Gone, Not Forgotten. Watches that you no longer own…

I've sold quite a few watches to fund subsequent watch purchases. I miss a few of them, especially the first generation Planet Ocean:


60th Anniversary Seamaster:


And the 60th Anniversary Railmaster:


However, despite having really enjoyed these watches and having occasionally toyed with the idea of re-buying them, I enjoy their replacements more and have decided I can live without them.

I also sold my hesalite sandwich:

And my 2531.80 Seamaster:


Oh man, I really regretted selling these. The Speedmaster was the first mechanical watch I had ever purchased and I had worn it during quite a few special occasions. The Seamaster was the watch that had gotten me into watches (and I suspect if I had bought one right away, I would have avoided this whole ridiculous watch addiction). Anyways, it really bothered me that I had sold these watch and after many months had passed, I contacted the buyers and asked if they had any interest in selling the watches back to me. Thankfully, both were extremely gracious and sold them back at or below the price they had paid, despite some interval servicing for both.

This is painful. I went through a similar situation during my divorce- although it was civil and I bought her out of common property. I had to sell my complete Linhof Technika kit which took me years to assemble and a large chunk of my Leica collection.

Next best thing to owning that Omega Railmaster Prototype, other than passing it on to a loved one, is knowing that it is displayed in a museum.

Just a few: Speedy MIR, red 1680, 1655, Heuer 2446

Incredible watches. That Polarouter would make the Forum’s UG crowd drool.

I was able to check lost and found after it had moved to operations. No one had turned it in by the end of the show. So if anyone did find it they did not turn it in. (This year.) Sometimes things can turn up down the line.

There is also the irony, That when I got it out for the season, I took this photograph to show it off. I was looking forward to showing it off wearing it.

I did find a few photographs from prior years. One where I was visiting my friend the green fairy in the absinthe bar. Another where I was performing with the dangerous puppets like the jabberwokey from Alice in wonderland. The watch is hard to see, but I can just see it was there.



It was a good run this year.

We did something a bit new again, which was to offer themed tours of our 4 acres and 6 blocks of Dickens' Victorian London. The most popular theme is the ghost tours. This is where I take the guests to places like the statue and monument of Mr Pickwick Esq. Or the Sourberry undertaking office. Here I tell some of the lesser known of Dickens' short ghost stories. Most are light hearted such as the 'lawyer and the ghost.'

Once I did try and work in 'the Signalman.' As I was telling it the clock began to strike 12. Even I got a bit creeped out by re telling one of the most chilling ghost stories ever written.

Sometimes a tour might also have an audience on the literary themed tours Not only with Mr Dickens, others such as Mary Shelly, or Edgar Allen Poe, who also liked to write stories for a cold winters night might also be present. For such were the ways how this holiday was celebrated before electricity and recorded music.

My tours would end where lies the headstone of one Ebenezer Scrooge. Sometimes the other ghost would apear such as Marly or the ghost of yet to come.

Many are surprised to see on the mantel in Mr Dickens' study a stuffed Raven. One would think this more to the taste of Mr Poe. But this is the star of Mr Dickens least known book Barnaby Rudge. Which is about a talkative raven named grip. This raven is also said to have inspired one of Mr Poe's most famous poems.

So once again quoth the raven never more...

To absent friends an all that we have lost we shall see again if only in out dreams do they live again. For they are eternal as the quantum foam for what we dip the oars of eternity as we sail the seas of reality through time.

My wife bought a lot of old magazines for less than the price of a new one. Mostly Saturday Evening Post and Life but there was this Popular Science and it had an ad for Casio watches. And an article about a Space Station.