Enjoy my sickness..... Pics

[greekbum]

What a nice collection.You could send everyone here on the forums a watch and still have some leftover.2000 watches is that a record?What is your goal with your collection?

[buckscat]

Great collection. Now I don't feel so bad about looking at another rolex

[CPCC]

Sweet

[herbiesgirl713]

Who cares if you need meds...this is an amazing collection!

I found this Omega online tonight and just had to share it...perhaps its an addition for your collection.

Kate

[TempoKing]

Originally Posted by rdrzman

Nice watch!

I was able to secure a 1940's flat pusher that was on the wrist of Mussolini's personal intelligence officer who was also his body guard. He had the watch on the day Mussolini was being drug through the streets while the owner was driving his mistress to safety.

3 case pictured, top row, third from the left

Now that you said Mussolini, the only watch I had that possibly a ruler owned
was an Omega Tachymetric, Telemetric Chronograph from 1933, the legendary 33.3, T3
I believe King Boris of Bulgaria had special ordered this from Omega and took delivery in January 1933
I think the day his daughter Maria Louise was born.
Notice the blue enamel Arabic numerals in the bezel.

[Kokyuryoku]

Kia ora bro,

That collection is AWESOME!!!

Thanks for sharing it . I look forward to seeing more pictures.

Ps. Thanks for not listing all your watches in your signiture

[gregdolley]

[rdrzman]

Originally Posted by greekbum

What a nice collection.You could send everyone here on the forums a watch and still have some leftover.2000 watches is that a record?What is your goal with your collection?

Good question,

When I started out collecting it was odd case shapes and mostly square tank styles with odd lugs. Some Longines watches in the ships wheel style and some mustache lugged Longines can be seen in one on the pics I posted. At that time watches were easy to find so I collected for bulk rather than quality. Then at one point I discovered that in the 50's and 60's Omega was top dog in terms of quality timing and chronometer production. Omega had won most of the highest timing competitions over even Patek! Omega watches at that time could be found at very reasonable prices and were in my opinion under priced for the quality.

A move to Omega was the focus and I started to collect the all the watches and parts I could find. I was fortunate enough to find watches at pawn shops and through estate companies. I purchased in bulk, finding all sorts of watches available and plentiful. In addition I was able to buy parts for a great price and fortunate enough to be able to purchase entire watch makers estates. One of the estates I purchase many Omega parts and an entire crystal system covering all brands and more than 10,000 crystals in glass and plastic.

As my collecting progressed I started to drift to quality over quantity and looked for pristine examples and unusual watches. Ebay was new and I purchase many fine watches through it. In fact the Sultans Omega Grand Luxe posted earlier was a Ebay find and let to the relationship.

Finding watches was easy at first but that all changed in 1996 with a book (highly recommended) called Omega Design by Anton Kreuzer outlining the history of Omega and showing many of the Omega watches that could be found. The market exploded and all of a sudden the $50 Thick Lug Seamasters were $300! So again the collecting slowed and I changed to even rarer Omegas.

I have purchased many non Omega's but the bulk is still Omega and that is the brand that will remain my number one focus. I guess I am an Omega addict. I concentrate on Omegas from 1970's and below with movements from the 500 series and below. In the 70's Omega stopped production of their movements buying from ETA and then stopped production of their cases so I do not collect them above that time.

I will continue to collect but at a slow pace, in fact I did not buy but a couple for a few years as I went through a nasty divorce but that is behind me and collecting is fun again.

Long story I know.

Farel

[rdrzman]

Originally Posted by TempoKing

Now that you said Mussolini, the only watch I had that possibly a ruler owned
was an Omega Tachymetric, Telemetric Chronograph from 1933, the legendary 33.3, T3
I believe King Boris of Bulgaria had special ordered this from Omega and took delivery in January 1933
I think the day his daughter Maria Louise was born.
Notice the blue enamel Arabic numerals in the bezel.

Very nice watch and great provenance! Do you sill have it? Was the case marked Omega, I have never come across that one.

Farel

[TempoKing]

I sold it last year for a very high dollar amount
I think Omega might have been behind the buyer.

Double backs for this Omega

[Starwalker]

drugs...its must be the drugs....that is a crazy collection!!!!!

[nzouk77]

holy cow
amazing!

[bobdog377]

Originally Posted by rdrzman

I collect vintage 2 stroke race and street bikes mainly from Yamaha. I ride or race some of them and some are in storage. Running in the gerage are:

1976 Yamaha RD400 X2
1979 Yamaha Daytona Special
1980 Yamaha RD350LC (never imported legally)
1986 Yamaha RZ350 with 3 miles
1986 Yamaha RZ500 x3
1986 Suzuki RG500
1991 Yamaha TZ250 race

Ohh another sickness

the 350 "elsie" was always a bike I lusted after as a spotty teenager but never bought,I also once had a test ride on an RG 500 GAMMA in the early nineties,unfortunately the seller neglected to tell me the bike had an intermtent ignition fault which turned it from a square-four into a square-three then back to a square-four again,as this happened mid corner ,things became ,shall we say interesting!




