This may sound like a very silly question, but I'm using my still somewhat newbie status to ask it anyway! Where do you all find your watches? I was just reading the post about people "looking for" private label watches and it just got me wondering. Where do you look? Online, antique stores, estate sales, newspapers? I'm guessing a combination of all of those. Does it tend to be an every day thing? Every weekend? Do you hit all the same places regularly? Dealer friends? Just curious!

Word of mouth works great. But beating any bush to see what drops out is my plan of attack.

My folks are spending their retirement floating around auctions, estate sales and flea markets...

They are like little watch hounds...

At the markets in Quartzite AZ... they cruise around, map all the booths with watches so I can bee-line from one to another in minimal time.

My father has never met a person that isn't a friend and will talk to anyone about anything... next thing you know they are talking about watches. He has been able to steer me toward a couple great opportunities.

Otherwise, I drop in to pawn shops or antique boutiques and ask around. This technique earned me an introduction to another estate sale specialist sitting on hundreds of watches he will never have time to finish.

After two years of being frustrated about how to find watches outside online auctions... all of a sudden, I have access to more watches than I will ever be able to afford.

I will put stop to that bee-line of yours soon, Az is my territory stay in CA
just kidding.(give me call perhaps we can meet in Quartzite and I will drag Mike H. with me hehe)
Going back to the post all of the above will apply .

I work with some estate attorneys, but I've never seen them with any watches until lately. With luck, I should have a nice 1914 Hamilton by the end of the week from them! So here's another semi-related question. How rare or unusual are private label watches? I've only been looking for watches in general for the last several years and have never seen any private labels. I'd really love to see if there are any out there from my tiny little railroad town. Dennison, OH, had a major RR canteen back in WWII ( http://dennisondepot.org/new_website/) and I'm thinking of leaning towards RR watch collecting, but I'm still learning so I'm open for anything I might find! Thanks for all the input!

Most PL watches are neither rare nor unusual. They are generally constructed by the watch manufacturer using an existing in house, in stock model and simply adorning/engraving it with whatever the customer wanted such as an: "Edward A. Huston Special- Worthington, Ohio". And for 50c more put the same writings on a dial.

PL watches are collected by a limited amount of horologists as most collectors prefer regular issued watches and the main reason most PL watches are worth less than standard production models. I believe I only have one in my collection, a "Beck's Special"[see attached photo].

regards,
bb

Well of course Buster! How could you not grab that one? I'm afraid if I ever saw one with my name on it, I'd probably mortgage the farm for it and I don't even have a farm!

Through advertising "watches wanted" I have bought a few collections and occasionally will buy one or a few watches at a watch show from someone who approaches my table. However, most of my watches come from estate auctions--sometimes an auction goes well with good buys on quality pieces, but sometimes the pickings are slim or the pieces have condition issues and the bidders are fighting over who can spend the most....