What's not to like with something like this? Acquired very reasonably (on here!), runs perfectly, keeps good time and matches any other gold watch of the period for looks (IMO).
The ones with genuine military provenance are more expensive, and the ones that command silly money are the ones closest in style and date to the one worn by Hillary. Almost impossible to find an exact match, but even fairly knackered close approaches fetch around £1k!
Ah, that's where I've been going wrong then. Mine have all been Empires.
I like the look of that Astral, AVO.
People are asking ridiculous prices for these things though, compared to similar Swiss watches. I think it'll need a bit more saving before I can get one of the good ones.
Remember also that SMITHS were very highly regarded as makers who produced watches to thecsame rigorous standards as many a Swiss maker. Smiths had the first positive pressure cleanroom outside of the cantons built at Cheltenham to assemble the high end pieces. They were the largest producer of watches, clocks and timeswitches, car instrumentation and more in Britain. Only SMITHS and Rolex at the time produced entirely in house from start to finish, although Smiffy went even further. The only thing not produced in house were balance and hairspring, even packaging, printing of warranties and all the publicity materials, dials, cases, hands, crowns, were in house products, the lot!
The clocks division produced 30 hour movements, eight day movements, chiming movements, car clocks, electric clocks, wall clocks and slave master systems. The quartz revolution hit and an ostrich mentality killed the clocks and watches division off, plus the then Uk guvmint decided bailing out the car industry was a better choice - Chinese cars anyone?
It's my understanding that Smiths had two factories. One in Wales and one in England. Made In Great Britain on the dial was from the Welsh factory. Made In England were the higher grade watches.
Not so, if you shop around on ebay you can find one for a reasonable price (Usually the gold plated ones) They go for between £80 - £200 from what I have seen depending on the condition. Some go for higher but they might have been serviced so I guess you have to include that in the cost as you would with any vintage watch.
I guess an Astral it is then......I had best start saving.
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