The Tudor Black-Bay ancestor

[watchthisway]

the info in this thread is why i love this forum.

i have my own story about how i recently came into possession of one of these rare examples. pics attached.

i had always heard that barn finds could be found in pawn shops, but never actually went to one. well that changed when i decided to go visit one near my work at lunch.

i had a good feeling about the place as i had previously found the shop on craigslist when they advertised a used rolex sub, at what i recalled was a very fair price.

so i walk in and a a nice older lady helps me. i ask her if they have any vintage watches. she's like: "you like vintage watches, heh?" and leads me toward the back of the shop. there, she shows me 2 watches. one is a vintage breitling that i knew upon first glance was too small for my wrist. the other watch was this tudor...

i knew within 5 secs of seeing the watch that i was going to buy it.

the dial on the watch looked great. i couldn't see any defects as far as i could tell. the case looked to be in original vintage condition. maybe polished but i'm no expert on those sort of things.

the caseback was the one negative-- it had a bunch of dents and scratches. i couldn't figure out how it could get so damaged...until i read this thread which now i'm learning was common for these military watches because the cases were used as hammers?! incredible.

the last thing that sealed the deal for me was the serial number. it is 88888x. literally one sequential number away from being an infinity tudor.

the woman quoted me a price that was about 500 off the sticker. not a steal but i would say a very fair non-dealer price. and i walked out the store with the watch probably 30 mins after i entered it with my newest acquisition.