I need your opinion

 

Over the years, I’ve spent a great deal of time collecting railway pocket watches. The collection contains between 400-500 individual timepieces. Covering mainly Australian and Japanese issued watches, which were in actual use, as official watches by their respective national railways. It all started as some harmless fun, until it become a passion. Eventually, the collection took a life of it’s own, presenting a ‘snapshot of an era’. But as the collection grew, it become obvious that the historical value as a lot exceeded the value of the individual pieces. My original intention was to continue collecting – until the day I would retire, and then write a book with the intention to not just preserve, but to encourage watch collectors to build on it and take the research to the next level. Unfortunately, as the watchmaking and manufacturing sides to the business grow, there is no longer any time for further research and expansion of the existing collection. The question is simple: what should I do? Here are a few options: 1.  To do nothing, put all watches in a container, seal them and let them be discovered one day when I am gone. The collection remains intact, and research / historical data is preserved. 2.  To sell the whole lot, to one person who has a passion to continue the project. 3.  To sell them individually, one by one. Difficult, time consuming, which would require weeks of work. Collection broken up, but proceedings of sale could be invested in advancing NH watchmaking projects. What would you suggest? Is there a fourth option? As with any collection, some pieces are basic, others extremely rare with significant investment potential; some are ready to be worn, others would require a complete overhaul. At this stage, I have absolutely no idea what the total value would be. Not even the final count, so please don’t ask for details. Thank you for your feedback.