Today's rant!!!

[LittleWatchShop]

I am screaming at the sky this morning.

Somewhere else on this forum I think I mentioned acquiring the "stuff" of a deceased watchmaker.  Incidentally, I have already sold three items (watches) that have recovered 80% of what I paid, so I am jazzed about that.  Here is what is driving me nuts.

I have about 300 pocket watches--almost all without cases.  No doubt the movements were separated from their cases during the gold rush.  While that pisses me off, it is not today's beef.

Some numb nuts, thought of a great idea.  He disassembled the watches and put them in cheep @ss plastic containers that do not fit together and secured them with rubber bands.  Over the years, the rubber bands deteriorated and compromised the erstwhile sealed enclosure.  Why not leave the movement intact?

In addition, somebody thought it a wise idea to separate wheels into their respective function, irrespective of caliber and brand.  Geez.  Well, I discovered while restoring a Waltham that had a rusty hour wheel, there are other Walthams of different caliber with the same hour wheel.  In addition, I found rachet wheels to be similar across calibers, so maybe these "assortments" will pay off down the road.  Quien sabe.

So, I have been going through these one at a time and carefully transferring the movements into truly sealed containers.  After I complete this task, I am going to catalog everything, so I will know what I have.

Some good news...there were some cases...20yr and some silveroid, etc.  I have rebuilt two Waltham 16s PWs and they are running nicely. 

Anyway, I feel better now.  Thanks for listening.

Examples

[Paul80]

Just looking on eBay there seems to some sort of unreported plague wiping out watchmakers around the world, with so many deceased watchmakers job lots being sold.

Should we be worried  

[JohnR725]

6 hours ago, LittleWatchShop said:

Some numb nuts, thought of a great idea.  He disassembled the watches and put them in cheep @ss plastic containers that do not fit together and secured them with rubber bands.  Over the years, the rubber bands deteriorated and compromised the erstwhile sealed enclosure.  Why not leave the movement intact?

Okay here's a challenge for you randomly grab several boxes and put the watch back together are all the pieces there?

Oh and then typically what you're seeing is not unique. The only time I've seen movements stay Assembled would be if somebody was scrapping the cases and then the movements were kept separate otherwise if movements come from a watchmaker typically they're missing parts. Either because somebody took apart off for another repair or maybe it was repair waiting for a part that never happened and the watch was just acquired.

Then yes it's really annoying there's so much potential there and there are typically missing enough pieces that is not really worthwhile assembling and there is the bonus of typically don't have the case Or the annoyance of having a nice case with no watch to put in it.

 

[LittleWatchShop]

15 hours ago, JohnR725 said:

Or the annoyance of having a nice case with no watch to put in it.

Exactly!