Are you able to post a link to some photos?

If it looks like a Galbée with a cal77/ ETA 2671, my guess would be an original Santos (81036288), or a Santos Carrée (I believe that's a 82036288, but that may be incorrect). It is not a Galbée, these came later.

The Santos was released in 1978 as a beefed-up but affordable version of the Santos Dumont, from which it took key stylings from. It was Cartier's first non-precious metal mass-produced watch. It went down a storm in the 80's, so they are not uncommon, but still, the auction house's offer sems a tad mean, I should think you would be able to get at least twice that, given condition and accessories. That being said, it is a model that shows its age, which affects its value, as is shown by Cartier discontinuing it a year ago.

 

Direct pic upload from you source always works. Links to a photohosting site don‘t.

 

Thanks for the info. Will try that now.

 

Photos are posted!

Thanks for the info. It is as I suspected, although the "Type" number on the Worldwide Lifetime Guarantee card is the same as the model #81036288. The reason I did not know this is because the person I spoke with at Cartier had no idea and in fact gave me misleading info.

 

Thank you to Stuffler, Mike for the advice on posting photos!

 

I can't help you with the model number, but I can fill in some history. I believe it is an original Santos Automatique, the only model I knew of at the time. The Galbee came after it, and is very obviously different because it is curved: the case, the bezel, every link. The other iterations would come later, but I lost interest after the Galbee, which I thought awful. Here's my watch:

I bought this new in late 1985 or early 1986 from a dealer in HK for $700, they were double that in the US at the time, such were the good old days of easily findable good deals! My bracelet is distinctly different from yours, the links are numbered by width, the center contains a push-in release which allows the link to slide off sideways, there are no screws in the bracelet, the edges heavily beveled which makes the bracelet very comfortable. I've seen your style bracelet before, and it seems (perhaps) the same construction as the Galbee. Maybe they changed bracelet design just before the Galbee intro. I have to think that the manufacturing cost would be higher with my style bracelet: there's a mechanism in every link, even ones you'd never remove for adjusting the length, the screw adjustment is far simpler, but not as elegant as Cartier should have been at the time, considering they were THE watch to wear.

And yes, I've had it ever since, I just took those pictures a few minutes ago. And on a side note, the new ones at SIHH look wonderful. Perhaps it is time to upsize my Santos and wear a modern interpretation. The price however, is now $10K, with no half price deals in sight, even in HK.

Oh price. I have no idea what your watch is worth. Not helpful, yes I know. ;-)

 

Thanks Robby! Mine was bought in the USVI for roughly the same price. It's been in a drawer for so long that researching it has been a challenge, although enjoyable. FYI, I just sold it for $1999.00 on eBay. Several large watch resellers / auction houses / jewelers offered me $500, $650, $950 & $1100 for it. I thought it was worth more than that, especially when the average price for a quartz! Galbee (I share your opinion of them) seems to be in the low to high $2000 range.

 

Thanks for the price info, when I first looked a few years ago they were available in the $750-1000 range, so apparently the vintage craze has affected the values. I'd never part with mine even though I don't wear it much, it was a gift from my father and I wore it every day from 1986 until cell phones became commonplace and I no longer needed to look at my wrist for the time. I wore it recently to a dive bar, and a 20-something girl noticed it and said, "That's a really cool watch. Is it retro?" and I said, "Uh, yeah. It's... retro."