The Movement of an Old Watch

In this world of gadgets and gizmos, one expects stuff to work; if not it gets thrown out or if the effort is worth it, gets fixed.

When it comes to antique or vintage mechanical timepieces, the younger generation may view Grandma's watch as an old broken thing that does not run on batteries. The watch may be a truly exceptional masterpiece from a great company like Vacheron Constantin or Patek Phillipe, but to the young recipient, the watch simply does not work.
He may be thinking: "Is the battery dead or something?" or "Out of all the cool things Grandma had, why did she leave me with this?"

One such story occurred to my neighbor and it took an aged indignant watchmaker to change her view on old watches:

My neighbor received a package from her mother. She opened it and gazed at a rose gold watch delicately wrapped in tissue paper. A faint whiff of mothballs tickled her nose.

“It was Grandma’s” she whispered gently closing the clasp around her wrist.

She admired the delicate Roman Numerals and studied the blue stone on the dial. Her grandmother had died a month before and her mother had only just found the watch among her things. The watch was not working and she decided to take it to an old watchmaker to see if she could get a battery for this watch. Wearing the watch would remind her of her grandmother and that was good.

The very next day she set out to the watchmaker. She had seen his store from the city bus. An old faded yellow sign hung above a tiny dusty store front. She entered the store and as she did a gentle chiming brought an elderly gentleman from behind a beaded curtain.

“Can I help you, mam?” he said looking at her over the tops of his glasses.

“I was wondering if you can make this watch workable …,” she said trailing off.

“It was my grandmothers…”

The watchmaker took the watch and held it close.

“It is a beauty,” he said and gently wound the watch.

He smiled and said reassuringly , “It can use a new mainspring, possibly another part or two; a good cleaning and oiling and it will be as good as new.”

“No! You don’t understand,” she said, “Can you take out all the old stuff and put in a battery or something like a regular watch?"

The elderly watchmaker grew visibly distressed, his nose turned slightly red and he leaned across the counter. My friend had no idea what she had said wrong, but owing to the watchmaker’s reaction it must have been quite awful.

“You want to remove the intricate mechanical craftsmanship and replace it with a battery? A Quartz Movement?”, he said.

“Yes! I think so.” my friend said now a trifle uncertain about her request.

“I will do no such thing, ” the watchmaker said. “To do this would be tearing the heart and soul out of your grandmother’s watch.”

My friend took the watch, puzzled, and went home. She did not attempt to visit another watchmaker.

Her grandmother’s watch survived its “quartz scare” and I filled my friend in on the marvel of a mechanical watch.

 The watch is her treasure now.

Shipwrecked Watch Returns to Family after 128 years.

I love watch stories. I am attracted to them like bees to honey. Especially stories that are intertwined with a good dose of history, because history is time.

A pocket watch carefully crafted by North Wales watchmaker, Richard Thomas, lay on the bottom of the ocean amongst the shipwrecked remains of Barbara, a square-rigged barque which sunk during a violent storm off the Pembrokeshore coast in 1881. It lay there as the salty water washed across the engravings on the case, "Richard Prichard 1866 Abersoch North Wales.", for the next 117 years.

In 2000, Rich Hughes, a diver spotted the watch and brought it to the surface. He saw the engravings and began to research the watches origin. He had a start, the name of the watch owner, Richard Prichard, but he had to find out who he was and how did the watch end up amongst the shipwrecked remains of Barbara.

The watch was in excellent condition and extremely valuable. Richard Prichard was someone who could afford a timepiece of this nature. Possibly the Master and Commander of the ship. After much research, Mr Huges theory was correct, Richard Prichard had been the Captain of the Barbara, but had not been on the ship when it had sank. Mr Prichard had died under mysterious circumstances while on a voyage to load rice from Burma. He was buried at sea and Captain Jones replaced him as Captain of the ship. He had the watch in his possession probably meaning to return the watch to Mr Prichard's family. Captain Jones navigational skills were clearly lacking and this guided the ship into the Bristol Channel instead of St George's Channel leading to Liverpool. In the month of November 1881, a violent storm tossed the ship like a child's toy and unable to defend itself against the elements sank off the Village of Freshwater West, Prembrokeshire.

The crew was rescued except for Captain Jones who went down with the ship taking with him the silver watch. The watch was protected by sediments as it lay there in its murky grave.

The diver, Mr Hughes felt he must return the watch to Mr Prichard's descendants. Utilizing the Internet, he scanned old manuals and shipping records, but he could not find any clues. He handed the research over to amateur historian David Roberts. David Roberts noticed the inscription mentioned the village Abersoch, now a popular seaside resort, and visited two cemeteries in the area. He suddenly happened upon a gravestone that must have been Mr Prichard's father and later confirmed his findings by cross-checking birth, marriage and death records. He was able to trace the family tree as far back as 1788 and discovered Mr Prichard's father was once a sea captain as well. Going back along the family tree, he was able to go forward and discovered the family of Mr Prichard still resided in North Wales. A memory to Mr Prichard was mentioned on the grave of his parents and the grave of his wife and child.

The watch will never work again, but it has traced time merely by being in existence and surviving 117 years under the ocean. It took Mr Hughes almost ten years to find its rightful owner.

The watch will be given to a retired dentist Owen Cowell whose grandmother was Captain Prichard's cousin. He is the closest surviving relative. He is overjoyed that the watch has finally come home after so many years.