Sacrilege?

[Hullblazer]

The Wife and I are National Trust members and we love the freedom of "we're bored, the kids need air" impromptu trips to local sites.  The annual membership is a pittance when you consider the free parking and access to history (and some rather nice walks and tea-rooms).

Whilst at Scotney Castle yesterday we found, in the gift shop, a jewellery maker who used old watch parts to make charms, pendants and brooches.  Now I've seen ladies watch mechanisms turned into cuff-links before but there was an old gents wristwatch movement here, (unmarked and faceless) turned into a necklace/pendant.

What "upset" me more were the brooches.  Old, enameled dials, in sizes from Gent's wrist to various pocket watch.  On the back they had epoxy-ed(?) a brooch-pin.  Some of these dials were marked and there were several that I recognise from past eBay sales as being from makers active in the 19th and 20th centuries ("J. W. Benson" stood out).

I realise that there must be a market, or they wouldn't stock them.  But it strikes me as "wrong"?

[Geo]

I suppose it's better the movements are used for something that gives pleasure rather than put in the bin.  At least folk are then appreciating the beauty of the movements that are otherwise hidden in cases when they were functional.

Now where did I put my cuff links?

[Hullblazer]

I hadn't though of it like that, thank you!  Perhaps I should rummage through my scrap bin...

[clockboy]

It's just market forces no different than pocket watches stripped of their movements & the cases sold for scrap. Look in the bay there are hundreds of movements for sale with no cases.

[Vich]

When I was first starting to look out for parts, I found if I looked in areas for so called "steampunk" there were often collections of watch parts, cases and dials. Now 95% were of little interest but occasionally I would recognise bits I wanted. I never paid more than a fiver for a mixed lot but often I would buy to just get a couple of dials and often old watch glasses, the old yellow looking plastic type.
I think they are getting a bit more savvy now and the really good stuff is filtered out but I dare say you may still find bits, dials etc. for the more obscure or less renowned but good makes, especially pocket watches.

These days I have so much stuff that if I bought any more mixed lots my good lady would be wearing my sphericals for earrings so I desist.

Cheers,
Vic

[sperki77]

I used to hate to see watch parts glued and welded and put together with resin and stuff for a pendant or other art piece.  But I have tons of old watch movements that will never be useful to a watchmaker because there is no real market for a vintage ladies watch with no real pedigree or otherwise unique style or quality.  Then my niece gave me a necklace made from a bunch of watch parts arranged in a haphazard way and encased in resin.  I got so many compliments on that pendant that I realized it was actually an honorable way to bring those movements out of the dark and lonely storage cabinets and back into some sort of service.  So... maybe I'll do something fun with some of those old, forgotten movements someday.  I'm attaching a photo of the pendant from my niece.  

[Hullblazer]

9 minutes ago, sperki77 said:

I used to hate to see watch parts glued and welded and put together with resin and stuff for a pendant or other art piece.  But I have tons of old watch movements that will never be useful to a watchmaker because there is no real market for a vintage ladies watch with no real pedigree or otherwise unique style or quality.  Then my niece gave me a necklace made from a bunch of watch parts arranged in a haphazard way and encased in resin.  I got so many compliments on that pendant that I realized it was actually an honorable way to bring those movements out of the dark and lonely storage cabinets and back into some sort of service.  So... maybe I'll do something fun with some of those old, forgotten movements someday.  I'm attaching a photo of the pendant from my niece.  

PLEASE excuse the pun, the compliment is genuine.  That's a striking piece!

[sperki77]

Hullblazer,

Yes, but I would never strike it... unless I needed one of those parts...  Please pardon that pun... ha ha. Thanks for the compliment!

[Geo]

It's always good to have the right gear on when you go out, but whether anyone else likes it could be a matter of a pinion.  Sorry, for the wind up! 

[Ishima]

Come on guys, dial it in with the puns.

[sperki77]

1 hour ago, Geo said:

It's always good to have the right gear on when you go out, but whether anyone else likes it could be a matter of a pinion.  Sorry, for the wind up! 

[sperki77]

12 hours ago, clockboy said:

12 hours ago, clockboy said:

It's just market forces no different than pocket watches stripped of their movements & the cases sold for scrap. Look in the bay there are hundreds of movements for sale with no cases.

Now that does frustrate me... although they can still be used for parts if someone has a whole watch for repair.

 

[sperki77]

1 hour ago, Ishima said:

Come on guys, dial it in with the puns.

[dadistic]

We have a friend who does this kind of work, I think it's a great way of bringing new life to old, unloved watch parts.

Art Gecko

[DouglasSkinner]

Personally, I'm agin'it.  It's a form of vandalism being fobbed off as "art" which  term covers a lot these days.  Vintage parts--especially jewels and hairsprings--are too hard to come by these days so I hate to see them embedded in resin.  Besides, how hard is it?  Not half so as the time and skill required to be a watchmaker, I'll bet.

[sperki77]

On 2/26/2017 at 1:42 PM, DouglasSkinner said:

Personally, I'm agin'it.  It's a form of vandalism being fobbed off as "art" which  term covers a lot these days.  Vintage parts--especially jewels and hairsprings--are too hard to come by these days so I hate to see them embedded in resin.  Besides, how hard is it?  Not half so as the time and skill required to be a watchmaker, I'll bet.

