Horological Meandering

mkvc
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The collector's eye

With my family out of town visiting Grandma, I thought I would take the opportunity to go the Reno NAWCC convention via the mountains (or maybe to the mountains with a side trip to the convention). Thus, this afternoon I found myself at Lake Sabrina, about 9,000 feet up in the Eastern Sierra.

Collecting vintage watches (and violins) requires eternal vigilance: to protect oneself, one must be continually on the lookout for the minor inconsistencies that expose fakery. In this case, the issue was that Lake Sabrina is an artificial lake: it is very pretty, but it has a dam at one end and the whole thing doesn't look quite "right." Nevertheless, I wanted to rent a canoe to go boating for perhaps half an hour to an hour.

Unfortunately, the rental person told me that the minimum rental was for half a day (which is silly given that the lake is maybe 500 yards long). Well, okay, thought I and asked how much that would cost. The answer was $26. My immediate and visceral reaction: there's no way I'm paying that much to canoe on a fake lake!

I gave up and ended up going on a nice walk starting at the discouragingly-named Mosquito Flats. (I recommend it, by the way; it has been a cool summer and the wildflowers are still out at high altitude.) As I walked, I thought about my reaction to Lake Sabrina. In the case of vintage watches (and violins), the matter is simple: original condition commands top dollar and everything else requires a substantial discount. Apparently this has affected (or infected) my entire world view. (I am happy to report that at least to date it has affected only my world view, not my mouth. I did not propose to the rental agent that she give me a discount because of the flaw in her lake's condition.)

How about the rest of you? Has any aspect of watch collecting spilled over into your approach to your other endeavors?