From a collector's perspective, yes it's frustrating. But keep in mind these were made when watches were just tools to be used for a purpose. It's likely the owner had a valid reason for doing this, perhaps for a purpose at their workplace. And I'm pretty sure they never expected that it would be worth $450 at any time in the future when this was done. These things are all "my precious!" now, but in the day, it was just a watch...