Passions Watch Exchange

About This Watch

Vintage. No boxes or papers. This beautiful classic by Eterna-matic was kept away in a safe by a collector for more than 20years and it has just been acquired by us. We have serviced the movement in mid 2009 and did a very light polishing to the case while it still has some fine scratches left from use but case is crisp with all gold hallmarks visible. The original dial is perfect & only the hands show some age with fading black centre line that can be painted but we prefer to leave it as is. It will be very difficult to find another watch like this in this condition.

Such solid gold watches are very tough to find now as a lot of them were "slaughtered" during the 1980s when the gold price was very high & nobody wanted mechanical watches. Gold watches were stripped & melted for cash while the movements were dumped for parts. The movement winds very smooth now & it keeps precision time.

The Ca.1466U was launched by Eterna in 1963. It was a revolutionary design featuring ball bearings in the centre axle of the winding rotor that reduces wear and is very flat for an automatic movement with centre sweep seconds. This design continues today in modern ETA movements. In fact, ETA was the manufacturing arm of Eterna until 1932. This watch has a quick-set date function by pulling the crown out to the last position.

Some dealers are selling similar gold watch from this brand for up to 3000 in Euros!