Roland

[ob1]

And I thought some of the other guys had it bad
Amazing, amazing collection. How come the wife didn't get her half?

Mark

[rdrzman]

Originally Posted by ob1

And I thought some of the other guys had it bad
Amazing, amazing collection. How come the wife didn't get her half?

Mark

The watches were valued at what I paid not the current price. She made the offer to me, she kept her retirement and I kept the watches and motorcycles... I could not sign the deal fast enough!

Farel

[rdrzman]

I can only immagine the horror of a Rg500 with a dead cylinger coming on mid at the end of a corner.... talk about the front getting light! I do love the bike though and would love to have annother one.

Oh the sickness

[timetravel125]

rdrzman,

What an amazing collection! Just out of curiousity, did you ever buy Omega watches from Dr. Ken of Wannabuyawatch on Melrose Avenue? He sold and is still selling vintage Omegas, as we speak. I used to buy from him in the mid 80s, but only several pieces, though.

Thanks.

Louie

[rdrzman]

I know Ken well, he is a Nawcc member. We do not trade watches although I have sold him one watch..

[Deep Sea]

That explains the RDRZMAN title. I was only 8 when I used to thumb through the Yamaha ads in Cycle World, and lusted after a Yamaha RD400 Daytona Special. I loved the white w/ the red stripe. It led me to getting my first Yamahas, a GT80, followed by a YZ80, followed by a YZ100. The last two Yamaha's I owned were a 1978 SR500 single (it could pull stumps, and would break your leg if you didn't get the kick right when starting it), and a YZ425 motocross bike, which was just plain scary (compared to the CR250's I had owned).

Great collection and history. Thanks for sharing both the bikes and watches. How about a pic of the bikes, especially the Daytona Special(s) & the Gamma.

mk

[hennabav]

That is such a crazy collection of Omegas. All vintage too!!

[buckscat]

Jesus! And I felt bad for spending hours plotting my next rolex purchase which will bring my collection to a whopping 2. Do you rotate them daily? Actually you would have to switch watches approx every 6 hrs a day to wear them all in 1 yr!

[iSellJerseyShore]

Originally Posted by rdrzman

Over 2000 watches in total.... taking out one very high end watch I am guessing somwhere in the 7 figures??? Have no idea to be honest. Been collecting for 30 years.

This batch would be about $180,000 due to a couple of special items

I am guessing I might have $10,000 this batch and less that $100,000 in the entore collection... but the money is not the point,,, it is a silly obsession with all things that have gears... same with my motorcycles

WoW!

I want to have a collection like you someday!! In life, whether it be sports, business, life etc we all have someone we look up to. Someone we aspire to model ourselves after as we advance in whatever it is that we are trying to excel at......... In the world of horology you are my hero!


Thanks for allowing us a small glimpse of your collection!

Regards,


-Frankie

[iSellJerseyShore]

Originally Posted by buckscat

Jesus! And I felt bad for spending hours plotting my next rolex purchase which will bring my collection to a whopping 2. Do you rotate them daily? Actually you would have to switch watches approx every 6 hrs a day to wear them all in 1 yr!

Thats a sick calculation!!!

In addition......... He has more watches than the number of Members active in the past 24 hours: 1696

LoL



-Frankie

[buckscat]

Originally Posted by iSellJerseyShore

Thats a sick calculation!!!

In addition......... He has more watches than the number of Members active in the past 24 hours: 1696

LoL



-Frankie

Yeah at first I thought there was a problem with the thread because the fricken pictures of watches was endless.

[theloxmyth]

If you need help choosing a watch to wear, might I suggest the Omega.

Fine collection. It took a tremendous effort to lay hands on those!

[timetravel125]

Hi, Farel. Could you give me some info in one of your watches from the 6th case, first one on top, white dial? I almost bought one a couple of months ago, from a vintage watch store in the Los Angeles area, but withdrew because of lack of knowledge on it.

Thank you in advance.

[DSJ]

So you're the one making it tough for me to find a vintage Seamaster for my dress watch!

[Cato]

Your collection is a fine example of Omega's golden era. I always thought Omega was the "Rolex" of it's day. Now I can see it was closer to a "Patek" of its day.

[Almoe66]

Originally Posted by rdrzman

Rene Rondau is the guy for the job but the movement parts are VERY hard to find now. I know where there are a few movements to scavange from though.

One guy I know modify's them by changing out the movement and changing it for an automatic Hamilton. The nice thing is that he does it without damaging anything at all. This way you can keep the original movement and put it back in someday if you want to. Not cheap but a good way to go, the original 500 movements are honestly crap... but I live the watch.

Farel

Thanks Farel, I found Rene's name a while back a couple of years ago when I searched for repair - from what I remember he is the expert - I wish I had pulled the trigger then to have it repaired as I had some extra $$ at the time, but had just been laid off so I figured I better wait - now here we are.

Bless my grandfathers soul, when it stopped working on him he had a Spiedel twist braclet on it - the watch does look like it needs some serious TLC

[nbs]

Actually making me sick(dizzy) by looking at your collections!