In this personal post, I will tell you about the very last watch I purchased, and how it might be the perfect example of how even when you win, you never win cheap watches as much as you think.I had been looking for an old Longines chronograph for years. Probably four years. I remember the first time I ever came across a great, stainless steel 13ZN at an Antiquorum preview and I fell in love. Since then, I've come close to buying several gold 13ZN's on many occasions. But, I have a few PS3 remote inexpensive gold vintage chronographs from the likes of Universal Geneve and Zenith, so I really wanted to hold out for steel. Obviously, steel is much more wearable for me as a guy who wears a suit exactly one week per year (SIHH in January). So, in my nightly browsing for vintage watches, I stumbled across what a 7 inch tablet dealer described as a 1950s Longines 13ZN. I looked closer, and to me, it didn't look like it was from the 50's at all. I would've guessed the early 40s. And then, I looked further still, I saw that there was a singular pusher on this case at 2 o'clock, and nothing at 4 o'clock. This was a mono-pusher 13ZN. I sent an email to the dealer, who was a large European seller of both old and new watches, though one I've never dealt with either personally or professionally. I didn't hear anything back for one week. I sent a note via the contact form on his website, still nothing. I was about to give up.I sent one last email to this dealer from my personal email account and the next morning, I heard back from someone at the shop. They answered my questions about movement and case numbers, condition, etc to my satisfaction. I then took the information they had provided me and did quite a bit of research. I first looked at John Goldberger's book on classic Longines watches (you can see a pictorial display of it here) and saw that 13ZN mono-pushers did not account for many of arguably the largest collection of rare Longines in the world. That confirmed my suspicion that this watch was rare, and very likely, early. Then, I reached out to Longines to ask what information they might have on the watch. Longines has one of the most active heritage departments around, and if you send them a note with your movement and case numbers, they usually get back to you within 24 hours. It's an amazing service available to all. The Corn Bulbs next morning, I had confirmation from Longines that this watch was invoiced on November 23, 1939 to their Argentine agent Perusset. So, while the dealer was confident it was from the 50s and a normal 13ZN chronograph, I now knew it was a mono-pusher chronograph and much, much earlier than advertised. This, of course, makes it more valuable. Having all this information in hand, I agreed to purchase the watch - site unseen - a common practice if you're going to be an aggressive vintage watch buyer. I wired the money, and waited for it to clear. Then, just as the watch was about to ship, I was told they were not happy with how the watch was performing and would like to eachmall service it before sending it to me. Sounds innocent enough, certainly, but a service by a dealer who mislabeled a watch by 20 years could mean trouble. I was buying this watch in the condition I had seen, so I would have been gutted if in the service the dial had been touched up, or the case polished - both things that happen way too often.Finally, three weeks later, I received my watch in New York. 745TDBanty 131111