My neighbor says, "You know anything about this watch?"

[LittleWatchShop]

LOL, last night my neighbor was over for happy hour and I am telling her about my watchmaking renaissance.  She says she has this watch that belonged to her grandmother...wondering about it.  So she runs it over today and hands it to me to check out. Oh my!

[LittleWatchShop]

After a little research...made by Patek Philippe for Tiffany.  It is in beautiful condition.  I recall my dad having great respect for Patek Philippe.  I think they are credited with make the most complex mechanical watch of all time.

[Pip]

That's absolutely lovely.

[JohnD]

2 hours ago, Pip said:

That's absolutely lovely.

And worth a bloody fortune!! (Current value for similar about US$12,000)

Edited January 25, 2021 by JohnD

[watchweasol]

An absolute stunner.

[LittleWatchShop]

Thinking further about Petek Philippe...and their Calibre 89 watch   It was the most complex watch until Vacheron upped the ante with their 57260. The complexity and genius must be admired, but there is a part of my brain that is conflicted.

For $30 bucks I can put a Raspberry Pi in service to do all those functions and more.  In addition, the Pi has more than a billion transistors squeezed into 10's of square millimeters of silicon.  Zoom in to those silicon chips and you will observe a different kind of beauty...and consider the brilliant technology that enabled printing of billions of transistors, each of which is about 20 nanometers square. 

My entire career was spent as an integrated circuit designer, so I have seen this beauty first hand.  Even so, when I peer into a beautiful watch and see it's fine workings, another part of my brain lights up.

Circuit and watch...both very beautiful.

[KarlvonKoln]

*GASP!*  Oh my, indeed!  Is that a repeater?  I'd almost be afraid to work on that.  Good thing it's running.  That's a sizable fortune in a small package.

[spectre6000]

Looks to me like a seconds-only stop watch (grandmother was a nurse maybe?). The column wheel is under the screw/plate around 3 o'clock in the photo. Crown is the pusher. 12 o'clock is the typical stacked third wheel arrangement, and the other non-center wheel is the clutch wheel. The rest in the lower section is levers and springs.

Definitely a beautiful watch, and definitely worth a small fortune. 

Edited January 27, 2021 by spectre6000

[MechanicMike]

My extensive and vast vocabulary is about to kick in: "Wow."

That is a ripper!  Feel heavy in your hand? Is your neighbor aware of what they have?

[LittleWatchShop]

9 hours ago, MechanicMike said:

My extensive and vast vocabulary is about to kick in: "Wow."

That is a ripper!  Feel heavy in your hand? Is your neighbor aware of what they have?

It feels slightly heavier than a typical watch of this size.  Yes, of course, I told her it was worth between $8k and $12k.  She has no interest in converting it into cash.  However, now that she knows its value, she is going to put it in a nice display case.

There is one on Ebay that was listed for $8k.  I started watching it and the owner offered it to me for $7k.  That one has been serviced and in perfect working order.  I am tempted, but I have recently spent a boat load of money restoring a 1964 Chevy C10.  I will never recoup that...lol.

[MechanicMike]

Good for her! 

Bet that C10 looks sweet...

[PastorChris]

Second thread in which we have heard about this truck. Photos!!!

[LittleWatchShop]

3 minutes ago, PastorChris said:

Second thread in which we have heard about this truck. Photos!!!

Yup...well it is draining my wallet and filling my heart!

[PastorChris]

5 minutes ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Yup...well it is draining my wallet and filling my heart!

Sounds like a reasonable equation. 

[spectre6000]

There are definitely a handful of car guys on here. I used to have a K10 and a K5 (2wd isn't so hot up here). Currently DD a ZR2 Bison. My old Karmann Ghia is the 5th result in google images if you search "57 karmann ghia". Black and white, Texas plates, ironic coniferous background because the photo was taken at a Cars 'n Coffee at a BMW dealership in Dallas, and ultimately ended up actually in the mountains with more or less that exact background. Lots of others in my portfolio.

[Michael1962]

I'm not a car guy really, but I do like my Lotus Esprit S4.

Sorry for the sidetrack.

[spectre6000]

10 hours ago, Michael1962 said:

I'm not a car guy really, but I do like my Lotus Esprit S4.

Continuing the sidetrack...

How do you square the two clauses of that sentence? I feel like paying for the purchase (and maintenance) of a Lotus indicates a certain amount of enthusiasm that would probably earn one the "Car Guy" badge. My next door neighbor has a Nissan XTerra, and he's a car guy (by his definition and mine).