Craig Duling directs Heritage Management Services, Inc., and provides leadership in all aspects of the San Francisco firm as CEO. A longtime collector of antique pocket watches, Craig Duling maintains HeritagePocketWatch.com. One topic covered is American-crafted mechanical watches, which were archetypal of the railroad era. With hunter-cased and open-faced varieties of timepieces manufactured, railroad-grade pocket watches were by definition open faced, as they needed to be read quickly and without obstruction. Both types featured clear crystal faces that protected the watch from impact and scratches. At the back would be an opening mechanism that allowed viewing of the movement. Before the mid-1920s, watch movements in American-made timepieces were not cased at the factory, but constructed by watchmakers whose services were rendered through local jewelers. This enabled almost infinite variations in quality and durability of movements within watches with the same exterior. Now highly prized, American mechanical watches are largely a thing of the past, as less-expensive overseas manufacture and quartz imports, in tandem with digital technologies, have led to a major decline in manufacturing viability in the United States. A former engineer, Craig Duling heads Heritage Management Services as chief executive officer. In addition, Craig Duling is an antiquarian horologist who owns HeritagePocketWatch.com, where he shares his expertise on antique pocket watches. One of the most important events in the history of watch development was the proliferation of the railroad system in the United States. While working for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, Henry S. Montgomery came up with a unique watch face design to meet the needs of railway professionals. He received a patent in 1920 for his personal design, which varied from other marginal minute designs at the time in three distinct ways. First, the numbers on the dial appeared vertical instead of being slanted or arched, a convention that we still see in many watches today. Second, Montgomery enlarged the five-minute numbers and typically had them appear in red instead of the standard black. Again, this convention can still be seen in some clocks today. Third, the sixth hour received a clear mark on the watch face. Before Montgomery, most pocket watches did not have a clear mark for this hour because of a subdial for the second hand. Montgomery placed the six within this subdial. Lastly, around the outer edge of the dial the seconds were numbered 1 through 60. For instance, this enabled one to know when it was exactly 13-minutes after 2 o'clock because the minute hand would point not only at a marker but also at the number 13. As the chairman of the board for Heritage Management Services, Craig Duling provides strategic direction for the property and business management enterprise. Prior to founding Heritage in 1988, he was an engineer for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. In addition to his passion for collecting vintage and antique timepieces, Craig Duling enjoys playing golf. Each year Golf Digest puts together a list of the top 100 courses in the United States, as well as a shortlist of the top courses in each state. Below are its three highest-ranked courses in California. 1. Cypress Point Club - A 6,524-yard, par-72 course originally designed by Alister Mackenzie and Robert Hunter in 1928, Cypress Point is also ranked by Golf Digest as the third best course in the United States. Former United States Golf Association President Sandy Tatum once dubbed it the Sistine Chapel of golf. 2. Pebble Beach Golf Links - Ranked seventh on the publication's list of the top courses in America, Pebble Beach was designed in 1919 by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant. It has hosted five U.S. Opens and will host its sixth in 2019. 3. Los Angeles Country Club (North) - A long par-71 course at 7,236 yards, the north course at Los Angeles Country Club was designed in 1921 by George C. Thomas Jr., and most recently redesigned in 2010 by Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner, and Geoff Shackelford. It's slated to host the 2023 U.S. Open. Hobbyist Craig Duling created www.heritagepocketwatch.com to showcase his favorite timepieces and help others learn more about buying and caring for pocket watches. Craig Duling's website has many resources for prospective and current watch owners, including a thorough primer for new buyers.
