I like old things. I've been collecting old American pocket watches for many years. With the current price of gold, I'll admit it has become hard to compete with those who's sole purpose is melting them down for cash. Sometimes I manage to save one before it's destroyed forever. This is such a case. A beautiful 18s 14k American Waltham hunting case watch which is over 100 years old that was destined for scrap. It always amazes me how such a work of art survived all those years in such pristine condition. I suspect it was in someone's dresser drawer for years. So here it is now in my possession and hopefully around for generations to come. Someday, people will come to regret melting away such beautiful things for money. Oh, I managed to purchase the watch for less than the scrap value of 2k, which doesn't hurt either.

Larry

[LaurenOE]

That is extraordinary work there...are you *sure* it's vintage?
Those patterns look too perfect and modern!
Amazingly beautiful and exceptional if the watch was indeed produced in the 18's.
Stunning...and who knew they could make things like that.

[p38arover]

Very nice indeed. Which camera/lens?

You make me want to go and rephotograph this watch my wife bought from a jeweller 45 years ago. He was going to throw it out.

[larryinlc]

Very nice indeed. Which camera/lens?

K20D and Zeiss 50mm macro

[p38arover]

Thank you.

[eaglem]

Very sharp and detailed shots..................you nailed it perfectly!

[Colbyt]

Pardon the pun, a timeless piece. And darn good photos too.

[magkelly]

I have a rather large collection of religious medals and rosaries that I was left by someone in my family. A lot of these medals are sterling or old French silver and some have some really exquisite Guilloché enamel work. I'm talking medals from the Art Deco period and even earlier. They're really quite stunning and genuine antiques. I've seen medals like these listed for $20-100 on antique sites. She also left me a large collection of really old and exquisite holy cards.

I thought okay, well, maybe this is how I'll pay for my K-30 kit, so I put some of the medals up on locally in various classifieds? I got at least 50 low ball offers from people who were clearly scrappers who wanted to melt them down for the silver. Several local antique shops were also hot to have them but only if they could have them for about 1/4 of their value. I'm still negotiating for a more reasonable bid for them from some antiques people both locally and online but it just flabbergasted me that these really lovely old antiques were just seen as something worth only being melted down for the value of the metal. I know from doing my homework on Ebay that a lot of this stuff is worth a fair bit of money but you'd never know it from the people I talked to. They're all about just getting it cheaply and melting it down.

Same thing with my Mom's diamond cocktail ring. It's a near perfect and very interesting example of a vintage 50's cocktail ring probably would go for $350 at least if I saw it at an estate jeweler's but the most anyone wants to offer me for it is a $100. No one cares that it's vintage or unusually pretty. All they want to know is how many carats and how many grams of metal. It's very clear that the only value to them is in the raw materials, not in the workmanship. I can't wear it anymore unfortunately, allergic to the type of gold, so it's just sitting there now in a box in my dresser drawer. Sad, but I guess one of my nieces will get it eventually if they will actually wear it....

My grandfather had a watch that was very similar to that actually. I thought it was beautiful and I always coveted it being as I can't wear a watch on my skin at all. I stop them, every time. Something about my natural electrical field must be off but I literally cannot wear a watch on me. I can keep a pocket watch in my purse, or used to before I got a cell phone, but I cannot wear one on my body that it won't die completely in less than a day. My one brother got it when he died. He sold it a few years ago I understand on Ebay for like $300. There are serious collector's out there for those, but yeah, most people who see things like that they just don't get what the true value of those things is at all...

[Bruce Clark]

Congratulations on saving this watch. It is far more valuable than it's metal content. Well photographed too.

[wombat2go]

A silver hunter that belonged to grandmother's uncle in Australia
Vivitar 28mm 1:2.0 Close Focus Wide angle f/8 1/3 seconds
This is my first try at Adam's new uploader

[larryinlc]

That is extraordinary work there...are you *sure* it's vintage?
Those patterns look too perfect and modern!
Amazingly beautiful and exceptional if the watch was indeed produced in the 18's.
Stunning...and who knew they could make things like that.

Oh yeah, it's old. Serial no dates it to the 1890's It's not uncommon for watches such as these to survive in this condition for all those years. This was not a railroad watch but a gentleman's watch in solid gold, probably not carried very often.

Larry

[stormtech]

You've done that beautiful timepiece justice with your great imaging skills.