top of page

Time Capsule Collection - 2

What Is So Fascinating about Personalized Watches?

First, they are watches with a great deal of provenance – a detailed history that I have researched. I usually find between 10 – 40 pages of information about them, including genealogies, newspaper articles, yearbooks, and photos Some have even written books, or have been cited in books. I usually gather more information about the person than their own families have (more about that later – I do try to return the watches to the owners / descendants….).  

By researching these watches, and then wearing them, the people who bought them are remembered. The military watches are particularly poignant; please see the stories for "Waddy Young" (Athletes); Chikara Masuda (WW2) and George J. Hatch (WW1).

Second they are unique --  it is the only one in the world! If you don’t buy it, you’ll never find it again.

Third, inscribed watches are hard to find. On any given day, eBay has about 2,000,000 watches for sale.  About 100,000 of them are “manual winding” watches; maybe 500 of those have some kind of engraving (initials, names, locations, etc.). Some are military; some are presentation watches, and other are awards (“30 years with IBM…..”). And of these 500 watches with searchable information, maybe ten a year yield much more than the owner's basic “name and address ”.

about me - people.jpg
bottom of page