It's enough to make you want to weep!

The only reason I would ever get a gold watch would be to save it from the fiery furnace. Something I probably should have done in the 1990s when I had the chance. Hindsight is never what it used to be.

I thought I had more but I could only find this one. Helvetia does not show up in the charity shop listings like Goodwill. Occasionally I will look on the bay for one. Other watches, parts and tools, tend to take priority.

Some day I would love to find a case and hands for this. Even if it is crushed and the dial mistreated. Looks also like it was an automatic. So would need a rotor as well. Does have a good balance.

Helvetia used to advertise a lot in the trades. So this name does remain high on my gap in the collection list. I love this dial.

I have around a dozen Landeron movement and perhaps 3 or 4 cases. One would think that given the numbers of these that were produced cases would be more plentiful.

I tried acquiring cases over the last year. The first one of all things fit a Val 23 movement. Another fit a Venus 170. Some fit the pin lever chronos which are more of a hacking watch as the balance is stopped. I bought an assortment of Cases dials and 'Becels.' The latter seems to be bronze movement shipping rings. There were no bezels in the lot. Only one case fit a movement. Still If I had not won the lot I would have regretted it.

Some of the cases I do have do not have backs or bezels. Others have broken or missing lugs. I started to look into simple nickel plating as more often or not the case is at end of life. Case work, like hairspring work requires a firm understanding of metallurgy. I am not sure which is more difficult. Forges and smelters are not something the neighbors like near their back yards.

Much of the different caliber numbering in the Landeron series is the size (usually in lignes) of the watch. They all use the same baseplate, which gets shaved down in different ways. There are also subtle differences in the upper bridges, even with watches of the same caliber. Minute jumpers are the bane of chronograph repair.

I bought many watches 23 or more years ago. For the reason that they were cheap. I actually managed to sell a few. I wanted a 'Delbana' dial for one that did have a case. Wound up getting an entire new movement, There was another auction which had one part I wanted, but had three plates. So once again I acquired a dozen movements. Which is another issue when buying watches for parts.

High grade chronos can easily turn into a money pit/ time sink. Parts for these are expensive, even when one can find them. Often they are mislabeled. I bought a Val-72 4th wheel. When I put it in the watch it did not have two long pivots. Even though the NOS packaging was labeled Val-72. By the time I found this, it was too late to really bother about it. A pillar wheel was missing a pillar. It can be weeks, months, years, or decades before I can find the time to use a part. eBay really is the last resort for such material. Much of it has been well picked over.

There is also more competition for empty cases when they do show. Few sellers bother to measure the pusher spacing. Valjoux movements tend to have asymmetric pushers. Landeron 48/51 practically have the pushers in the lugs. As noted most empty cases seem to fit Venus or Baumgartner/Rhonda pin lever type movements.

Currently I am waiting for a non chrono Enicar case to come from Canada. I have a decent dial, no movement or hands. I do have an Enicar labeled case, but the dial is to large. The hard part on this will be to find a movement that matches the dial feet. I did find a word that seems to fit dial feet what do not match. Lacunae. Is a word that means gaps in things like bones or knowledge. This word fits the dial feet madness perfectly. It also sums up my collection. There are too many gaps even with the narrow limiting to a few watch types and brands.

I also have a decent Lemania 105. cal1280 without a case. Hindsite says I should have paid more attention to cases 30 years ago. The cheap caseless movements were too tempting. One does not always notice how much one is acquiring this way.

Now days I am only looking at complete watches or those elusive empty cases. Of course one might make exceptions, mostly if there is a really decent dial. Dials though are a different story, and I already have plenty of posts relating to that subject ...

I have trays of similar ladies movements. At the time I got them I was taking jewlry classes. Now I am thinking of using some of the plates for agrigate in concrete.

The second watch has possibilities.

In the US anything less than 14K is considered plated. Some times the term gold filled is used. There is so much gold in California, it is not worth mining. Otherwise it would bring the prices down. Every time there are big storms like this year some washes into the rivers. Somewhere I may still have an old washing pan. Was fun as a kid. Before the Craze in the 1970s when the protections from the 1930s were lifted, electronics were full of gold. In some ways they still are as it is the best way to bond the wires to the silicon. Most though what one sees is ENIG (Electroless Nickel Impregnated with Gold.) Which is used to prevent oxidation on the contacts.

