Monday, September 26, 2022

Hornby watch

 

Hornby watch

I've been too busy for any personal modelling for the last few days, so this week's blog posts are going to be a bit of a catch-up of other stuff. Mostly weird things I've aquired recently, some of which are a bit of a mystery. 

Let's start with an item that fits into two of my collections - a Hornby watch. 

The 30mm diameter faux gold face is attractive, adorned as it is with a picture of a steam train from a 1990s clipart CD. Despite this, it looks a little classy in black and gold. The numerals are nice and clear, and a genuine leather strap is fitted. You could wear this every day and it would do its job. 

OK, the battery was flat, but an AG4 from the pound shop pack solved that. The plastic face-cover is even present, although I removed it for the photo. Don't worry, I put it back. There's a nice fabric wallet to keep the watch in when not wearing it too. This probably explains the excellent condition.

Watch back

Best of all though, on the back is a Beatties label! It came from my favourite chain of model shops - and so can sit in this collection too. 

Sadly, the label doesn't indicate the price, or give me an idea of the age (1998?, surely too late) of the watch. I'd guess at early 1990s, possibly even a bit before. 

The internet is a bit light on details, although one forum has an idential watch sharing space with Rolex's! I suspect that the fiver I paid is about its true value, but if someone wants to tell me it's super-rare and worth the price of a house, I'm all ears!

3 comments:

Paul B. said...

At work there's a fitter known as 'Hornby' behind his back. This is due to his habit of following a particular route every day like a train following a track, visiting each toilet in turn for a skive whilst stopping off at certain places for a chat, avoiding work at all costs. This watch would be perfect for him to keep track of all the time he wastes.

Dave said...

Can confirm that the Beatties POS sticker shows it came into stock in 1998 (we introduced the 2 line POS tickets around about 1991/2 precisely so that stock could be dated for audit purposes. 120 is the month, month zero being the month we first introduced those 2 line tickets, the 6 digit top line is the POS number that would be typed into the old DTS datacheker tills to bring up the price and item description for the receipt.

Phil Parker said...

Thanks Dave - this is exactly the sort of nerdy detail we love on this blog!