AFA Autumn 2019

T he study of horology, also known as the study of the measurement of time has a broad spectrum of areas for collecting which include Vintage Mens, typically wristwatches, gemstone timepieces, pocket watches & of course, clocks. Regardless of the area in focus, the main emphasis for many collectors who look towards timepiece collecting as a form of long term investment, form their philosophy for collecting timepieces primarily on the amount of additional specialized workmanship involved, or the new technology innovated to produce highly specialized skill sets essential for that timepiece to become invented in the first place. As a result, this often pushes the industries standard limits to new heights, and in the process makes those examples more valuable over time. Although it may be obvious to some that gemstone timepieces have the potential to hold a higher value as a result of the tangible goods they possess, key elements of innovation are often overlooked which were necessary to produce them from the start and add additional greater value for this genre of collecting than many others. By default of their own invention, Gemstone timepieces have an extremely complicated process when being produced as the required technological innovation often must take place on two fronts: both Internally to the movement as well as externally to the design concept. As a result, during the periods when gemstone timepieces first became more mainstream (1900–1920s) technology was extremely limited in its ability for a gemstone timepiece to be created, Collaboration between two Different industries was vital as a means to produce a single timepiece concept from start to finish. In the first quarter of the 20th century and even up to the 1940s, the most famous Jewelry houses did not possess the technology to produce a watch movement in house. Similarly, the best watch manufacturers did not have the ability to create case designs or have the know how to match NOT JUST A Pretty Face Why Gemstone Timepieces make excellent long term investments & should be added to your collection portfolio By Jason Blake Nichinson JLC 101