Were the South Americans actually taking watches out of original, factory cases and installing them in locally-made gold cases? Was this with or without the blessing of the manufacturer?
Good luck with your purchase. Let us know how it turns out.
Brad
Start with this post, which seems to perfectly descibe the watch I bought. Then note the one above it (slightly different topic) about negative or mixed experiences buying from S. American sellers.
I haven't had time to research this further, but I think I now know what to look for (e.g., your question about the manufacturer's consent.)
Thanks for your good wishes! I will certainly report when I get the Longines and take it to my (old and very experienced) watchmaker.
Regards,
Kyle I have also seen quite a few Omegas etc in South America locally cased in steel cases.
Possibly because the original gold cases have been scrapped?
Cheers, Neil. When I was researching my '71 G-P, the nice folks at Girard-Perregaux gave me some info about recasing. Unfortunately, that info is on my my recently deceased iMac, so I'll have to paraphrase.
GP in Switzerland would ship movements (with dial) to GP America, who would case them locally. There was two reasons they did this.
1. GP America was technically a seperate entity, which ceased to exist a year or two later 70s. Swiss GP has no access to their records, etc.
2. The import duties on movements and cases would have made the cost of a watch that had been made and cased in Swizterland prohibitively expensive.
As far as I know, this applies only to G-P and the US. But like Brad mentions in his post, I think it was fairly common in the 50s and 60s. GP had factory facilities in the U.S. that actually cased the watches according to factory specs. I have one of these watches, and it's a fully branded GP case with serial number, etc. They're still considered original since everything was done under the direction of the company.
I think in South America, it's common (or at least it was) for people to have watchmakers recase their steel watch in gold using a custom-made case by one of the case manufacturers. I've seen quite a few Omegas on eBay like this. Some look alright, others definitely have a homemade look to them. That's why if you go on eBay and find gold watches being sold by people in South America, sometimes the watches don't quite look right. I'm willing to bet that most people who buy these think they're getting something that's factory original. I've heard of the same thing happening in some Asian countries, too. I personally wouldn't want to buy these watches recased after the fact, since they fit my definition of Franken.
My watches: http://mysite.verizon.net/arutha