Resurrecting the Pocket Watch Industry...?

June 20, 2010, 14:15

Marc DeCarufel

To All IHC185 Members,
Firstly let me acknowledge the fact that I am a new member to this community. I am a retired Canadian Navy Man, whom has been in "love" with time keeping instruments for many years. Enough about me...I wish to thank everyone for making me feel welcome.

Ok down to business...after reading the philosophy behind the " Save it from the scrapper" postings I am left asking the following questions:

When driving down the road, I see, daily, "new" Beetles by VW, Cooper Minis by BMW, Dodge Challengers by Chrysler and I could go on for ever. All replicas, all re-machined and doing pretty well by the volume witnessed.

So where am I going with this?

I realise that the auto insdustry is very appealing to most. Well so is sporting a beautiful pocket watch...or am I wrong?

Are there any companies that ~~reproduce~~ manufacture quality cases and movements?

Are there any legacy mechanical drawings for the vintage cases we all adore? if so one could manufacture quality, solid, beautiful cases again.

Anyhow, I am simply amazed that these beautiful witnesses of the past are being molten for their bullion value, and furthermore; I am thinking that, even at the rate of one hundred a year, a small well intentioned business person (not me

) could do humanity a favour.

Any thoughts? anyone

June 20, 2010, 16:45

Phillip Sanchez

Hi, Marc, I wish it were hundreds, I am concerned about the hundred thousand. I just went in to a gold buyer here in this small town. I asked him if I could buy the movements. After discussing prices he agreed to call me, he said he gets in about a dozen per month. There are three gold buyers here. This is a town of about 20,000 in the summer. Just try multiplying that out country wide.
Keep on posting we love hearing new thoughts around here.

June 20, 2010, 18:22

Lindell V. Riddle

Welcome aboard Marc,

Let's begin with you 'old cars' analogy...

Consider well-kept original Muscle Car values, nice ones from the 1960s that twenty years ago would have been affordable, many of them are into the hundreds of thousands today with no end in sight. Today's retro-cars such as the Dodge Challengers you mentioned are forty grand, a 1970 model they are designed to emulate could easily go for five times that amount, values are higher every day for one big reason, those legendary cars are like nothing else in the world, that was true then and it is true now, they are essentially irreplaceable.

You are right to compare watches and cars, but those great old cars are not being destroyed. our watches are. Some of us are being offered movements, twenty, thirty, forty at a time. Just days ago they were all cased in solid-gold, they will never be again. What is being lost is being lost forever. Put in automotive terms, what if all those cast-iron engines were being destroyed because scrap iron had gone through the roof in value, maybe even more on point what if fiberglas was like gold, yes, fiberglas, that's it... so tell me what if the bodies of old Corvettes and Avantis, of Kaiser-Darrins were being "sent to the smelter" like our gold cases are?

You can extrapolate that to fine furniture and so many other collectable areas. Sure there are "reproductions" in furniture but that is not the same as the real-deal and it never really will be. And then you get to wrist and pocket watches. The cases we are losing today, every day can never really be duplicated, they can never be replaced. We could make one that is similar but it really is not the same as the originals. One of our IHC185 Members Don Mathis of Medina, Ohio can make you a case, a very, very nice case... his prices for one in silver will start in the couple thousand area. Take that times four or five for a solid-gold case.

Sure we have the ability to make high quality watch movements today and we can make some truly beautiful cases to go with them, I and many others collect those as well, one day some of them will be revered as the watches from a hundred years ago are revered today. But nothing can ever really replace what is being lost. We would not break up Queen Anne furniture to provide heat next winter, of course not, that would be ridiculous... well I say it is every bit as utterly ridiculous to lose gold watch cases.

We will always be able to make items of high quality, but when history is lost, it is lost forever.

Lindell

They shook the very ground under us, what amazing cars...

June 20, 2010, 19:44

Mike LaForest

The intrinsic value of the gold in a solid gold case overshadows the value of the case as an object d'arte, or as an antique, for most people.

However, the intrinsic value of the metal in a classic car is nothing compared to its value as an antique. The highest value wins. It is a matter of economics.

This whole situation of scrapping is going to get worse as gold increases in value - which I believe it will. The demand for gold will increase, but the demand for gold cases will probably remain the same. If I was going to spend money for a solid gold case today, I would probably do so as a financial investment, rather than as an antique.

June 21, 2010, 17:09

Chris Hughes

Cases are one thing. It seems unlikely to me that any company would get into making new gold cases in this economic environment. Movements are another thing altogether. I don't see any reason why a company couldn't be successful making mechanical pocket watch movements, beyond the fact that the vast majority of people wear wrist watches now.

June 23, 2010, 16:30

C. Keith Johnson

This is an example of what is being made today in China. A 17 jewel mechanical Demi-Hunter with functional day-night indicator,24hour aux. dial, center red second hand, exposed balance wheel. Out of curiosity I bid and won this on eBay for $4.50 USD and delivered for a total of $20.00!!
IT WORKS!!!