Help with watches buried in storage

We sold a house coming up on two years ago. The original plan was watches and precious metals were supposed to remain with us during the move. I ended up in ICU unexpectedly for over a month with 7-8 surgeries and other interventions. I was told no exercise for a year. When I was allowed to exercise I was eager to hike and play baseball I ended up messing something else up as I didn’t pace myself.

Ok let me get to the main concern. The watches that were supposed to be moved by me or my wife ended up being put in a storage unit. I can’t fault my wife all that fell on her, she did her best. I have made a few attempts to get them. Climbing to the top of the unit moving boxes but I am having no luck. I’m talkin 50-60 watches most not real valuable but all I like. They were placed in by professionals movers and damn they can stack stuff.

We had to take emergency guardianship of a 12 year old which required an immediate move putting off buying so at this point I’m unclear when I can get the watches out. I will be going back but have some chonic pain from all the surgeries so moving boxes in the unit can trigger a pain episode that puts me down for a day.

I’m starting to get concerned about possible corruption/damage to the dials. I have a number of vintage seikos, omegas and darn if I’m not forgetting a number of those watches. It’s climate controlled but the watches are not getting any light. I had a 1960 constellation that had some issue/patina on the dial. A bulova astronaut with the battery in, I’m thinking the newer rail master and omega seamasters should be ok but I’m just guessing. This was not supposed to be a longterm storage stay but you know how life events happen differently than you planned.

Maybe someone has experienced unexpected long term storage of watches and can report how it worked out? Do you think I have legit concern for vintage watches not being exposed to light this long? I got some vintage guitars out last week thankfully they were ok. I think almost every watch I bought on this forum is in that storage unit.

I’m not done trying. Hopefully I can get a buddy free on a weekend might make recovery easier but I don’t like to bother people for grunt work. I know this is a long book like post but things can go so differently than you planned for so many reasons I wanted to paint some of the picture. Any knowledge or options/suggestions welcome. Last week when I was able to retrieve a couple vintage guitars really showed me how deep these watches are buried. I don’t. Want to lose hope but I’m figuring I am going to lose a couple.

Happy new year

Ha ha thanks much put I’m on the opposite cost. Wasn’t trying to drum up manpower honestly, more hoping to assuage my anguish of the situation, very nice of you though. I had to apologize to my wife my last attempt to get them as I blamed her for having the movers bury them but reality creeped in and I remembered she was dealing with all the intricacies as MD we’re trying to figure out if I was going to survive, had to be tough on her, in retrospect even if I were to lose all the watches it could have been worse.

Darkness is the best thing for storing items, no UV degradation. If the unit is truly climate controlled to a reasonable temperature and humidity your watches will be fine. A quartz watch battery will probably be ok for at least five years before having to worry about leakage.

Thank you very much. It was just a case of pneumonia that got out of hand. Since then I’ve had pneumonia 2x (I’m prone to it now since they had to cut open my lungs) both cases were treated with a heavy dose of antibiotics and no hospital stay. Kinda weird how that goes. I thought I had cracked a rib moving things so I was slow to react to an MD but I recovered 90x better than expected.
My doc agreed with my initial diagnosis of a rib fracture and gave me two rounds of prednisone that in retrospect almost killed and left me with months of unneeded suffering.

I thank all who replied and offered assistance. The unit is truly climate controlled so my concernes are somewhat diminished. I don’t think my fears of losing a number of my watches is reality. I can’t believe I have a couple people who offered to drive down to my area and help me. That is very humbling as I hate to impose on others. I have a gentleman who wants to buy a 1960 bass I have buried in that unit. He is so desperate to buy it he said he will help me pull every box out if need be.

If not I have a fellow forum member willing to drive several states to assist me. It’s just very nice to think people you don’t know would do such a thing.

Very nice forum here with good people. I’ve already made a few contacts with people I greatly respect. Anyway thanks again to all who replied. When I do acquire these damn watches it will be like a new collection. This separation was supposed to be brief but we never know what’s going to happen next and when it does it seldom asks our permission.