Prices Realized

[Rockhead]

First off if this violates any part of the price rules please take this post off!

I have found this auction site that keeps a list of all their pocket watch prices they get at their auctions. Its http://www.jones-horan.com/
It has just about every model of every watch company you can image.
Example:
I have a 940 Hamilton. If you google "940 hamilton prices realized" that is the first website to pop up and gives you a list of 940's prices that got at an auction.

Do you think this website reflects current pocketwatch prices? Could it be a good price guide? (its the only place on the web I could find prices and good pics on my 918 rockford)

thanks

[Pete Cronos]

I am not sure that prices realized at auction is a good guide. If they had several of the same item it might work out better. When you only have one of a certain watch and you have two people that want it then the price may get bumped up. Also if you only have one person interested it may go cheap. I have seen ebay auction listing identical items (Not Watches) and one will have high bids and the other will still be at a low price.
The problem that we have in judgeing prices is that you seldom see multiplies of the same watch for sale at the same time. That is same model, case, condition etc.
Good Luck on finding a good way to judge what a watch is worth.

Pete

[HenryB]

Other pricing options for you are:

1) Ebay (work it the same way - put in the watch name and perform a search). It will give you a list of upcoming auctions. Also on the left, you can get it too sort on auctions that have closed).

2) Also the "Complete Price Guide to Watches by Cooksey Shugart/Engle and Gilbert".
You can even preview this book at most Barnes & Noble, prior to buying it. It is often referred too as the "Bible" because of the vast information contained in its 1200 pages.

It contains listing for most watches (including Rockford 918's).

These two sources (in addition to one you mentioned) will give you a fair idea of what your is worth.

[rschussel]

Because condition,whether the case is 14kt or gold filled,how badly someone wants the watch etc effects the value of a watch, trying to fiqure out a watches will fetch can be difficult.

If it is a common watch you may find Ebay price realised much lower than what a dealer wants. On items that are more in demand Ebay is a good place to get some idea of what the watch is worth.The auction house Jones and Horan is another source but the volume of watches sold is small compared to Ebay. Good pieces command good prices at Jones and Horan. More common pieces may actually go for less than Ebay Be careful as condition can make a significant difference.

Also you might consider Shugarts Price Guide. While controversial at time Shugarts Price Guide is a good place to start.

Bob Schussel

[Fred Hansen]

Another thing to keep in mind here is that bidders who attend the event have the opportunity to examine a watch in hand and may see more than is readily apparent in a set of photos ... whether for good or bad.

So the watch you may be expecting from the photos may not match exactly with the reality of the watch the bidders held in hand.

But the Jones-Horan events are well attended by both collectors and dealers, so they likely are a better reflection of the market than a lower profile auction where items may have a better chance of "slipping" through unnoticed.


Fred

[Don Dahlberg]

You have received good advise from the comments above. One place they have missed is to go to NAWCC local chapter, regional and national meetings. The meetings have marts where watches and other horological material is sold between members. There is nothing better than being able to examine the watch and ask questions. I have found that most (but not all) of the dealers are as interested in talking about watches as they are interested in selling their watches. Over time you learn fair value and I still find it the best place to buy watches. You have to be a member of NAWCC to go to the marts.

You can find a local chapter here: http://www.nawcc.org/headquarters/chapters/chap-US.htm#Michigan

Here is a list of national and regional meetings:
http://www.nawcc.org/headquarters/dates.htm
Note the Great Lakes regional in September in Dearborn

Don

[Rockhead]

Ok guys, thanks for the tips.

I think will stop by a local bookstore and flip through a shugart guide. I was kinda shocked to see some Ball's under $250 at that auction website, but then again I'm not a Ball collecter knowing what rare or not. But also delighted to see a 918 rockford priced too. Its a nice old railroad watch.

I heard of those NAWCC meetings, I might have to look into it.

[Danwatch]

There is a website which does a great job of organizing prices realized for Elgin watches only. The site is http://elginwatches.org. On this site you can enter an Elgin watch serial number, and the site will pull up recorded ebay sales for that model. The site breaks down the sales into 25-percentile price groupings. Personally, I think this system gives you a great idea on prices provided the sample size is big enough.

[Tom McIntyre]

Have you checked the dates of the eBay sales on elginwatches.org? I think Wayne gave up tracking eBay sales a few years ago when they kept changing the formats. I have not confirmed that though.

[HenryB]

Rockhead

Both the Hamilton 940 and Rockford 918 are just wonderful movements.

Hamilton 940-18S-21J, while not scarce by any means (some roughly 200,000 made), was the top selling Hamilton Railroad watch for about 40 years until the R.R. guys reverted to size 16 S, and then the 992 became the top seller R.R. watch for Hamilton.
Across all the 940 variations, the damasking is truly a work of art.

The Rockford 918 is another very nice 18S 21J movement set off in gold gilt lettering.
Not too many of these around (say 2500 produced), and a desirable watch.

Again condition of the movement, dial, and case are of extreme importance.

Incidently, here is a site that has a couple of movement pics for you.

http://oldwatch.com/info.html

[Kent]

... Hamilton 940-18S-21J, ... (some roughly 200,000 made), was the top selling Hamilton Railroad watch for about 40 years until the R.R. guys reverted to size 16 S, and then the 992 became the top seller R.R. watch for Hamilton. ...

Actually, Henry has used some very rough approximations. The 18-size 940 was only in production for about 30 years (from 1898 to about 1928 ). It was supassed by the 992 (introduced in 1903 ), in about 20 years (in about 1918 ) when the 992 production exceeded 200,000.

[Dr. Jon]

Prices realized is one of the best sources available. It reflects what people actually paid. It also has pictures. Its about as good as it gets.

Where it is sometimes at fault is when a large collection is sold. In one case there were abotu 20 992's and 992B's. By the 15th or so the prices had dropped. Everyone who wanted one had one and it was bottom feeding time. They were not sorted by condition so I got a some good buys.

Antiquorum and Sothebys also have prices realized. They provide less information than Jones -Horan but they handle higher end watches and rarely sell a bunch of very similar ones in one session.

[Robert Sweet]

Kent,
As I looked thought several Hamilton catalogues and price lists, I found that the 940 was still being offered as late as 1932. I noticed you used the word "about 1928" as the end of the 940, so I suppose 4 years later would fall within it meaning. :thumb:

Robert

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/148/388682688_3f9cbbd3b2_o.jpg

[Don Dahlberg]

The Hamilton numbers for production are:
940 (1900-1928 ) 205815
992L 1st model (1903-1914) 104067
992L 2nd model (1914-1931) 438217

Robert, these are production dates. They continued to sell after production stopped.

Don
Edited to fix date so it didn't show as an emoticon

[HenryB]

Yes, a mistake on my part about the 940 and 40 years :bang:

Kinda interesting though, Will have to do a chart sometime on the Hamilton model numbers and years manufactured for the 21 J RR watches, to see a little more precisely when the 940, 992, 992B came into popularity.