I own land. It’s been there all along.
My wife collects mechanical wristwatches. But since we aren’t millionaires, she buys them in bulk lots online. Most times she’ll get an interesting or semi-valuable watch or two. Usually broken or damaged in some way, but often within her ability to repair.
So. One day her watch haul included a double hunter pocketwatch whose maker’s mark we weren’t familiar with - “JW Benson”. And inside the case was the text “Watchmaker by warrants to the Queen and the Prince of Wales.”
Between those two, we managed to deduce that it had been manufactured sometime around 1880 (+/- a couple years. The company was bombed in WWII and a lot of records burned. IIRC, we had narrowed it to like a five year span, but the exact dates couldn’t be determined beyond that)
Anyway. That watch - which still runs - is probably the oldest thing.
That’s pretty awesome. For someone who knows nothing of the subject, is there much value in something like that?
There can be, but this one has a busted face and some other cosmetic damage. The mechanism still works fine, but this particular watch isn’t really gonna be worth anything to anyone but us.
Other watches she’s repaired have been worth up to a few hundred dollars. …Which actually isn’t that much for watches. At the high end, the really bonkers shit can cost over 100K. These sorts of watches are hand built by master craftsmen and take a really long goddamn time to make (hence the price). But they tend to be absolutely gorgeous and marvels of mechanical engineering.
So, as watches go, she’s paddling about in the shallows, repairing things like the odd Tissot or Omega, which can be valuable-ish. But usually sub-200, occasionally up to $600-700.
A couple million year old rock
Ive got a Magnavox Odyssey
Your mom.
My house, built in 1880.
Kitchen table is 1880ish? My mom got it from one of her first palliative patients who got it from their parents and had nobody else to leave it with when they passed. Use it daily and have it paired with some modern steel chairs … it’s a little eclectic around here.
I’ve got some straight razors as well. Pretty sure some of the Swedish ones go back to 1700s.
A 17th century bible.
As far as I can guess, stones of shungite estimated to be about two billion years old.
I’ve got some rocks on a shelf from the Permian. So a little older than 250 million years.
Blue Bear.
When I was maybe 3 (I don’t remember personally, I heard this story years later), my sister who was 9 at the time had this stuff bear. Blue fur, not much special about it, just an average stuffed bear. One day I decided I liked the bear more, and declared it mine. I was 3, that’s what 3 year olds do. A great fight ensued, but since I was the baby Mom told my sister to just let me have it. It was stolen a few times, and stolen back a few more times. And then hidden away for a great many years. Until one day in our 30s, going through my old toy box at my father’s house, hidden under some old report cards and junk toys, laid Blue Bear. And a great fight ensued, only this time with words and the occasional hip check into the wall to grab and dash. My step mother stepped in to tell us the smarten up and just give me the bear. And that was the first time I actually appreciated my step mother for something. She bought my sister whiskey to make up for it, but we all knew who won that day.
Blue Bear now sits in my living room display case.
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Petrified wood, about 225 million years old.
By this logic, my oldest possessions are my protons, which are approximately the same age as the universe.
You mean “proton”?
I have a pendant which is made of a tiny piece of Campo Del Cielo meteorite. It’s several billion years old (4.5 according to wiki).
