What are the best lower end Swiss mechanical vintage watches?

[raykv423]

When I said lower end, I mean anything that’s less than $100–$200. 

I already have a vintage Timex Mercury I bought for just $10, but the issue is vintage Timex movements are notoriously difficult to be serviced and apparently you can’t even replace the parts, not even a mainspring (feel free to correct me but this is what I heard) and I’m not sure if a lighter fluid trick actually even works or if my vintage Timex can even be serviced at all and I’m not even sure how many watchmakers out there can service a vintage Timex, so I was hoping for another vintage watch that’s easily more repairable than a vintage Timex but considering I can’t afford a vintage Rolex or a Omega, I rather choose something far less expensive (maybe something like $5 to $100) and maybe something other than Timex and more Swiss made or at least has a Swiss movement, and has to be mechanical (manual wind and automatic are both fine).

[freddy333]

On 4/13/2025 at 8:39 PM, raykv423 said:

vintage Timex movements are notoriously difficult to be serviced and apparently you can’t even replace the parts, not even a mainspring (feel free to correct me but this is what I heard)

 

An ebay search for 'Timex watch parts' returns many pages of Timex parts. Same for 'Timex mainsprings'. Without including the specific Timex movement, it is impossible to answer your question with any accuracy. Is there a specific Timex movement you are interested in acquiring parts/service for?

In general, unless you are looking for damaged/defective items, I think you are going to have trouble finding any mechanical watches, movements & their parts cheap. At this point, even many so-called 'cheap' quartz watches & movements range in prices above $100.