Eddie
Platts - Timefactors
 Eddie
Platts set up and runs
Time Factors, a website and virtual business devoted to the purchase
and sale of all items horological.
Eddie runs this
website as a hobby, being employed as a sales manager for an international
chemical company.
He lives in
the north-eastern part of Sheffield and operate Time Factors exclusively
from the Internet.
Eddie's Timefactors
Website was born out of a fascination (his wife says obsession!)
for all objects used for the measurement of time.
This can be the candles used by the ancient Egyptions to the latest
quartz watches and would be happy if any of our visitors could answer
a question. How was the first mechanical timepiece
was conceived and manufactured and how did the inventor get the
idea?
Eddie is primarily
a collector of interesting timepieces and formerly used the columns
of the local "Want-Ads" to buy watches to add to his collection.
Then, in 1996, he discovered the Internet and recognised the enormous
potential for capturing a world-wide audience to add more watches
to his collection.
Since he put his first homepage on the
Internet , he has never looked back and has to date conducted over
1,000 deals on the Net, for both the purchase and sale of collectors
watches.
He often buys complete collections, keeping what he wants for his
own collection and advertising the remainder for sale on the website.
Time Factors has established a significant
presence on the net during the past two years and regularly gets
up to 1,000 hits a week on the website. He has sold watches to 42
different countries and bought watches from 18.
His customers are mainly professional
people such as: military officers, lawyers, doctors, surgeons, artists,
politicians and small business owners. One of his customers was
John Ireland, the son of the Hollywood actor.
Many of the most desirable watches
are not household names; everyone is familiar with Rolex, Omega,
Longines, etc but the more collectable (the Americans favour "collectible")
watches and most expensive, are from Patek Phillipe, Audemars Piguet,
Piaget, Luminor Panerai, Ulysse Nardin, Vacheron Constantin and
other even more obscure marques. Ulysse Nardin for example, manufacture
a model known as the "Astrolabium", which displays the position
of the planets and which they claim is accurate to within one day
in two thousand years. No doubt this is true but who would know?
The more desirable watches are all
mechanical. During the 1970's, the quartz watch appeared and many
manufacturers of mechanical wristwatches were driven out of business.
Eddie remembers selling an Omega Seamaster automatic to fund the
purchase of my first quartz - a basic 5 function Casio LCD. Today
the Casio is worth nothing, whereas the Omega would be worth several
times what he paid.
In the past few years, mechanical
watches have enjoyed something of a resurgence in popularity and
the more desirable models from the past now command premium prices.
A mechanical watch
has a beating heart and the styles available express something about
the person who wears them. If you want to wear a watch that says
something about YOU, then you could find it at Time Factors.
If you have a watch that you think
Eddie may be interested in purchasing; or are interested in collecting
or buying collectors watches then visit www.timefactors.com
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