I have mentioned this before, in other threads, that one of my co-workers at Apple in the 1990s bought a gold mine. He was fascinated with the mining and recovery equipment. I showed him the old adverts in the watch trade. He was one of the first to use the net to advertise for scrap gold.

There are a number of You tube (for entertainment) vids that go through the gold recovery process. Such practice costs more in one time use reagent chemicals (which require licensing.) than one can get out of the eWaste scrap. Tons and tons are needed. There are the now illegal processes which use mercury and lead. In this era such rules are more like guidelines. One really does not want to know how Houdini did his magic tricks or the sausage is made. As I noted above, the neighbors do not like it.

Probably better to focus on the better examples of watches. Especially if one is not into self servicing. There are more watches in this world than there are people. That is over 8 billion watches. (I hear there are now 2 or three cell phones for everyone as well. And that is only from the last 26 or so years.) Not all watches are created equal. Not all watches are worth saving.

30 years ago the net was still somewhat new. There was not as much information saturation. Collecting was done in in person events. So one only knew what the other members were interested in. Too bad I did not know about Rancheros and railmasters. Seamaster 300 watches looked like fakes. Low end watches, especially the ladies cocktail variety have not kept pace with the better stuff. Still I got some nice examples. Mostly seamasters, and a couple of constellations. Plenty of ladies watches, and even a few pocket watches. I think the count is around 30. And that is just the Omega watches. Still I would not mind a Snoopy, to keep the Speedmaster company. Of these the only watch I wear often is the Chronostop. I used to wear the speedy, but the crystal got scratched. I also never have 1400 in one place to spend on a service. Or to acquire the special tools needed to do a proper job. Too many jellybean watches catch my attention.

I recently bought a lot of 21 or so waches for around 19.95USD$. That is now 20 bucks I do not have to spend on something like a 2577 case, which seem to sell for around 300USD$. The small purchaces add up. Then when something nice does come along the budget is blown.

I took an 18 or so year break from active watch collecting. I noticed that I have returned to the same bad habits I did in the 1990s. It becomes about the chace, the hunt and the kill. Once one has the item, it is on to the next one.

Cleaning the watch takes between 4 hours and several weeks. That is just the movement. I have a lot of scrap leather and fabric from living history (Ren Fair) costumes. I did have a freind make me a strap once. Now I want to make more straps to make some of the collection more wearable. Do I spend my time working at this? Programing the laser cutter? No. I tend to constantly refresh auction sites looking for the next shiny to add to the pile.

Still I manage to limit things. I concentrate on Omega, Heuer, and interesting chronographs. I found I had a collection of 1950 A. Shild movements. So I add that to the list especially if they have black dials, or names like Delbana, Wakmann, Enicar or Helvetia. These are generic 1950s everyday watches in the 25 to 30mm size. Which is small by modern tastes.

I had a lot of Bulova parts. When my interests re-kindled I decided to sell them. Took 6 months as I wanted to sell them as a lot.

More recently I got interested in Seiko. I had collected some Seiko chrono parts and other empty cases. Nothing complete. Hard to sell such things for more than a few dollars profit. One has to wait weeks for them to sell, then pack the items and ship them. I did however get a book on the history of Japanese watchmaking. There were 3 nice Seikos in that lot of 21 or so watches I got last month.

Back in the 1990s I was able to tour the factories in Switzerland. So the Lacunae does include IWC, JLC, and possibly Breguet. (Although I do have a 200 year old fake Breguet.) I also was obsessed with repeaters. None which had cases, save one rescued from a fire. Spent years acquiring machines to make the damaged parts. Never was able to find donor parts.

Ironically I have been dabbling with the dark side. Early generation Apple watches show up on the charity auction sites. Most under 20USD. Often the screens are cracked. Sometimes one is lucky and the watch is unlocked. So the instinct to save stuff from the eWaste is strong. Still even at 20 bucks for a watch. 4 watches and one is at 100. So easy to get caught up spending shillings and never having enough for a pound. A lot of these turn out to be in for a penny in for a pound.

I completely lost interest in the pocket watches. Probably should have sold them in the during the Steampunk craze. Although I still wonder if parts used as costume accessories could fix a watch. Even in the 18th and 19th century 100s of thousands if non millions were made.

Now I have a phone, what does the same thing. And can probably also be considered a pocket watch.