No, it doesn't require a lot of watchmaking skill and I would never look at it on the same level.  But if it is done in an artful manner and the parts are truly from the watchmaking graveyard, I see no harm in it.  It is much less disgusting to me than someone taking a respectable, old pocket watch and stripping it of its gold case for the price of the gold in it.

By the same token, given that quality, vintage watch parts are hard to come by, I would never advocate the use of movements of any real, usable value being incorporated into steampunk art.  

[WileyDave]

On the one hand, (pun intended), I have never seen a pristine Montgomery dial as a part of an antique car in a frame, and on the other hand, (groan), I have seen very useable whole watch adverts for "steampunk". I think most folks who recycle old parts are aware of value, but there are those who don't know or care.

[sperki77]

8 hours ago, WileyDave said:

On the one hand, (pun intended), I have never seen a pristine Montgomery dial as a part of an antique car in a frame, and on the other hand, (groan), I have seen very useable whole watch adverts for "steampunk". I think most folks who recycle old parts are aware of value, but there are those who don't know or care.

Well, the upside to this (very useable whole watch adverts for "steampunk") is the purchase price is usually lower when the parts are sold for "steampunk".  Of course, I prefer my watch parts in packaging with part number and caliber labels. 

 I really have mixed emotions about steampunk, though.  On the one hand (pun duplicated), because vintage watch parts are so hard to find, I would be devastated to find a part I had been hunting for encased in resin.  On the other hand (duplicate groan), I have seen some really cool pieces made with watch parts.

Incidentally (look, Ma, no hands), I have a mixed-media (another name for steampunk) little montage of a steam (no punk) engine from David of London that hung in my dad's shop for about 30 or 40 years.  Crazy, huh?

Shirley     

[Sleeper]

 

I hit the swap meets myself and buy every watch I find to keep them from becoming jewelry. With the swatch group strangling us for parts it sucks to see a Omega co-ax balance become a earing.

I have seen a working Elgin pocket watch smashed with hammer for jewelry parts. I told the "artist" she smashed a few thousands worth of watch for $50 in jewelry. Even showed her the same watch on eBay.  She turned a nice shade of green.  She may have even blew chunks after I left.   

Forgive them they know not what they do.

[DouglasSkinner]

On ‎3‎/‎8‎/‎2017 at 6:49 PM, Sleeper said:

 

I hit the swap meets myself and buy every watch I find to keep them from becoming jewelry. With the swatch group strangling us for parts it sucks to see a Omega co-ax balance become a earing.

I have seen a working Elgin pocket watch smashed with hammer for jewelry parts. I told the "artist" she smashed a few thousands worth of watch for $50 in jewelry. Even showed her the same watch on eBay.  She turned a nice shade of green.  She may have even blew chunks after I left.   

Forgive them they know not what they do.

I share your mission!  I sometimes regard myself as a horological Mr. Summers, the main character in the movie, All the Little Animals, starring the late, great John Hurt.  These innocent watches being run down by neglect and those so-called Steampunk "artists" who, as I said before, aren't artists but vandals.  I feel guilty about it but must confess that I was amused at what happened to the "artist" (a word that, in today's world of artist poseurs, should be scare quoted often) in your entry.  Real art takes practice, patience and selfless devotion.  Steampunk is mostly perpetrated by (here in America anyway) former art majors trying to figure out how to make a living without working too hard--the objective of most, Fine Arts majors of modern vintage, though I realize there are exceptions. 

Here we have an example--and again I refer only to America, not knowing the situation in other countries than my own--of why government makes such a mess of things when it subsidizes education--especially higher education.  For how many have wasted four years for a college degree simply because the tuition and support was "free"; making the choice essentially effortless (I used to be a "professor"--another word worth scare quoting)?  How many of those who made that choice would have had far better and more satisfying careers working in a craft like watchmaking.  We have no Steampunk: a watch works or it doesn't it pleases or it does not.  Its mixture of rigorous mechanics and materials with the aesthetic sense of design means people are disinclined to spend fortunes on artistic capering as many collectors will do on so-called artwork that is more theory than substance.  No one will spend thousands of dollars on a "Jackson Pollock" watch that is nothing more than random bits scattered about in the rough form of a timepiece; which may not even work because the "artist" had decided the pull down the cannons of "traditional" horology. 

I guarantee that, offered the choice between owning a timepiece--even not so expensive ones--typically shown in this blog and owning a piece of Steampunk with the parts of dead watches suspended, disembodied, in a piece of acrylic, they will almost always chose the former.  It would be an interesting challenge to make sure that every booth wherein a Steampunk artist was selling his wares was placed alongside a watchmaker selling his. 

Edited March 11, 2017 by DouglasSkinner
word change

[Del]

Sacrilege truly. 

I hate seeing that sort of thing.  there is an auction site that tends to cater to artsy things and the place is loaded with perfectly useful watch parts glued to all manner of things.  I can't see the artists have enough knowledge to know what a good  part is and what is beyond use so, again in my imagination, just sprinkle any nifty looking bits into piles of resin.

 

[vinn3]

On ‎1‎/‎23‎/‎2017 at 3:00 AM, clockboy said:

It's just market forces no different than pocket watches stripped of their movements & the cases sold for scrap. Look in the bay there are hundreds of movements for sale with no cases.

  I have seen that in a "watch mart'".   a dealer at his table  had a pile of movments he was taking out of pocket watches and slipping the cases under the table.!  vin