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Watches of Lancashire

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An independent qualified watchmakers specialising in vintage and pre-owned watches. We have over 30

22/10/2026

In 1931, polo players kept smashing their watch glass.

The obvious fix was stronger glass. The clever fix was a watch that flips over and hides its face.

Nearly a century on, the Reverso has barely changed, because good ideas rarely need improving.

This 2006 ref. 252.8.86 is just 23mm wide. In a world of oversized watches, restraint is the louder signal.

Hand-wound. Fully serviced. Original box and papers, plus a two-year guarantee.

£4,000. Link in bio.

21/10/2026

Thank you, Chester! 🙏

What a weekend at The Cheshire Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair.

A huge thank you to the organisers for putting on such a brilliant event, and to all the staff at the County Grandstand, Chester Racecourse, who kept everything running so smoothly across all three days. It was a pleasure to be part of such a well-run fair, alongside so many talented dealers.

Most of all, thank you to everyone who came by the stand. Whether you came to try on a watch you’d been eyeing online, bring in a piece to sell or part-exchange, ask about servicing, or just talk watches for half an hour, it was genuinely lovely to meet you all. Putting faces to names and seeing these watches on new wrists is the best part of the job.

If you didn’t make it this time, or you’re still thinking about something you tried on, every watch is available to browse at watchesoflancashire.com, and I’m always happy to chat by phone or arrange an appointment.

Until the next one! ⌚

Watchfam

18/10/2026

Logically, nobody should buy this watch.

Your phone keeps better time. It changes itself when the clocks go back. It never needs a service, and you already own one.

And yet.

Look closely at the bottom of the dial on this 1995 Rolex Submariner 16610. Tiny print: SWISS – T < 25.

That T stands for tritium, the luminous paint Rolex used until the late ’90s. Tritium has a half-life of about 12 years. Thirty-one years on, less than a fifth of it is left. The glow has all but gone out.

An engineer would call that a defect. Collectors go looking for it.

A feature that has stopped working has become a reason to want the watch. Economists find this baffling. Everyone else understands it immediately.

Here’s the other thing. Most of us don’t buy to get the best possible outcome. We buy to avoid the worst one. Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM, and almost nobody has regretted buying a Submariner.

So we’ve removed whatever worry was left:
– Fully serviced
– Original box and papers
– 24-month guarantee
– 40mm steel, sapphire crystal, calibre 3135, and the slimmer proportions of the classic Sub

£9,500. Divide that by the years it’s already lasted and it comes to about £300 a year. Divide it by the years it has left and it gets cheaper still.

Viewing by appointment in Darwen. Link in bio.

#16610

15/10/2026

This watch is worse at telling the time than the one you’re wearing.

Its hour hand goes round once a day, not twice. Noon sits at the bottom. Any sensible product designer would send it back.

Unless you’re Scott Carpenter in 1962, orbiting the Earth in Aurora 7 and watching the sun rise every 90 minutes. Up there, “3 o’clock” is useless. You need to know which 3 o’clock. So Breitling made the Navitimer worse, on purpose, and it went to space.

That’s the Cosmonaute. The obvious improvement is rarely the interesting one.

Here’s another illogical idea. Your phone keeps perfect time for free, yet people still drive to Chester Racecourse to try on a vintage chronograph. Because you can’t feel the weight of a watch through a screen, and you can’t ask a JPEG what’s been replaced.

You can ask Ian. He’s on our stand all weekend, with the Cosmonaute and plenty more.

📍 The Cheshire Decorative, Antiques & Art Fair
County Grandstand, Chester Racecourse, CH1 2LY
🗓 Fri 16 – Sun 18 October
⏰ Fri & Sat 11am–5pm · Sun 11am–4:30pm
🎟 £5 in advance, £7.50 on the door

It’s had half a century of field testing. We’ll guarantee the next two.

And bring the one that’s been sitting in your drawer. We buy and part-exchange.

ChesterAntiquesFair ChesterRacecourse WatchesOfLancashire

13/10/2026

The worry with a 50-year-old watch isn’t the price. It’s what happens after you’ve bought it.

So here’s everything we’d want to know if we were on your side of the counter.

This is a 1970s Heuer Autavia GMT, reference 11630. It’s the motorsport chronograph Heuer named after AUTomobiles and AVIAtion, with a second time zone for drivers and pilots crossing borders. It has a red-and-blue 24-hour bezel, a black dial with silver sub-dials, and a yellow GMT hand you could read from across the paddock.

What we’ve done: it has been fully serviced, and it comes with our 24-month guarantee. We’re qualified watchmakers with over 30 years’ experience, so if it ever needs attention, it comes back to us.

What we’ll be upfront about: the hands have been re-lumed, and it has mineral glass with no water-resistance rating, so keep it out of the pool.

The details:

42.5mm stainless steel case
Calibre 14 automatic chronograph with GMT
Greyfriars steel bracelet, Heuer deployment clasp
£9,000, with DHL delivery worldwide

One last quirk: the crown sits on the left. Heuer put it there because this movement winds itself, so you were never meant to need it.

