Hi John,

First of all thanks for reading the article --I'm glad you enjoyed it. As you note quite rightly, the Internet both giveth and taketh away --on the one hand it's made it harder to find bargains but on the other hand it has done a great deal to make information for collectors more widely available (as a matter of fact, my start in writing about watches was online --I was a moderator for ThePuristS.com for years.)

It's always a pleasure to find someone else who shares an interest in American high grade pocket watches as well --I like your suggestions on classic models although I think my personal favorite Hamilton RR grade was the 950E --the bridgework was just so elegant. I passed on one that had been re-cased in gold by the original owner when he retired, back when I first started getting interested in watches, for $350 and have regretted it ever since (for one thing they've gotten much, much more expensive.)

I still think, though, that if you are interested in horology for its own sake, American pocket watches are very, very hard to beat; the last one I bought, a few months ago, was a 21 jewel Waltham Riverside for which I paid the sum of $225 dollars. This for an absolutely clean watch in all original condition too.

Cheers,

Jack Forster