Lost my Dickens Fair weekend beater movement and cover.

Was bound to happen sometime. My weekend beater watch fell apart Saturday morning somewhere between putting it on in the morning, and removing it to put my victorian costume on. Most likely it fell apart when I was getting my ice skates out of the trunk of the car. That means that the movement would have landed in the parking lot.

Or it could have fallen apart anywhere along the roadway. Chances are high this time that it was run over by a car or forklift or knocked somewhere out of sight.

Not the first time I have lost it. One time I found it in the bottom of my drinking tankard cup after several days of searching. Fortunately I did not fill the cup. Another time I thought I left it on the counter in a hotel room at a science fiction convention. Turned up in my makeup bag. I think this time however it may be the last.

I still have the crystal and the chain. I also have plenty of spare movements of the same caliber. I also have the photographs I posted here when I got it out for the season.




Our fair is one of the largest Christmas fairs. I think it is in the top 10. It is the largest with a Dickens theme. 38 shows in 52 years. I myself have performed in 27 of them over the last 38 years.

Here is a photograph of me in costume from 2018 (I have to Credit Beppe Sabanti) for this:

The watch is just visible between the ribbons of my bonnet.

Several thousand attend every weekend. We max out at 5000 in any given hour which is what the San Francisco Cow palace exhibition halls can hold. I think pre-pandemic they had like 150,000 visitors over the 11 days the fair runs.

Even with these numbers I doubt few if any OF members attend this San Francisco show. And none would have been in the acting areas. There are some 400 or so performers (Down from the 800 or so pre pandemic.) Did post the photo in the back stage just in case someone did see it.

I was sort of looking forward to cleaning the movement this week. I also wanted to get a photograph of f me wearing it in the show to post here.

As I posted before, this came in a box of pin lever costume movements. Most are in the 1940s 1950s post war style. I doubt I paid more than 5 or 10 USD for the box of watches. Not to mention I have the two peanuts watches expected to arrive this week along with an impulse purchase of 1.3 LBS of yucky costume jewelry chronographs from Goodwill.

On the other hand I have not found another of this exact Louis IV retro design. The others have stamped covers. I do have a backup which I will be cleaning this week.


It is surprising how much one relies on a timepiece. Even a cheap one.

RIP poor watch.

You do Victorian character in full regalia on ice skates?!? Bravo! Bravo!
😁

@sheepdoll are you saying you lost that pretty enameled medallion with the woman that’s depicted on it and its pearl lining ? That’s really a shame, I hope you find it miraculously hidden in a nook, or that you can find something else which is to your liking.

For sure I’m prepared to bet that is the most delicate and ornate week end beater anyone has ever posted in this forums tens of thousands of posts. May I suggest you pick a cheap Casio quartz watch for your next week end beater? Never mind, Scrap that, it wouldn’t match the Dickens fair outfit—
Keep doing whatever works for you 😉

On occasion. We actually had an after hours party on the rink. I was not able to get to the photo session this weekend in costume. I used to skate once a week every Wednesday in Palo Alto. In the years we did not do fair I would skate in full costume.

This year we are using one of the artificial Ice surfaces. Feels like skating on soap, there is quite a bit of friction on the teflon.

Usually I have a small busker organ which I cart around. While I do have it and have brought it out a few times, my function this year is leading "tours of london.' We re-create 6 blocks (around 4 acres) of Victorian London with stages shops and pubs. It is a fully immersive environment. Basically an indoor renaissance faire set in Victorian England rather than in Elizabethan. Sometimes our actors and designers go on to become professionals in the industry then come back in retirement to play. I learned early on NOT too look up my friends names on the IMDB. Then again, I myself did an apprenticeship at Sprocket systems before making the decision to concentrate on working at apple. I was smart enough get both a film and stage degree, along with a two year electronics engineering certificate. Never did like working on KEM film editors, and Willow was a horrible film. (still have the tee shirt though.) I think Apple was the right choice.

The fair was a place where I could be creative without the industrialization that the biz involves.

Anyway this year I have been leading themed tours. Gives me a chance to 'teach' the lesser known dickens books and stories. One of the more popular tours is the ghost tour. This is where I get to share some of the lesser known of Dickens ghost stories. I also get to lead the 'literary' tours, where guests get to meet people like Mr Dickens and have a conversation with him. Or Mary Shelly HG Wells, Edgar Allen Poe (We have the MGM Time machine prop) even Sherlock Holmes (Who is a bit later, but was influenced by By Edwin Drood.) I suspect that you did not know that Dickens owned a pet raven named Grip, who was stuffed and mounted on the mantelpiece. This inspired Poe's poem.

We also do science themed tours. One of the themed areas (we are a pop-up theme park) is based on the 1851 crystal palace exhibition. We have Mary Anning others who attempt to recreate the lectures of the era. This way we can offer tours that cover such sciences as Phrenology, Astrology, Paleontology, and of course Horology.

Mr Dickens was a Horologists.

Alas poor watch I knew you well...

No it was a cheap paper halftone under plastic with molded plastic pearls and off the shelf jewelry findings artfully arranged. The value was purely sentimental. Like any other prop, it is all illusion.

At least thanks to these forums, I have a record of it. I am also starting to really warm to the backup watch with the single dirty plastic pearl. I have quite a few of these movements. I still get the pleasure of cleaning an identical movement. Which I was going to do anyway.

I found the right search term for these which is "Lucern cameo pendant." This one is marked Heritage. The dials look similar. There are quite a few for sale online, but with a different image of the lady. One went off on goodwill while I was looking. I forgot to bid. Then I found an identical one to the GW with a different maker on eBay. That one was BIN and I have a pending offer.

Not sure if there would be much point in rushing to get a similar watch. With shipping time, I would only have it for the last weekend. I have plenty of this style watch which are perfectly usable. The 'Dorset' will do the job just fine if I can clean it and get it running this week.

Not the same portrait. A similar watch turned up on GW this week. Interesting that this seems to be a monobloc case.

I had to get the other two. But for 10 bucks I can add them to the box of similar movements. The Waltham ladies hunter is not a pin lever. It is a 17 jewel 'coffin' shaped movement with incabloc shock absorbers. I was hoping I could repurpose the dial on another movement. Seems odd that I would be disappointed a watch is not a cheap pin lever.

The Lucern is the typical Rhonda style pin lever. At one time I though they might make interesting earrings, although they are too heavy and too loud.