You can try it on in Darwen (by appointment), call us on 01254 873399, message us here, or see the full photo set:
https://watchesoflancashire.com/product/1970s-heuer-autavia-gmt-11630/

11/10/2026

In 1954, Mexico cancelled a motor race because it was killing too many people. Nine years later, Jack Heuer named a watch after it.

The Carrera Panamericana ran border to border across Mexico, 3,000 km, from 1950 to 1954. Twenty-seven people died in its five races. Porsche borrowed the same word for its fastest cars after winning its class there. Jack Heuer heard the stories at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1962 and called his new chronograph the Carrera: a watch you could read at a glance, like a racing dashboard.

In 1966 Heuer gave it a date and called it the Carrera Dato 45. The first ones had a snag: the date sat at 12, right under the chronograph hand when it was parked. In 1968 Heuer moved the date to 9 and gave the watch a single counter at 3. This is that fixed version, with a silver sunburst dial.

Ian has fully serviced it at the bench in Darwen, and it comes with our 24-month guarantee.

1960s Heuer Carrera Dato 45 ref. 3147S · steel · 36mm · £4,700

See it here: https://watchesoflancashire.com/product/1960s-heuer-carrera-dato-45-3147s-2/

‎Follow Ian'schannel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb8YVbpChq6FWq7IkR1z

Or ring 01254 873399 to see it in Darwen, by appointment.

08/10/2026

In 1946, you couldn't buy this Rolex. You had to earn it.

Eaton's, the Canadian department store founded in Toronto in 1869, had a tradition. When you'd worked there for 25 years, you joined the Quarter Century Club, and the company marked it with a Rolex made only for its staff.

Look closely at the dial. It isn't signed Rolex. It says Eaton, and where the numbers should be, it reads 1/4 CENTURY CLUB.

Eaton's closed in 1999. The watch is still going. Ian has fully serviced it at his bench in Darwen, it comes with our 24-month guarantee, and he'll tell you exactly what's original and what isn't.

1946 Rolex Prince ref. 1490 · 14ct gold · 41 x 24 mm · £8,000

See it here: https://watchesoflancashire.com/product/1946-rolex-prince-eaton-quater-century-club-1490/

Call 01254 873399 to see it in Darwen, by appointment.

Know someone who's done 25 years somewhere? Tag them. They've earned a look.

04/10/2026

Italian racing pedigree, meeting in Oxfordshire 🇮🇹

We took our 18ct gold Chopard Mille Miglia chronograph to Bicester Motion on Friday, and look what was waiting for it.

The Lancia D50 is one of the most beautiful Grand Prix cars ever built, with its fuel tanks slung between the wheels. After Ferrari took it over, it carried Fangio to the 1956 World Championship.

Chopard’s Mille Miglia is named after the great Italian road race, so the two felt like old friends.

⌚️ 2000s Chopard Mille Miglia Chronograph, ref. 2250 • Solid 18ct yellow gold, 39mm • Black dial with silver sub-dials • Quartz chronograph • Fully serviced, with our 24-month guarantee

£5,500. Link in bio, or DM us to arrange a viewing in Darwen.

VintageWatches GoldWatch Chronograph WatchesOfLancashire WatchAndCar CarsAndWatches ClassicRacing Fangio WristShot PreOwnedWatches

01/10/2026

In 1931, British officers playing polo in India kept smashing their watch glasses mid-match.

The sensible fix would have been tougher glass. Jaeger-LeCoultre came up with something stranger, and better: a case that slides and flips over, so the dial hides behind solid steel.

The design has barely changed in the 95 years since.
This 2015 Reverso, ref. 277.8.62, is the classic in its purest form. It has a steel case, a silver dial with blued hands, Art Deco gadroons and a black alligator strap. It's an elegant watch with one very clever trick.

(Very few owners play polo in it these days. It flips just as well at a desk.)

What you get:
✓ Fully serviced by our in-house watchmakers
✓ Original box and papers
✓ Our 24-month guarantee
✓ Worldwide delivery by DHL, or come and see it in Darwen by appointment

£6,500 · Stock code JLC040

Full details and photos: https://watchesoflancashire.com/product/2015-jaeger-lecoultre-reverso-277-8-62/

24/09/2026

1962. Solid 18ct gold. One of the most beautiful dials Omega ever made. ✨

Everyone knows the Moonwatch. Fewer people know the watch Omega wore to dinner.

This is the 1962 Omega Constellation ref. 14902/3, from the years when the Constellation sat at the very top of Omega's range.

That silver dial is a "Pie Pan", named for the way its outer ring slopes down like an upturned pie dish. It wasn't just for looks either. The slope was engineered to cut glare under the domed acrylic crystals of the era, so the gold batons stay crisp in bright light.

Then there are the dog-leg lugs, the chronometer-rated automatic movement, and the observatory medallion on the back. Omega's golden era, all in one watch.

Solid 18ct yellow gold, 34mm
Silver Pie Pan dial with gold batons
Automatic chronometer Cal. 561
Those famous dog-leg lugs
On brown leather

Fully serviced by qualified watchmakers with 30+ years' experience. 2-year guarantee. Worldwide DHL delivery.

💷 £5,500

🔗 Link in bio.

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6 The Green
Darwen
BB31PW

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Thursday	9am - 5pm
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