If you are thinking about purchasing your first pocket watch, it is important to learn about the many different types available. While you research, think about the following personal factors: 1. Consider your budget and willingness to have the watch serviced. Watches can get expensive quickly, especially when considering the cost of a nice chain and proper servicing. People who plan to carry their watch daily will likely need to have it serviced every three to five years, while those who carry watches only occasionally can have theirs cared for once a decade or so. 2. Consider your motivation for owning a pocket watch. Some people seek a simple and effective device that allows them to check the time easily. These individuals may prefer a convenient open-face design. Others prefer a flashier, expensive-looking conversation starter; these people may prefer an older or more ornate gold pocket watch in a hunter case. 3. Consider your accuracy requirements and willingness to wind a watch. Mechanical watches are more sensitive and less accurate than other styles. Automatic watches require less winding, which can be a point of convenience. Quartz movements may be even more advantageous for those who wish to use their watches heavily, but they do require batteries. A lifelong collector of antique pocket watches, Craig Duling has run the Heritagepocketwatch.com website since 2014. Craig Duling is also a seasoned outdoorsman who has rafted on a number of rivers, including the Colorado River. Spanning 1,450 miles, the Colorado River stretches throughout seven different U.S. states as well as northwestern Mexico. The head of the river begins in the Rocky Mountain National Park, which sits at an elevation of around 9,000 feet. As it moves toward the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Colorado loses more than half of its elevation. For most of its length, the river flows at a depth of around 20 feet, but there are regions that are as shallow as 6 feet or as deep as 90 feet. Many also know the Colorado for its mix of both slow-moving portions and rapids. As part of the entire Colorado River basin, the Colorado drains a space of more than 240,000 square miles. The far reach of the river has made it easy for communities to use it as a source of irrigation for over 1,000 years. Today, agricultural entities draw from the Colorado to water more than 5 million acres of farmland. In addition, nearly 20 million individuals use the river as a water source. CalPERS is so confident of its control over its board that it has no compunction about broadcasting how little respect it has for them. But as we will show, the board is culpable by being a willing party to this abuse.
The latest example came yesterday, when CalPERS released information about the so-called carry fees it has paid to private equity managers. Remember that this development came about because we publicized the fact that Chief Operating Investment Office Wylie Tollette admitted that the pension fund had no idea what it was paying in carry fees. A media firestorm ensued and CalPERS relented, demanding that all of its general partners provide carry fee data over the history of all of their funds. Dan Primack of Fortune reported that CalPERS had set a due date of July 13; the Financial Times reported on July 12 that CalPERS had received the information from all but six funds. We submitted a Public Records Act request to find out who the refusniks were. In the end, only three funds had failed to provide the information. Two said CalPERS had the information already; one was a fund in which CalPERS had sold its interest and they basically told CalPERS to bugger off. As Primack pointed out, the timing of the press release, right before the Thanksgiving holiday, looked to be the classic ploy of breaking bad news during a low viewership period. From his newsletter on Monday: Head, meet wall: As we discussed last week, the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) is planning to release its data on carried interest payments at just about the same time that most American attentions will be turned toward turkey and transit. But I’m sure this timing is just a coincidence, as the pension giant required its private equity partners to submit their carry information just a scant 133 days ago. And even though CalPERS, as Primack pointed out, had said they were releasing the information this week, they were peculiarly secretive about the exact timing. At least one favored reporter was told that the press release would be issued at 8:00 AM Pacific on Tuesday, with a press conference at 10:00 AM. But the ones I contacted were in the dark. For instance, I got this message on Tuesday, a half-hour before the press release went out: I haven’t heard any details about CalPERS’ big reveal this week. Have you heard anything — is there supposed to be a call today? CalPERS flack is telling me staff is ‘close’ to finalizing the numbers, but not finished yet. (that was