I asked the goldsmith/watch mender friend about fitting a T-bar. He said he'd do it for a small fee, but if it needs a ring he'd have to make one costing me £25. He said a rolled gold or silver T-bar would be ok as they wouldn't mark the watch as with a ring they wouldn't the bar wouldn't be touching the watch, though obviously a 9 carat bar would look better, but it'll be out of sight so maybe silver be would be fine. Gold ones are about £100, silver ones about £15. He weighed that chain I have. It's 63 grams and scrap value it's worth £2,268. To buy the chain if new in a shop would cost £7,182. Heck, that's a lot more than I thought it'd be worth. He said I could wear it as a double chain, or he could put the T-bar in the middle and i'd then have a double Albert. He also asked me how much I'd paid for the watch. When I told him he was surprised and said if he was selling it he'd be asking about £1,700 to maybe even £2,000 if he were to polish it up. He also advised getting the watch and chain insured and advised me to seriously not wear it in places like Accrington town centre. I also asked about that slight time loss problem. When he looked at the watch and wound it up he said I hadn't been winding it up enough, probably fearing I'd over wind it and damage something. He wound it fully and since then it's kept perfect time. He also said the crystal was loose and could fall out, so he glued it in, using a nail bar heater to speed up the drying process. He didn't charge me for it as well.
How much gold is out there to keep making such things? Yes I know they melt old gold stuff down, but even so. I heard a bloke on the radio the other year who said there's only enough gold in the whole world to fill three Olympic sized swimming pools! 🤔There's bling, and then there's bad taste.
The latter is just not cricket.
