Jump to content

Watchmaker's estate: $54,700 ???


Recommended Posts

He hasn’t a clue about salesman ship. As you say terrible videos and the mumbling audio. Did he just think of a number when it came to selling because he says many times he hasn’t a clue what a lot of the stuff is for. I don't think he has a hope in hell selling that for the asking price. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

He'll make more money separating it into lots and selling them on Ebay, though it's far more work.

Exactly what I thought: he wants the maybe possible amount from selling all single items - but leaving the involved work to others.

There are a few very nice accessories, which makes me think that the major tools and machines are already missing.

Frank

Link to comment
Share on other sites

52 minutes ago, praezis said:

There are a few very nice accessories, which makes me think that the major tools and machines are already missing.

Agreed.  Notice the numbered stickers on some of the items.  That tells me that there was some sort of pre-sale.  Possibly before he acquired it... But, if this were a working watchmaker's estate, there should be something nice...not incomplete Seitz sets.  These are the leftovers.

Notice the lathe with a grinding wheel on it.  Not exactly a "watchmaker" use model.  And where is the collet set?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last century when I was in school I was alerted that a well known watchmaker and author was selling off all his stuff as one lot. It was a couple hours drive, so talked to him on the phone first, "there's no cherry-picking, it's all or nothing"; OK. Went down, he had a couple of nice lathes, but from his writing I was expecting one set up for milling and dividing... "no, sold that to another guy", what about that rounding up tool? "sold to another guy", and so forth. So it was the dregs, already been cherry-picked.

 

A sad thing that happens is when a watchmaker passes and folks come in and pick off the good stuff for nothing from the unknowing widow, leaving the cigar boxes full of random junk and a few forlorn 3/4 empty assortments, or a lathe which magically is missing all its accessories.

  • Sad 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Egad!  Well, I saw some watches, watch parts, and pliers near the end.  But mostly I saw a whole lot of boxes and cases, with the implication that there were vintage watchmaking tools in them.  There's no way I'd spend $40,000 or more on implications.  
(That, and I don't presently have $40,000 to spend.)
That man has big dreams, but I'm afraid I cannot bring myself to be all that optimistic for him.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, nickelsilver said:

A sad thing that happens is when a watchmaker passes and folks come in and pick off the good stuff for nothing from the unknowing widow, leaving the cigar boxes full of random junk and a few forlorn 3/4 empty assortments, or a lathe which magically is missing all its accessories.

This reminds me of the following quote:

"I'm afraid one day I will die and my wife will sell my watches for what I told her I paid for them."

  • Haha 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, nickelsilver said:

A sad thing that happens is when a watchmaker passes and folks come in and pick off the good stuff for nothing from the unknowing widow, leaving the cigar boxes full of random junk and a few forlorn 3/4 empty assortments, or a lathe which magically is missing all its accessories.

This thread is making me want to kick myself (again)

My brother was a master watchmaker and had an extremely nice shop. He started in the mid '70s so did it for forever, so you can imagine.

He passed away several years ago and his wife even had me help her kind of assess some kind of ballpark values on his stuff. I was aware of a lot of it, but wasn't actually into watchmaking back then. She ended up ignoring everything I said and sold the whole lot for $10K, and the buyer ends up being a slimy import who basically haphazardly just tossed piles of everything into boxes and loaded into a truck. Obviously just flipping everything.
Heck, had I known that would have been her decision, I would have paid her that much just for sentimental reasons. Plus now that I'm starting to get into it a little myself, I would have had an awesome shop full of tools to do anything that ever came up once I learned how to use it. The best beginner tool kit ever.

Anyway, long story longer. $40K for just what I'm seeing is clearly absurd after I got to see my brother's shop get sold off for 1/4 that.

Edited by Vinito
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, KarlvonKoln said:

Egad!  Well, I saw some watches, watch parts, and pliers near the end.  But mostly I saw a whole lot of boxes and cases, with the implication that there were vintage watchmaking tools in them.  There's no way I'd spend $40,000 or more on implications.  
(That, and I don't presently have $40,000 to spend.)
That man has big dreams, but I'm afraid I cannot bring myself to be all that optimistic for him.

🤔 boxes inside boxes, i have to get myself some of those.  Maybe he thinks prospective buyers have xray vision.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Vinito said:

This thread is making me want to kick myself (again)

My brother was a master watchmaker and had an extremely nice shop. He started in the mid '70s so did it for forever, so you can imagine.

If you happen to read my introduction from a couple of years ago, you will see that I almost made a similar mistake.  My dad was a watchmaker and I inherited his equipment along with some boxes of watches.  I almost started selling it all on ebay and then had an epiphany--decided to become a watchmaker!  Nothing to the level of what this guy is selling.  A couple of lathes, six staking sets, watchbench complete with every tool you would need on a daily basis.  Timing machine, microscope...and other stuff.  I have since bought more...lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you look at the reviews of the seller the last three items are watch related. I'm guessing a mustard dip does tell when the water by selling a few items at what seemed to be too much money and based on that decided that he has $1 trillion of stuff you could sell at all is one big lot. Unfortunately I've seen this before on eBay and typically though just sit there forever because nobody can afford to pay that for what they're going to get just isn't worth it.

Oh and then the item numbers I'm assuming he purchased this from somewhere else.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Recently Browsing

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Topics

  • Posts

    • I think we've talked about this before, using a new mainspring to initially overcome the effects of more movement friction than there should be. The aim is to reduce all going friction not to push through the friction with more torque, that in the long run will create more wear.
    • Sensible precautions @rjenkinsgb. I remember as a lad, my mate's dad ran a garage. I can clearly remember watching him change break pads. He used an airline to blow the dust out, (when pads used asbestos), and  we used to practically bathe in "carbon tet". But then he did smoke about 40 cigs a day. Makes me shudder to think about it.
    • OK, a little bit more from today's lecture about the main springs. Generally, the spring in the barrel is limited and can't  unwind fully. With the blue line is shown the reserve/torque relation when spring unwinding is limited by the barrel. The green line represents the same when the spring is free to unwind fully And the red line shows the minimum torque that is needed for the movement to keep running. The yelow graph shows how the torque changes (from the blue) when the spring gets weaker (set) after 100 years of work. The purple line represents thinner and longer spring in the same barrel. As You can see, using thinner and longer spring will increase the power reserve. The 'set' spring will have the same reserve as a new one with the same sizes, only the amplitude will be just a little smaller.  Of course, this is true only when the movement othervice is in good health ( the red line is lo enough)
    • As long as you don't grind the stuff up and blow it around, you should be fine. Use a dust mask if in doubt.   The things I'm very careful of are: Radium lume - even the stuff that is visually completely dead and inert is still highly radioactive; it's the fluorescent part that decays, not the radium. A single speck inhaled or ingested can cause cancer, so store parts in zip bags and wear a dust mask & wipe your work area down after handling anything that uses it. A proper geiger counter is a good investment if you plan on working with vintage watches, so you can check for it & take appropriate precautions.   "One dip" & equivalents - the original type & the generic PERC dry cleaning fluid (Tetrachloroethylene / perchloroethylene) which is what the original one dip was mostly made of. That's toxic, a known carcinogen. Use in very good ventilation only & keep it sealed whenever possible.   The newer B-Dip is presumably a safer replacement.  
    • Only 137% !  sounds like you're not putting enough effort in 😆.  I would think of it like cogs on pushbike.  Fastest speed to the spindle would be largest pulley wheel on the drive and smallest pulley wheel on the driven. If the motor was into a sliding bed you would have 3x4 ? Speeds.
×
×
  • Create New...