WALTHAM 'GOLDEN EAGLE' WRISTWATCH WORTH $600?

A guy & his wife came by today in response to my craigslist ad. He looked at some reg vintage watches I had - then offered me a Waltham Golden Eagle 30 jewel wristwatch for $400 + a antique pocket watch I have & a special vintage 'Pepsi' logo Waltham.

I found 1 1930's Golden Eagle that sold for $1,200+ on eBay, but then 2 from the 70's that sold for $300 & the other less.

The 70's watches are 25 jewels, so is the 30 jewels earlier?

He told me he'd hold it for a day so I could research it - so I immediately came here!

I think it's a beautiful watch in excellent condition - running & keeping time - but it's still a Waltham, so main question:
Is it worth the trade?

Thank you for any help!

 

ummm...i find one....
it says..... this model was made to try to sell in the Oriental market

yup

 

and it looks very different from the OP's.............

 

$25 tops

 

Hmmm... This is someone you don't know? I know that watch dealers make deals with each other, but I would proceed very carefully. So this buyer went to look at watches you had for sale, but instead wants you to buy something he is selling for $400 plus two of your watches? Strange he brought his wife, too. Something about this doesn't smell quite right -- but I could be totally off base.

When I search "Waltham Golden Eagle" I only see one under Ebay "Sold" that went for $41. I realize it has a different number of jewels.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTA...=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

Smart to bring the question here.

 

Why does the 10 on the date dial on yours look like it was drawn on with a pen?

 

Really? I think it looks just like the one I'm looking at!?

The old couple came to an estate sale post I had on Craigslist. She was looking at paintings - he was interested in vintage watches & antique auto parts - which he told me he flips. Talking watches & looking at mine brought up the ones he had in his car (a sales case with mostly 60's watches) - and the eagle.

 

Yours is not marked Swiss Made on the dial - also to my eye the hour markers look different/oblong on yours - also not finished as well.... and the date dial looks off to me as I said above.

 

One other difference (this is like the old "find the differences" pictures in the Highlights magazines!) The number of "teeth" on the case around the watch face seem to be significantly higher on yours than the one from Ebay - and maybe it's just the pics but the "teeth" on yours don't look as nicely finished.

 

plus the date window on the one I show has a frame...while the OP's is just beveled ....
and this....

 

a sales case in the car............full of stuff he knows cold.....always at the ready to ' flip ' ...for better stuff he takes off of folks who don't know what his stuff is worth............
What ? you think he showed up at your place ....looking to fill your pocket with dough............NOT HIS ?????

I had a couple of dealers show up here one day.....ostensibly to look over my folks glass & porcelain ( which at one time or another we all get stuck with..) ....so, never let em in your house cuz their eyes wander the moment they're thru the door !!
The left with a 1961 air force knife...a Native club..& a Karsh photo.....
no glass....no porcelain..........

 

Something about this situation stinks to me. I wouldn't give things I know are valuable, for something that for all we know may be a reproduction.

 

I've only done well one time on a trade......& that's cuz the guy couldn't see the dynamic beauty of his item..........but he got the better of me on several others.....

 

I am not familiar with this watch but I do have a couple of general observations. By the time this watch was made Waltham was history, the name survived but the US manufacturing and the link back to some really fine watches was lost. So basically, it is just another Swiss watch of the period.
Now, about the jewel count. For the best part of 200 years, more jewels usually meant a better quality watch because they were used to reduce friction and wear on pivots in the movement, and usually the faster a pivot moved the more it was prone to wear.
So better quality Georgian verge watches had jewelled balance staff pivots and as the lever escapement took over as the 19th C. wore on, jewel counts increased as more pivots got jewels and some pivit holes got jewel end caps as well which trapped a microscopic amount of oil around the pivot. This led to the familiar 15 and 17 jewel counts for standard lever movements, even 21 jewels with more end caps being used. 21 or even 23 was about as far as useful jewels could go, until the automatic movement was introduced, when the rotor bearings could be jewelled.
Then, in the sixties and seventies, things went a bit crazy. makers started adding totally non functional jewels to run of the mill movements just for bragging rights, if 15 jewels was good, 30 jewels must be twice as good, no? I have seen a 64 jewel wristwatch where 50 of the jewels were simply dotted all over the rotor doing nothing except backing up the boast on the dial.
This practice died out, as did the mechanical watch, but it is what disconnected the jewel count on the dial from any indication of quality.
If the watch being offered is not automatic, the jewel count is clearly bogus or indicates some useless jewelling. Even if it is automatic, if Patek Phillipe and Audemars Piquet can make fine automatic watches with 25 and 27 jewels, who needs 30.
The movement is probably a routine Swiss ESA movement. I'd not buy anything without having a look inside, and the back seems to be a screw back that a standard case tool sould remove in a jiffy.

As I said , I am not familiar with that specific watch or your local market, but I'd pass on this one based on what you have made known already.

 

Thanks all - I told him I was going to pass because it didn't have Swiss Made on face & I didn't/couldn't see the inside - and there could be just a generic swiss movement in it.
He told me that it does say Swiss but not swiss made - and sent me photos of inside so I could see it was genuine.
Does it appear legit? And most importantly - if it is legit what year is it AND is it worth basically $500 ($400 + my cost for the 2 watches I'd trade him)?
Thanks again for the help.

 

It is legit. It is a low value, low interest watch.

 

I'd agree with that.
Considered as a piece of precision engineering and production it is truly a wonderful thing, a mechanism made by centuries of design evolution till it is about as good as it can get.
But part of the wonder is how they were produced in such large numbers at a relatively low cost, and those large numbers mean that despite being very special in one way, as far as vaue goes it isn't special at all.