 |
| Swiss Timepiece Makers 1775-1975 by Kathleen H. Pritchard |
In watch collecting we hear the term “Holy Grail” thrown
around quite a bit. To most collectors, their “Grail” watch is something in
their area of collecting that is hard or damn near impossible to find, not to
mention the cost that comes with it. To a Rolex collector, this might be a Paul
Newman Daytona. Okay, probably a bad example. That one might be almost all
collectors’ “Holy Grail” watch or holiest of holy. For another collector, though,
it may be something else. Now, as far as reference books go, there truly is one
Holy Grail book (except for those who had the foresight to buy them when they
came out). That book, actually a two volume set, is Swiss Timepiece Makers
1775-1975 by Kathleen H. Pritchard.
I searched for these books for over 2 years and I only saw
them up for sale twice, out of my price range, in all of that time. I finally
found a set in Germany for 350 euros and I ordered them through an Abe books
company. The next day, I got an Email saying they were already sold. About a
week later, what appeared to be the same set came up on Ebay, in Germany, and I
finally got my coveted books at a hefty cost (around $900.00 with shipping). Someone
who’s not familiar with all of the variables that go into researching timepieces
might ask, “Are these books worth that kind of money?” You bet they are. These
books pay for themselves in just the amount of time saved during research of a
watch, let alone the information contained in them that you just don’t see
anywhere else.
Published by Phoenix Publishing Company for the N.A.W.C.C.
in 1996, these books are about 1800 pages and are packed full of information.
All of this information is meticulously crossed referenced and the books
include trademarks, hallmarks, key figures in the various companies and bios of
many companies. These books are truly encyclopedias of Swiss watch makers and I
can’t begin to explain how useful they are in research. Although no endeavor of
this magnitude is without errors and omissions, they are few and far between
and I, personally, have not encountered any yet. These have now become some of
my most used books and I refer to them on an almost daily basis.
The author, Kathleen H. Pritchard, passed away in 2005 and
is sorely missed in the horological community. In the past, she published
numerous articles in the N.A.W.C.C. Bulletin, as well as other periodicals. She
spent over twenty years compiling the material for these books and had been
updating and compiling more information for a revised edition when she passed.
Hopefully this research will eventually be published. The watch community as a
whole is indebted to her for her contributions.
No comments:
Post a Comment