What to do with old watches

Can you pry the back off of the Seiko or Bulova? If so, buy the battery in a dollar store. Or it might be worth it to pay a jeweller to clean & repair one of those. You invested a lot originally. Otherwise my donation would be to the Salvation Army or similar.
 

Jules said:
Can you pry the back off of the Seiko or Bulova? If so, buy the battery in a dollar store. Or it might be worth it to pay a jeweller to clean & repair one of those. You invested a lot originally. Otherwise my donation would be to the Salvation Army or similar.
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Impossible for me to get back off . I can hardly get lid off jars these days.
However , both are vintage , gifts from my ex and he has been gone for 45 years so doubt very much batteries for them would be available in dollar store.
As I said in previous post Etsy has the Seiko like mine for sale so they must still be available from somewhere.

I will let the charity shops work on that
 
I have a couple left but never wear them. I sold a box full of watches on eBay. Some working, some not. I sold as is, in a lot. People love those old broken down things on eBay.
 

I have an absolutely beautiful watch that DH gave me, it gets comments all the time about how gorgeous it is. He claims he bought it at Walmart, but I have never seen one in the watch cases that comes anywhere near being beautiful! I think he bought it somewhere else and forgot the name of the place. I only wear it when we are leaving town for a bigger town.
 
Mizmo said:
Too much bother for me . I prefer at this stage just to donate them :)
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I understand completely.

adding: If for some reason, the Salvation Army won’t take them, do you have a Free/Give Away online site on FB? You just leave the item outside and they pick it up.
 
Jules said:
I understand completely.

adding: If for some reason, the Salvation Army won’t take them, do you have a Free/Give Away online site on FB? You just leave the item outside and they pick it up.
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I do have Facebook but never use it other than to check up on family members. Lost faith in them a long time ago.
There are two Thrift stores within my driving range which I will visit sometime soon.
I am trying to declutter while able to do so and now see I also have about 20 pairs of earrings and rings that don't fit any more and brooches and bracelets.....oh my didn't realize I was such a hoarder.
Now I am afraid to get that box I have stored in my locker room.
I totally forget what is in thereScared.gif
 
I have my grandfather's pocket watch probably from the 1890s. It has a cover over the face and roman numbers. I keep it in a dome on my dresser.

I also have my father's Waltham pocket watch probably from the 1920s. It will run if it lays flat, but not if the stem is upright.

Putting on my watch is part of getting dressed in the morning, mine is a digital with day, date and time on it. My cell phone may or may not be in my pocket. I never look at it for the time.
 
I have a number of watches and have always worn one. A couple of them are fairly nice, some have assigned roles like going to the gym, and a couple of them are old "beaters" for yard work.

One reason that I have them is that my daughter has been in the watch industry for decades and was a Senior VP at a major manufacturer. She started out designing watches for Disney, then moved to Lorus for a few years, and then to Geneve Corp. She spent eight years living in Hong Kong and managing two production facilities. One in Hong Kong and the other across the border in mainland China.

One of my favorite watches that she personally designed was made in Hong Kong it was made to be sold under the Tommy Bahama label. She sketched out what she wanted for the engineers, but they had trouble getting it right. Finally, she got them all together in a room and had them listen to Jimmy Buffet. That did it, and I have one. I refer to in as my Jimmy Buffet watch.

When she returned to the states, her office overlooked Times Square and when I visited, I got to see the entire line up for everything being sold under various labels. Of course, I was invited to pick out one that I liked. That is how I ended up with my Jimmy Buffet watch.

The watch industry is in trouble and people don't wear them as much anymore. Geneve went through a downsizing, and she figured out that she would be laid off. They tried their best to get her to sign a "non-compete" statement, but she refused. When she was laid off, she took all of her contacts with her and promptly set up her own business as a competitor. I have watched the price of Geneve stock decline steadily after the "good old boys" at the company decided to lay off their long time highly paid women. They actually had no one left with experience working with manufacturing plants in the far east. What a dumb move on their part.

So yes, I always wear a watch.

LOL, I did buy a couple of them myself.

@OneEyedDiva @Shalimar @Gaer @Pinky @RadishRose
 
Pecos said:
I have a number of watches and have always worn one. A couple of them are fairly nice, some have assigned roles like going to the gym, and a couple of them are old "beaters" for yard work.

One reason that I have them is that my daughter has been in the watch industry for decades and was a Senior VP at a major manufacturer. She started out designing watches for Disney, then moved to Lorus for a few years, and then to Geneve Corp. She spent eight years living in Hong Kong and managing two production facilities. One in Hong Kong and the other across the border in mainland China.

One of my favorite watches that she personally designed was made in Hong Kong it was made to be sold under the Tommy Bahama label. She sketched out what she wanted for the engineers, but they had trouble getting it right. Finally, she got them all together in a room and had them listen to Jimmy Buffet. That did it, and I have one. I refer to in as my Jimmy Buffet watch.

When she returned to the states, her office overlooked Times Square and when I visited, I got to see the entire line up for everything being sold under various labels. Of course, I was invited to pick out one that I liked. That is how I ended up with my Jimmy Buffet watch.

The watch industry is in trouble and people don't wear them as much anymore. Geneve went through a downsizing, and she figured out that she would be laid off. They tried their best to get her to sign a "non-compete" statement, but she refused. When she was laid off, she took all of her contacts with her and promptly set up her own business as a competitor. I have watched the price of Geneve stock decline steadily after the "good old boys" at the company decided to lay off their long time highly paid women. They actually had no one left with experience working with manufacturing plants in the far east. What a dumb move on their part.

So yes, I always wear a watch.

LOL, I did buy a couple of them myself.

@OneEyedDiva @Shalimar @Gaer @Pinky @RadishRose
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I'm always in awe and so proud of your savvy, businesswoman daughter. Jimmy Buffet watch..too funny! I wonder what about his music made them get over the hump? In fact, why did she choose his music in the first place. I remember the first time I saw him being interviewed...I believe it was on the Arsenio Hall show. I thought.."what a charming man" and he had dimples too! :love: Anyway, back to your daughter. She made smart moves throughout her career and worked with/for impressive companies. I know you are very, very proud of her.

To answer the OP's question: I stopped wearing watches decades ago because they stop running on me. I bought two lovely watches that ran on batteries. The first on stopped running so I thought it needed a new battery. I went to a store that installed them and was on my way. Lo and behold, the watch stopped running again. Same thing happened with the second watch. I have a niece who has the same problem. I did save a gold watch that had stopped running (I believe it was a Benrus or Bulova) because it belonged to my late birth mother. I don't know where it is now though.
 
My wife always said I collected them but it's not something I did on purpose. After a year or two of wearing the same one, I would get tired of it and start looking for a new one. Now I have an Apple watch and will probably stick with it. Didn't buy it for myself, got it from my daughter as a birthday gift, I really like it but they're much more expensive than the watches I used to buy for myself. I hope watches don't become extinct like pay phones. Who knows what the future holds though. Don...
 

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