Worn Well – A Vintage Watch Blog
Come share our musings on the world of vintage timepiece repair and collecting.
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Where Do Addictions Begin?
It’s pretty clear to me that mine started at The Whitestone Savings Bank in Queens, New York in 1969 when I was 5 years old. My mother would often take me with her into the bank’s vault to place items into our family’s safety deposit box. Fifty years later, I can still remember the plush red carpeting, the gray-haired security guard who opened the massive, armored steel door, and the tiny private room we were ushered into with box #428. While my mother checked documents or added items, she always handed me one object from the box to keep me occupied: my grandfather’s pocket watch.
By the time the watch re-appeared in my life, I had already started down the road of collecting many old things: cameras, guitars, but particularly old watches. As a teen, I frequented the flea markets held in vacant parking lots around Canal Street in New York City. There were always tables of militaria, industrial findings, and knick-knacks to examine. I found my first few watch purchases there: an ornate, silver 1960’s Wittnauer automatic for $10, and then a deco-styled, brown Benrus 25 jewel beauty for just $5. Back in those days, there were still watchmakers scattered throughout New York City. I remembered a tiny watchmaker’s stall I had passed in the bowels of Grand Central Station, and on my journey back to Queens brought him my purchases to repair. For $10 each, that kind man cleaned, oiled and adjusted my new treasures and showed me that these cast-offs were quality-made pieces to be worn and appreciated.
My grandfather’s pocket watch was bequeathed to me years later upon his death. By that time, I had collected dozens of watches of all types and had even begun to repair them myself. So, I was able to ascertain a few things about his watch with my new-found knowledge. His is a 17 jewel, model 1894 pocket watch made by the Waltham Watch Company in Massachusetts in 1924; it’s a fairly common watch with over a half million manufactured. As he emigrated to America in 1928, the watch’s type and age made perfect sense.
But as I examined the watch, it unveiled a big surprise for me. The movement is in a solid gold case by The Brooklyn Watch Company, not a more common gold plated one. How an immigrant butcher who never learned to speak English or earned much money in his working life afforded a solid gold watch, I will never know. What I do know is that it is the source of my interest in vintage watches and the stories that they hold.
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Worn Well - A Vintage Watch Blog 