yesterday). Mind you. CalPERS had decided on the Tuesday release schedule last week! Moreover, the fact that there would be a media briefing, which was announced to the media community only via the press release, was not the sort of thing they’d expect to be part of the drill. One reporter e-mailed me when I asked about the timing of a press conference: “From my experience, though, they just send a press release without any notice. Maybe they’ll surprise me.” Mind you, the two journalists I quoted had not roughed up CalPERS or private equity; there’s no obvious reason for them to have gotten the mushroom treatment. And as we’ll discuss shortly, it is bizarre for CalPERS to be so secretive and defensive when the content of the press release, that CalPERS paid roughly $700 million in “carry” fees in its 2014-2015 fiscal year, and $3.4 billion over the life of its program, was in line with expectations. But companies generally view media as hostile and therefore not deserving of good treatment, unless they are willing to provide flattering coverage in order to get favored access, so CalPERS may have been using this as yet another opportunity to single out its pets from other journalists. By contrast, CalPERS’ board, which has a duty to be well informed, was deliberately denied the opportunity to discuss the information in the press release with staff. The media was able to ask questions of CalPERS officers when the board was denied that opportunity. Bear in mind that just last week, on November 16, CalPERS had its annual private equity program review. This is the one time each year in which CalPERS discusses its private equity program in a holistic manner. If CalPERS was dealing with the board in an open and honest manner, it would have included the carry fee information in its program review, since CalPERS has always discussed fees and costs as part of these annual health checks. As Dan Primack insinuates, there’s no excuse for CalPERS having taken so long to make this disclosure, save looking for a window when it would get the least possible notice. No doubt CalPERS would make the claim that it needed all this time to put the information together, but that’s bogus. This is a small amount of information and the computations were not complex. CalPERS might also claim that it needed to run the analysis in its new private equity data system, PEARS, but that is just as ludicrous. Salomon Brothers ran its entire bond trading and analytics platform in Excel through the late 1990s, and I’m told that Deutsche Bank today uses Excel in many of its trading applications. Mind you, I would not recommend Excel in a mission-critical use, but CalPERS could easily have done this analysis in Excel if PEARS was not yet ready for prime time. You can see the passivity of the board in dealing with the staff’s high-handedness: Acting Board Member Katie Hagen: Thank you. One last question is do you have an anticipated date on when you’ll have that information available? Chief Investment Officer Ted Eliopoulos: We’re expecting on the carried interest to be reporting that next week. Hagen: Great. Thank you. So Hagen was alert enough to notice the absence of the carry fee information in the annual review. Yet rather than asking “Why was this not included in the annual program review, now that months have elapsed?” Hagen’s question presupposes that it’s perfectly fine for staff to jerk the board around. She meekly acquiesces to what amounts to an admission by Eliopoulos that the data could have been made ready for the board meeting. And the other board members fail to react, presumably because they accept the notion that the board has no right to information but must be content to receive what staff deigns to provide, or they accept the tacit logic, that the need to manipulate the press takes precedence over the board’s duty to supervise. Yet it’s hard to fathom what CalPERS stood to gain by being so cute. CalPERS reported $3.4 billion in realized carry and on the conference call, an additional $1.7 billion in unrealized carry. That adds up to $5.1 billion. That is almost exactly what Oxford professor Ludovic Phalippou estimated in a short August 2015 paper, that CalPERS’ carried interest was $5.277 billion. Phalippou pointed out that the total paid confirms his assessment that the so-called “hurdle rate” is not at all like a high water mark, which is used to determine carry fee payments for hedge funds: One key lesson is that hurdle rate does not matter overall. We see it from CalPERS numbers, they basically paid 20% of any gain overall. If they invested 100, the amount returned before carry was about 170 and the carry taken was 14 (20% of 70). It does not matter what the stock market does etc. It is as if the benchmark was zero. Usually in financial markets you get a bonus for what you generate above your benchmark. Here we have the confirmation that it is not so. This also means that the usual line “the more carry you pay the happier you should be” is