This Watch.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Since I was a little boy, I have seen this watch. It hung on a hook, under a bell glass in the living room, on our mantle. It hung there with my father’s wedding ring. Dad couldn’t wear his ring at work for safety concerns.

This watch is unchanged over all these years. The cracks in the bezel are the same, the chain is still not attached properly.

This year, my father gave me this watch. before he gave it to me, it went with him all over the world. Far East and Mediterranean cruises. Duty stations all over the world; the Middle East, Europe, and the United States. He left it with my mother when he went to Vietnam, and she returned it to him when he made it back, shot-up and disabled, but alive.

My grandfather gave this watch to my dad shortly before he died. My grandfather lived a short life, dying of a heart attack at 40. He died in Michigan, while my father was on an Aircraft carrier somewhere in the Pacific.

We think that my great-grandfather gave this watch to his son, my grandfather, my father’s father. For my whole life, we have not known when or where this watch was made.

Tonight, I looked at this watch harder. Cracked, and tarnished, and broken. Winding it led to nothing. This watch did not work.

I decided tonight that I would learn more about this watch. I noticed a name on this watch for the first time tonight. “Elgin” I got on my computer, went on the internet, and started searching for information.

I found out that this watch was made by the Elgin National Watch Company, in Elgin, Illinois. I found a database that could give me information about this watch based on serial numbers. I opened this watch up tonight. It had never been opened in my life. When I removed the bezel, I looked, and saw how to free the movement so that I could learn the serial numbers. When I swung the movement out, the machinery began working again. It has not stopped. This watch keeps good time.

I took the serial number and input it into the database. Within seconds, I had a detailed list of facts about this watch. This watch was made in 1908. It is number 2259 of 3000 made in that particular run.

I saw a link to auction logs, so that I could see how much a Grade 290 ENWC Pocketwatch might sell for at auction. This watch isn’t a high-dollar item, to say the least.

To me, this watch, my watch, is priceless.

2

That’s cool, MrC. I love hearing about things that have a history.

I have a wedding ring that belonged to my dad.
It’s not diamond studed or anything, just a simple gold wedding band.

But it was my Dad’s.

After he died, my mom gave it to the first son who got married, which was me.
I will give it to my son when that time comes, tell him the story behind it, and hope he keeps it in the family.

3

That is one of the things that ‘generations’ is about.

4

I’m cracking up thinking about the scene with Christopher Walken in Pulp Fiction.

5

“That would be up the butt, Bob.”

:smiley:

6

You show me someone else who can make a gazillion pulp fiction references while still writing something sentimental, and I’ll show you as writer as good as I am :slight_smile:

7

Son, I want you to have these kidney stones…

8

My paternal grandfather left me a piece of crap plastic Russian watch, even though we hadn’t spoken for a decade (and he never spoke about the war). He worked the convoys feeding Russia during WWII and a visiting dockworker in the 70s gave him the watch as a memento. I was in my late twenties when he died, so I looked after it.

My mother’s family was getting around to dying when I was a lot younger and more careless, so much to my regret I don’t know where my great-grandfather’s watch chain is. In WWI he found himself in a shell crater with a German gentleman. They had no common language, but managed to decide not to kill each other. They exchanged watch chains. My great-grandfather was childless at the time. I’d like to be able trace that watch chain and find the other family. I hope it will turn up.

9

Mr. Cynical, you might be interested to read this multi-part story, The saboteur and his son; it’s about a watch inherited and unravelling the mystery behind it. It’s was written by Thomas French, who does these types of articles from time to time for the St. Petersburg Times.
PS. Thomas French also authored The Girl Whose Mother Lives In The Sky, probably the most touching story I’ve ever read in a newspaper.

10

It’s great to have things like this in your family.

I’m lucky to have a keychain that belonged to my grandfather. It’s monogrammed, and i was named after him, so it’s doubly special. I also have a shotgun that belonged to my grandfather and great-grandfather both.

I also recently found my other grandfather’s immigration records on the Internet. I’m going to give copies to him, framed. They’re 87 years old, but he’s still around to remember the trip.

11

I have a watch from my grandfather too - a gold pocket watch with his (and my) initials. Doesn’t run. I don’t know when it last ran, at least 35 years. Every so often I think maybe I should get it fixed. I never knew either grandfather. I have his name, and his watch. (I don’t know his middle name, and there is some doubt about MINE, but that’s another story.)