The Importance of Solid Reference Material

In my opinion, the first acquisition of any collector is information. That is definitely true of watch collecting, where slight differences can cost great amounts of money. With the Internet, there is a slew of information that is free of charge and quite a lot of it is very useful. (Warning Cross check facts, as there is also quite a bit of wrong information floating around the World Wide Web). Aside from what is available online, there are several good magazines and periodicals that are great resources. But above all else, building a library of good books is imperative to any Collector, Enthusiast or Professional. I currently have approximately a hundred books on watches, clocks and related fields (Gemology, goldsmith, etc.) and my library is continually growing.

As far as vintage wristwatches or pocket watches, my starting point is normally “The complete price guide to watches” By Richard E. Gilbert, Tom Engle, and Cooksey Shugart. This book, in my opinion, should be the first purchase for an aspiring watch collector for several reasons. The first being the obvious, it has thousands of watches listed with photos or illustrations and current market prices. Beyond that, this book contains a wealth of information, including grading a watch, determining its age and information about its maker. The book also contains a dictionary of watch terms, pronunciation and examples of watch parts. There is information about case markings, Hallmarks, sizes and the precious metal values of the cases.

During a class I took last year on watch appraisals, I referenced this book repeatedly and it proved to be a truly valuable resource. But, no one book can do everything and the information contained in this book is just a starting point, albeit a very good one. There are several dictionaries available for watch and clocks, as well as books on watch making that explain the parts and their functions and, as far as the watchmakers, almost every major one has books about them that are more detailed. But, as I said, this book is a great starting point and quite often I do not need to go any further to make a well-informed decision about a purchase. Because of the usefulness of this book, I try to buy the updated edition every year or two and I believe the (2013) 33^rd edition is due out in February.

The authors of this Book are all long time members of the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (N.A.W.C.C.) and are considered some of the leading experts in Horology. It is published by Tinderbox Press and is approximately 1200 pages.