not quite right. You can have a PE programme that is below benchmark and yet have paid a significant amount of carried interest. Finally, there was less than accurate messaging in the press release. It uses the non-standard nomenclature of “external investment partners” to refer to private equity general partners, which is odd given that this topic is of interest to industry insiders and financial reporters who are used to the established terminology CalPERS also employed the new private equity industry rebranding of “carry fees” as “profit sharing,” in much the same way “leveraged buyouts” was renamed as “private equity” after LBOs crashed and burned in the early 1990s And this part is particularly disingenuous: CalPERS has a long history of focusing on transparency in its private equity investing. The Fund provides a list of commitments made in private equity each month, details performance in quarterly and bi-annual reports, provides an annual comprehensive program review to the CalPERS Board of Administration, and lists all management expenses for external partners managing its money in the System’s annual financial report. First, CalPERS made its carried interest disclosures and its quarterly and bi-annual performance only under duress; the former as a result of the stink we and other reporters made about CalPERS having no idea what it was paying in carry fees; the latter as a result of the settlement of a Public Records lawsuit by the Mercury News in 2002. And as we’ve discussed at some length, CalPERS is still not disclosing the full management fees it incurs; it reports only the amount paid in hard dollars, and omits the portion shifted onto portfolio companies. CalPERS continues to try to pass off that it is pro-transparency. But as former state official Tony Butka said in a letter to California Treasurer and CalPERS board member John Chiang: CalPERS CEO Anne Stausboll has made it clear over the years that her Open Letter to Stakeholders of 2011 promising openness, honesty, and transparency was just so much fluff. Her actions demonstrate that she is going to support her staff, right or wrong, assuming that she has the technical expertise to understand the underlying right or wrong of the subject matter. I find her position unfortunate. In a career working mostly in the public sector, I believe the single issue with makes citizens distrust government employees is the abuse of power as public servants. The recent flurry of news posts about the conduct of staff in the August Investment Committee meeting, as demonstrated by the actual videotapes which are publicly available, make a case that Real [sic] Desrochers and Ted Eliopoulos, as well as Christine Gogan, are very well compensated and high level employees that have breached this trust. CalPERS staff and its board have utterly lost the plot. They seem determined to fight the public on a battle-by-battle basis. They are winning at best partial victories, and they are losing the bigger war of credibility and trust. The disastrous selection of a scandal-ridden fiduciary counsel, Robert Klausner, who can have been chosen only for his willingness to wrap staff-favorable positions in the fiduciary flag, is sure to do serious harm to CalPERS as the pension fund train wrecks in Detroit and Jacksonville, where Klausner was deeply involved, continue to get unfavorable media coverage. And as we’ll demonstrate in more detail next week, CalPERS effort to burnish its image via its private equity workshop wound up discrediting them as well. Source: http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/ The dial is the most identifying and conspicuous component of the pocket watch. Often referred to as the “face,” the dial is the smooth, typically white surface where artists hand paint numerals, markings, and occasionally images.
The process of making the dial begins with granulated enamel, which is placed on a metal plate (disk) equal to the size of the dial with a raised edge and then fired in order to form the glass-like appearance. This process is often repeated on both sides of the disk to improve the strength and rigidity of the dial. Despite this relatively straightforward process, watchmakers are able to create a great deal of variety in their dials by essentially layering different sections of the dial. This process is called sinking, and dials are either single-sunk, double-sunk, or very rarely, triple sunk. In order to single-sink a dial, the watchmaker must fire two dials in the fashion described above, the second being smaller and thinner than the first. The watchmaker then makes a hole the same size of the smaller dial in the larger and solders the former into the latter, creating a layered effect with crisp edges. In order for a watch to be double-sunk, this process must be repeated twice, with a total of three dials of varying size, thus producing three distinct layers. The cheaper – and easier – way to provide this effect is called pressing. Pressing is a simple matter of imprinting the desired layers of the dial (whether one or two) directly into the metal base prior to the introduction of the enamel. This allows the watchmaker to fire all layers of the dial simultaneously and can be distinguished from a genuinely sunk dial by the lack of distinct transitions between layers. In some cases, pocket watch dials were manufactured wholly without the use of enamel. These watches sported an entirely metal dial which was then painted on directly. Due to the fact that enamel is prone to cracking, these all-metal dials were more durable than their enamel counterparts. Source: http://theoldpocketwatch.com/creating-the-dial-by-craig-duling/
