Aside from my TAG collection, I have two other timepieces. The first is a pocket watch that was given to my Grandfather for 25 years service at Ketton Cement in 1959. I can't remember when I was given this, it must be fifteen years ago I'm guessing, I know my Mother still has the chain that came with it. I thought it had stopped working, but I pulled it out of the drawer yesterday and gave it a wind and it's ticking away. Seems to be keeping decent time as well, though it's not hackable so can't set it exactly... can't imagine that it's ever been serviced.
It looks incredibly clean inside for such an old piece, especially considering the lack of care it's been shown. It says Swiss Made on the dial, although the case seems to have been made in England. There's a stamping on the inside which says 'Case guaranteed to wear for 10 years', I don't know whether that's referring to the gold plating or the case itself?
The acrylic glass sometimes comes out which is a bit annoying, and I can't really see how it's supposed to be held in. Ah well, it's not likely to ever see regular use, so I guess it's not a massive problem.
The second piece is more meaningful, since it belonged first to my other Grandfather, and then when he died my Father stared wearing it, and then when he died it came to me. It's a bit on the small side for me but the movement is incredible, I've never worn it but if you pick it up it starts going... I can't quite work out how it gets its energy to be honest.
Sadly when I was given it the glass was cracked and the day wheel is broken so it doesn't line up. I don't know whether my Father broke the date wheel, but I remember him breaking the glass and talking about getting it replaced. I thought I would get it fixed up and thinking that it was quite an inexpensive watch I just took it to Timsons. They sent it back to Citizen and I got a quote for £150 or something ridiculous... apparently it needed a complete new movement.
So I told them to just fix the glass then, but Citizen wouldn't do that. So Timpsons offered to replace the glass but couldn't give me any guarantee of water resistance. I never heard anything for months and then when I went in to find out what was going on they gave it me back exactly as it was saying they couldn't do it either...
So it's back exactly as it was when I got it. Which, since I'll probably never wear it, isn't exactly an issue. I bought the box of eBay just so I had somewhere appropriate to keep it. I don't know what happened to the original box, it probably got thrown away when my Grandfather died.
When I got this is the bracelet was pretty grubby so I took it off the watch and gave it a good clean and it came up pretty nice. I've sized the watch to my wrist (using the huge range of micro adjustment on the clasp) but even if the date and glass had been fixed I'd probably never wear it, not with nine TAGs on permanent standby!
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