CATEGORY
Which objects actually survive a century of ownership — and which quietly disappear. Materials, conservation, and survival economics.
Some objects sit in museums for 500 years and still read clearly. Others fade, crack, or yellow in 30. The difference is not always price or fame — it is materials, technique, and storage. Here is what survives, and what does not.
A mechanical watch can run for a century — but only if it is serviced, kept water-tight, and supplied with parts. What actually survives is not the watch alone but the watch plus a documented chain of maintenance. Here is what a hundred years really costs, and which pieces are built to make it.