Does anyone know anything about this vintage Smiths diver watch???? the movement is marked Agon-matic swiss made 17 jewels 1217-21,, strange as I thought Smiths was a british watchmaker??? the caseback is also marked agon watch corp swiss made,, is this a cheap mass produced watch??? or is it interesting???? appreciate your comments please sorry pics are not good quality,, watch is exellent condition just a few light sctratches on the glass.
Vintage Smiths Diver Swiss Agon-matic
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Personally I had never heard of Agon watches but some Googling revealed that they were an active Swiss brand in the 1940s and 1950s. However your watch looks like it's from the 1970s. It's hard to tell much more from the pictures unfortunately. I'm sure most British brands of the 1970s used Swiss movements in any event.gazza6563 said:
It looks like a manually wound watch from the 1970s with a day-date complication. Nothing really unusual or rare about it. Perhaps quoll or one of the European experts could comment further about Smiths.
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Hi gazza6563,
I've seen many watches from the seventies signed Agon. All were pretty cheap watches, most with EB pin-lever movements, the better with Ronda pin-lever movements like yours.
RL designates the pin-lever movements from Ronda, and your's will be one of the many all similar looking calibres like this one:
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&uswk&Ronda_1253
Ronda made these movements also with jewel lever. They look similar, but are designated by RAX:
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&uswk&Ronda-RAX_1137
Regards, Roland Ranfft
I've seen many watches from the seventies signed Agon. All were pretty cheap watches, most with EB pin-lever movements, the better with Ronda pin-lever movements like yours.
RL designates the pin-lever movements from Ronda, and your's will be one of the many all similar looking calibres like this one:
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&uswk&Ronda_1253
Ronda made these movements also with jewel lever. They look similar, but are designated by RAX:
http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&&uswk&Ronda-RAX_1137
Regards, Roland Ranfft
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This is a 1970s Smiths watch.gazza6563 said:
In the 1950s and 1960s, Smiths English factory made high-grade watches with an in-house movement (e.g. the one worn by Hillary to the top of Everest, and the legendary Smiths military issue watch). From the mid/late 1960s they started importing and casing Seiko movements. Finally they outsourced to Switzerland and rebadged generic watches of various grades. Meanwhile their factory in Wales (founded in partnership with British Ingersoll and Armstrong-Siddeley) continued production of lower grade (usually pin-lever) watches until around 1980.
Smiths are best known for clocks and automotive instrumentation. Currently they are exclusively a military aerospace contractor. Smiths electromechanical car clocks are still manufactured under license by a company that bought the original tools from Smiths.
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No matter - Sinn are German but use Swiss ETA movements. In have a 1960s Smith with a Felsa 4007N calibre - very nice watch!gazza6563 said:
Hartmut Richter
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