Sheffield Diver

Got this cool old 70's diver (well diver style any way) off eBay for $40, Maybe it's not worth crap but I liked the look and the cool hour hand. Will open it up soon and post some pictures of the movement, to see if I got ripped. Anybody ever heard of, or had any experience with Sheffield? The date window looks like a '70 timex.....

35ish year old lume still works for a few minutes, got a picture of it before it faded!

Wowee Gary ! You REALLY got your money's worth with
this watch imho sir ! Haven't heard of them before, but the
style is NICE. You're right about that hour hand, it's BIG and
bold. A GREAT looking bezel, with a classic dial too. Hey and
that lume is still working as well. That's AMAZING !
Congrats and Enjoy it !

Thanks Tom...I will have to send it out for a service, but it should be a good runner. Case is made in France, marked Sheffield Watch Co. Case gasket was intact with no corrosion inside. It loses some time, but all seems good on the inside.

The movement is a Lorsa P75 according to Ranfft the specs are as follows. ( http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&0&2uswk&Lorsa_P75 ) This movement dates to 1960 so this could be 10 years older than I figured...40 - 50years old!! Usually the water resistant thing dates it to late 1960's though I think. So it is most likely about 40 years old not 50.

Lorsa P75

Features
manual wind
sweep second
date

Data
11.5''', Dm= 25.6mm
H= 4.95mm
17/21 jewels
f = 18000 A/h
power reserve 43h

sixtysix wrote:

Thanks Tom...I will have to send it out for a service, but it should be a good runner. Case is made in France, marked Sheffield Watch Co. Case gasket was intact with no corrosion inside. It loses some time, but all seems good on the inside.

The movement is a Lorsa P75 according to Ranfft the specs are as follows. ( http://www.ranfft.de/cgi-bin/bidfun-db.cgi?10&ranfft&0&2uswk&Lorsa_P75 ) This movement dates to 1960 so this could be 10 years older than I figured...40 - 50years old!! Usually the water resistant thing dates it to late 1960's though I think. So it is most likely about 40 years old not 50.

Lorsa P75

Features
manual wind
sweep second
date

Data
11.5''', Dm= 25.6mm
H= 4.95mm
17/21 jewels
f = 18000 A/h
power reserve 43h

Don't mention it Gary ! It's one interesting and unique watch sir ! The movement looks FANTASTIC, and it's
great that there is no corrosion after all of this time. Thanks for the link, as well as the extra information on the
watch ! ENJOY !

Cool!

We may have to give you and Tom your own vintage section!

COOL MAN!

Great snag at a great price Gary! Looks great for a watch that may be 40-50 years old!

Great snag for 40 beans! Looks great all around, no rust or dirt inside, dial looks great. I love those great Ebay finds!

handset is worth 40 bones, very cool! think i saw some Lorsa movements and parts, maybe even hands at ottofrei! Great find Gary, i need to get back on the bay and start fishing around! Since it's almost 50 years old i'm surprised it still glows, most likely still used radium back then. whats the case size!

cali kid wrote:

handset is worth 40 bones, very cool! think i saw some Lorsa movements and parts, maybe even hands at ottofrei! Great find Gary, i need to get back on the bay and start fishing around! Since it's almost 50 years old i'm surprised it still glows, most likely still used radium back then. whats the case size!

Case is 35mm ish (add 3-4mm for crown) I was really surprised, it seems to wear much bigger for some reason.

Thanks for all the great comments guys, hopefully I will get this one serviced soon and have some after pictures to share.

Interesting find, I've seen the Sheffield name before in vintage divers, but don't really know anything about them. In that model, like a lot of the others of that era you can really see the inspiration for some of the current designs out there. I wish they had made 60-70's dive watches around 40mm plus, with SS cases and sapphire crystals. I wonder if they next generation of watch nuts will be complaining about the dive watch sizes from today.

I like the style. That is german I am assuming? Nice movement IMHO.

Nice looking movement in this watch. a lot of nice vintage watches out there with great movements

merichar wrote:

Interesting find, I've seen the Sheffield name before in vintage divers, but don't really know anything about them. In that model, like a lot of the others of that era you can really see the inspiration for some of the current designs out there. I wish they had made 60-70's dive watches around 40mm plus, with SS cases and sapphire crystals. I wonder if they next generation of watch nuts will be complaining about the dive watch sizes from today.

You are so right Mark, really see the older pieces having a huge effect on most of the stuff out now! Hope in the future they say our cases were too big, i just hate seeing this thing getting bigger and bigger but from what i've read things are coming back down! Most real dive watches are in the 40-46mm range and 44mm seems to be the most favorite size of real dive companies! this crap you see at 52mm and 500 meters you wouldnt catch on the wrist of a real diver anywhere, i'm not a diver but some of the junk that is being made should be called desk divers!