A thread on published watches?

I missread the thread title as polished watches.

I used to collect watch books. Perhaps I still do. Most of the books seemed to take the references from Autction catalogs and sales. Others from museum catalogs. I think the elephant in the room would be avertizing and other litrature. I have shelves of old trade journals. These often show the same watches in the fancy books. Before desktop publishing in the 1980s. Illustration blocks or cuts were expensive. So they were re used until they wore out.

Manufactures pretty much write their owns history. Sometimes collectors would commission books. Some collections were stolen. The reference books acting as a shopping guide. Often collections are dispersed. Sometimes to pay debts. Societies interest change. So museums might de acquisition things. Sometimes to pay staff.

Textbooks follow the rules of academic publishing. Horology is a legitimate science. Currently the research departments are not well funded. Most of the literature was not well peer reviewed, often self published and plagiarized. A lot has changed in the last 600 or so years since Peter Heinlein invented the watch.

Tracing a given watch would be difficult. There is a thread on historical watches.

Anyway here is the latest book I added to my library.

Are you referring to books like those published by Goldberger or Sala?