In memoriam a beautiful (art deco) watch…

A couple weeks ago I happened upon the following watch on Ebay:
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/191919256127...a90ba9af0cc&bu=44154622036&cp=1&sojTags=bu=bu



We've seen one of those dials before, it clearly looks like opal - the whole thing another perfect embodiment of art deco, and without thinking or calculating too much I ask the seller if he /she can show a picture of the movement and case back and indicate whether the case is marked "Longines".

Lo and behold, the seller responds a week later… thanking me for having led to the discovery that the case is actually 18K gold. He/she had promptly sold the case to the watchmaker to be melted, but if I was interested I could have the rest for 131 dollars !! (why not 130, I never asked).

Given that the case back had indeed been marked Longines I told the seller the watch was only interesting to me as a whole and suggested they go and try to retrieve the case.
I just heard it's not possible.
I can't quite believe anyone would think the dial and movement have any value without the case.

In truth, it wasn't the best time for me to spend on this…
and there are much worse disasters in the world… still a shame though.

In the grand scheme of things again it's just a watch, but what saddens me is the level of ignorance, the failure of transmission, the lack of respect and appreciation for art, beauty and history.
Those are the engines of much worse ills.
I'm reading the Agatha Christie novel "Murder in Mesopotamia", the action is set on the dig of Niniveh in Irak and in it she describes archeological practices of the time (I think she was in fact married to an archeologist and followed him around?).
Local workers who found gold objects were paid the value of the weight in gold as an incentive to turn in the pieces -- so they would be preserved for history and study instead of diverted and sold off.
I thought she could not have made it up and it had to be true.

I am friends with a couple pawn brokers. From time to time I will stop in the shops and ask if they have anything interesting. At one shop I usually can pick up a nice pocket watch movemet that came out of a gold case that was sent off to the scrap pile. It all depends on the weight of the case large heavy gold pocket watch cases go to the scrap pile. It is a shame to scrap the watch.
For me it works well. I get some nice movements for a low cost. Every now and then I am able to pickup a decent gold watch for myself. Several times I picked up some very nice womens jewelery for my wife at scrap value. I am always amazed at all the stuff they scrap. Several pounds of gold at a time go off the scrap pile. As far as the pawn brokers go it's all about $$$

Guess the $131 was stretching it. Now back to $130. Sent him a message saying not a rare movement, not 1930's (19.4 introduced in 1953 and serial number on this one places it around 1956), and overall would be worth a lot more if came with original case. A shame.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/COLLECTIBLE...MOSAIC-OPAL-Dial-1930-Movement-/191942505549?