A bit of history and "ghosts" in the machine.....Stories from a amateur watch collector.
I'm a retired mechanic-but not dead yet. And I love to tinker. Limited strength etc... but being stubborn has always been on my side. After having a problem with our tall case grandfather clock I ended up doing a lot of studying to solve it. It was simple but hard to trace.
After that I started on a couple of wall clocks I had bought my wife years ago. And so on...
I was told not to touch my wife's family heirloom pocket watch. But I embarked on a secret project with great patience & time-it was done & my wife was happy.
In doing all this I learned that due to the gold price being high a lot-well a majority-of the non working gold cased watches got sold for scrap. And the movements are flooding most areas of sale. Of course high end units get good money but if your patient & careful you can get a decent movement for $20.00 or less. I went nuts for a while but I learned not everything is fixable & I had to invest heavily into tools or just be happy with the stash of completed watches. In total I'm done now-just a few projects to complete.
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But I do have a few occasions to get a glimpse of a lost past or even a tragedy. Just a odd example before today's find.
I was pleased to receive a Swiss made pocket watch it looked brand new. I was going to steal the movement from it for a wrist watch-kinda a thing nowadays. But this one went wrong from the get go-and every case it touched the next watch in it expired for seemingly no reason. The Swiss watch had been inscribed and it told me somebody had passed in the prime of their life. And the pocket watch was a memento. As it was obviously never used I'd wager it brought back bad memories. After the 3rd "incident" I buried that watch & all related pieces under a nice tree in a park with some good herb & a few prayers. Last it gave me trouble & I hope the spirit is at peace. Maybe I was just having bad luck but I wanted no part of it after that.
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Today I found this-a real part of history. I had a parts watch- a 12s Illinois to be exact-that I finally got a needed part for. During the rebuild I of course had to take the dial off & noticed some writing.
It is a "Radium Girl" signed dial. Signed by "Healy July 1 1925 Rad Illinois"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls
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I learned some history from you today 
Thank you so much for sharing your neat hobby with us!