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I picked up two of these watches at an estate sale (I didn’t spend much) and they both come with the original case. I’m not sure when these were manufactured, but it’s prior to when Breitling acquired Sicura, I’m assuming. Anyway, I’m a little stumped on its value, as I couldn’t find a direct comparison.
Neither watch is currently running, but I did see the second hand move a bit when I adjusted the time, so I assume they each need a new battery. One watch has a broken band. Are these watches worth the investment to put in new batteries and/or repair a watch band before selling them? Or should I leave them as is (without knowing for sure if they work). Does anyone know the age of these watches? Any guess as to the value?
Thanks.
https://i.imgur.com/oYE3qTW.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/3rIpEtG.jpg
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I don’t have an answer for you, but watch batteries aren’t very expensive. I can buy 5 to 10 at a time on Amazon, and they are usually around 50 cents each including shipping. Some of the larger batteries might cost me $1 each.
If you have the equipment you need to replace the battery on your own, it won’t be very costly. If it is a screw type back, you do need a tool, which might cost around $10. If you plan to buy and sell watches occasionally, then you might consider buying it.
Unless you find that they are worth something, then I wouldn’t buy a new band. I did buy a kit at one time (less than $10) that has some tools to help with band replacement.
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Cool watches. They appear to be automatic, meaning they are wound by gentle movement of the watch. No batteries. Shake them gently sideways for fifteen seconds and see what happens. The second hand should move smoothly, not a jerky “tick tick” like a quartz watch. They’ll probably work just fine with a winding.
There is a market for vintage dress automatic watches of lesser known Swiss makers with no fancy features but from what I’ve seen, there is not a correlation between rarity of these types and price. Without bezels they aren’t really “skindiver” watches, but the backs should indicate a water depth rating. Not that divers use dive watches any more, but actual dive watches are more desirable, as you can see by the high dollar Sicura dive watches sold on eBay.
With a zip code on the warranty they are post-1963. Checking Google Maps there is now a college at the address of “Gulf Special Offers” which probably referred to Gulf Oil gas stations. People stopped buying mechanical watches and most secondary makers switched to quartz by the early 1980’s and “special offers” from gas stations kind of died in the ‘70’s with the gas crisis upheavals so I think it’s safe to date these from the late ‘60’s, maybe early 70’s. And they merged with Brietling in 1979, according to Wikipedia.
The broken band is likely to be a cheap fix at a watch repair or jeweler. The jeweler can also pull the back for you and provide the name and caliber of the movement that you can put in the listing. The cases and tags increase the value. I see one or two Sicuras like these sold on eBay in the $57 – $80+ range on auction, used with no original boxes. Assuming they work when wound (check the day and date operation) and are overall as clean as they look in your pictures, if they were mine I’d put each up for $98 or so on a BIN. They might sit for months but you might get it. I tend to shoot low so others might say go with $150. If you do an auction and start low you could end up giving them away for $20 so I would avoid that. Searching sold ebay listings for “17 jewel swiss automatic wrist watch” should give you a flavor of your competition.
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