: As an aside, I'm surprised such pieces were in a state like that, a
: simple clean and service is not going to devalue them any, or am
: I wrong?

Not wrong really. Since pocket watch collectors don't usually wear a lot of their watches there is less of a drive to get them running perfectly. The majority of the watches on the poster came from two collections. One of the collectors is a relatively young guy who seems to have a lot of time and money to collect but very little time to get his collection cleaned up. He has fantastic stuff but... The other collector, an older guy, is almost without a doubt the largest watch collector of American watches in the world...better watches than any museum including the Smithsonian. He is proud of his Hamilton watches but they are a minor interest to him and he has probably had most of them sitting around for years. He had a full time watchmaker who lived in his house and worked on maintaining and restoring the important pieces but he obviously did not get to the lowly Hamiltons before he quit and went into business for himself.

I guess I will just add that there is a diversity of opinion among PW collectors. It is certainly a risk every time you take apart a watch and clean it. It is also a risk to leave it rotting in its old organic oil and grime. Some collectors lean to one risk some to the other.

Probably a bad answer..

JohnCote