COLLECTING

[interstatetime]

I've been giving talks on collecting for a few years. I don't remember the first time I gave "the talk" but it was probably at an NAWCC, Southern Ohio Regional at the old Drawbridge Estate back in the '90s. I think the title was "Collecting Illinois Watches Without Going Broke." I will be giving a new version of the talk next week at the NAWCC, Mid-South Regional in Dalton, GA.

The collecting talk is never the same, partly because my collection is never the same. When I first gave the talk, the focus of my collection was a certain family of Illinois Watch Company pocket watches. Today, I still collect pocket watches, but my focus is more wristwatches, and specifically watches with buttons on the side(s). I guess that change of focus one of the things that keeps me, and probably keeps most of us collecting. There is broad spectrum of things that wind up and tick the time out there. There is a lot to keep us fascinated.

I tend not to write a lot down when I am thinking about the next talk. I may jot down a note or two when something profound comes to my mind. And I'm smiling when I say "profound," as if any of this really matters all that much. Most of the next version of the talk just gets hashed out over time in what's left of my old brain. It gets hashed out while I'm walking through our neighborhood woods, or talking to collector friends either online, on the phone, or in person. I think I collect other collectors just as avidly as I collect things that wind up and tick the time.

This morning on my walk in the woods, my companion was a watch I just collected this week. It was a pretty complicated watch in its day; back in the '60s. It has 4 buttons on its sides and three of its buttons operate two functions each. This watch has two buttons next to the winding crow for the chronograph or stopwatch function and two buttons on the opposite side for setting the calendar (day/date/month) and the moon phase functions.

As I walked through the woods this morning, basking in the glory of the warm light I felt a smug satisfaction with the fact that my new watch was displaying all of its various functions correctly. I thought to myself, why does this old watch make me happy? The watch is a real pain in the ass. Part of the glory of it displaying the time, the day, the date, the month and the phase of the moon correctly is that it took me a couple of days to get it all right.

When I first tried to set all of its functions, which involves pressing its various buttons in the correct order and to different depths for each function, I accidentally set it a day ahead…or was it just 12 hours ahead? There is no way of knowing and it is important. It was late at night and I was getting frustrated so, instead of trying to advance it back through a whole year, minus a day, or a half day, with the buttons to get it right, I decided to just let it tick to a stop and wait a day and let time catch up to the watch.

What a pain in the ass. Right?

But today, on my walk in the woods, as the warm morning light caught its gold leaf moon peeking through the little aperture on its dial…the moon's glowing smile let me know that the pain was all worth it. The moon's little smile reminded me why I collect.

Hope to see some of you in beautiful Dalton, GA next week.

[Erik_H]

That is a lovely Gallet, and a wonderful story about how collecting watches affects us.

I seriously wish there was a ‘like’ button somewhere here.

[interstatetime]

Thanks for the kind words Erik.

[geno]

Great story, if you lose your passion you may as well be dead. Right now I am aggressive as hell buying and selling and loving every minute of it. Once in a while I get a great one to keep too.

[interstatetime]

Geno, last year was my best year in the watch biz. It was even better than 2008-9 which was a great one. This year there have been too many distractions but I am back on the road and in the mix again. I hope to finish up with a bang.

[geno]

John yes me too, a great buying and selling year and not just watches, good luck on the road and remember only time will tell. Here is one of my coin sales at auction at Great Collections due next Sunday. 1839 Gobrecht Silver Dollar J-104 Restrike NGC Proof-64

[Rob31]

That is a great story John. thank you for posting it!

Rob Sherman ch. 106,149