For commodities, it’s like the 21st century never happened. The last time the Bloomberg Commodity Index of investor returns was this low, Apple Inc.’s best-selling product was a desktop computer, and you could pay for it with francs and deutsche marks. The gauge tracking the performance of 22 natural resources has plunged two-thirds from its peak, to the lowest level since 1999. That shows it’s back to square one for the so-called commodity super cycle, a hunger for coal, oil and metals from Chinese manufacturers that powered a bull market for about a decade until 2011. “In China, you had 1.3 billion people industrializing -- something on that scale has never been seen before,” said Andrew Lapping, deputy chief investment officer at Allan Gray Ltd., a manager of $33 billion of assets in Cape Town. “But there’s just no way that can continue indefinitely. You can only consume so much.” If slowing Chinese growth, now headed for its weakest pace in 25 years, put the first nail in the coffin of the super cycle, the Federal Reserve is about to hammer in the last. The first U.S. interest rate increase since 2006 is expected next month by a majority of investors, helping push the dollar up by about 9 percent against a basket of 10 major currencies this year. That only adds to the woes of commodities, mostly priced in dollars, by cutting the spending power of global raw-materials buyers and making other assets that generate yields such as bonds and equities more attractive for investors. The Bloomberg Commodity Index takes into account roll costs and gains in investing in futures markets to reflect actual returns. By comparison, a spot index that tracks raw materials prices fell to a more than six-year low Friday, and a gauge of industry shares to the weakest since 2008 on Sept. 29. The biggest decliners in the mining index, which is down 31 percent this year, are copper producers First Quantum Minerals Ltd., Glencore Plc and Freeport-McMoran Inc. With record demand through the 2000s, commodity producers such as Total SA, Rio Tinto Group and Anglo American Plc invested billions in long-term capital projects that have left the world awash with oil, natural gas, iron ore and copper just as Chinese growth wanes. "Without fail, every single industrial commodity company allocated capital horrendously over the last 10 years,” Lapping said. Drowning in OilOil is among the most oversupplied. Even as prices sank 60 percent from June 2014, stockpiles have swollen to an all-time high of almost 3 billion barrels, according to the International Energy Agency. That’s due to record output in the U.S. and a decision by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to keep pumping above its target of 30 million barrels a day to maintain market share and squeeze out higher-cost producers. A Fed move on rates and accompanying gains in the dollar will make it harder to mop up excesses in raw-materials supply. Mining and drilling costs often paid in other currencies will shrink relative to the dollars earned from selling oil and metals in global markets as the U.S. exchange rate appreciates. Russia’s ruble is down more than 30 percent against the dollar in the past year, helping to maintain the profitability of the country’s steel and nickel producers and allowing them to maintain output levels. "The problem with lower currencies is operations that were under water a year ago are all of a sudden profitable on a cash basis," said Charl Malan, who helps manage $31 billion at Van Eck Global in New York. "Why would you shut them?" While some world-class operators such as Glencore plan to cut copper and zinc output, others like iron-ore producers BHP Billiton Ltd., Vale SA and Rio Tinto are locked in a "rush to the bottom" as they seek to drive out competitors by maintaining supply even as prices slump, according to David Wilson, director of metals research at Citigroup Inc. “With the momentum on the downside, it’s very difficult to say that we’re reaching a bottom,” Wilson said. Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-25/if-china-killed-commodities-super-cycle-fed-is-about-to-bury-it It's been just over a year since an outpouring of support from ABC7 viewers helped lead to the rescue of more than 30 starving and abused horses in the South Bay. Many of those horses have had an amazing recovery, but the organization that spearheaded the rescue is struggling with high bills and may have to close unless it meets its fundraising goal. The neglected horses were found in Morgan Hill in September 2014. Neighbors had been complaining for weeks, but Santa Clara County Animal Control at first refused to step in, saying horse owner Humberto Uribe had given assurances the horses were being cared for. A few days later, officials discovered Uribe had more sick and starving horses in Gilroy. He was eventually found guilty of felony animal abuse. In the meantime, a nonprofit called the Equine Rescue Center (ERC) agreed to buy 11 of the horses in the worst condition and get them immediate treatment. They were taken to the ERC's ranch, south of Hollister, near Paicines in San Benito County. One horse was so sick he died within hours. After a year of medical care, special food, and love from volunteers, the rest are all doing well. One of the most desperately ill was a 20-year-old pony named Bobo. ERC director Monica Hardeman says Bobo was infested with worms and almost did not survive. He could only eat tiny bits of food and required lots of special attention. A year later, Bobo is fully recovered and has been adopted by the Dobbins family near Watsonville. Hardeman calls Bobo a miracle. "What we are doing is giving something that somebody didn't want, that was being thrown out, and we gave him a life," Hardeman said. Three other horses have also been placed in new homes and two more are available for adoption. One of the starving horses was pregnant and gave birth five months ago. She is still a little underweight, but doing much better. Her colt, named Merlin, is thriving. The other rescued horses have medical or behavior issues so Hardeman wants to make them permanent residents at the ERC ranch. However, the ERC itself is in crisis. The long drought and soaring cost of hay have led to a glut of unwanted and neglected horses. Many end up being sent to slaughter as horse meat in other countries. The lucky ones end up the ERC which is now caring for more than 80 horses. The cost of hay has doubled in recent years, and ERC is struggling to pay the bills, which may cause them to shut down. But there is hope. Hardeman says there are four wells on the property and that supply of water could save the ERC if they can raise the money to put in a portable irrigation system. That would allow the center to grow food and drastically reduce the hay bill. Philanthropist Craig Duling is helping the ERC develop a workable business plan to move forward. He says the irrigation system would "enable them to be financially solvent and secure and not have to rely so heavily on donors on a month by month basis." Duling says if the ERC can show it is financially viable, he has large donors lined up to buy the property and preserve it forever as a horse sanctuary. The ERC needs to raise $50,000 in the next few weeks. They are about half way to that goal already. Donations can be sent through their GoFundMe site. Or, mail them to this address: ERC, 34565 Panoche Road, Paicines, CA 95043 Click here for more information about the Equine Rescue Center, including volunteering, adopting or sponsoring a horse. Written and produced by Jennifer Olney. Source: http://abc7news.com/society/rescued-horses-thriving-rescue-group-in-crisis/1023664/ Craig Duling has served for nearly three decades as president and CEO of Heritage Management Services. In addition to leading the property management organization based out of San Francisco, California, Craig Duling channels his lifelong passion for antique pocket watches into the administration of an educational website, heritagepocketwatch.com.
Whether found, purchased, or inherited, an antique pocket watch can be a highly regarded collectible item. In order to assess its monetary value, a collector must first determine a number of details about the pocket watch in question. After establishing basic information such as the brand, model, and movement type of the watch, owners should establish the timepiece’s age. A pocket watch’s serial number can be useful for determining this, as lower serial numbers suggests earlier production dates. However, age does not necessitate value, since many former companies such as Waltham and Elgin mass-produced relatively inexpensive pocket watches while in business. The composition of a pocket watch also plays heavily into its value. Gold or damaskeened finishes, polished screws, and high jewel counts indicate a higher quality piece. Collectors should take care to determine whether gold watches are merely gold plated or comprised of solid gold. A pocket watch’s value also relies on its condition. Unaltered watches with their original parts will be worth more than those that have undergone repairs, and pocket watches that are still in working order will generally warrant a higher appraisal than those that have stopped ticking. Additionally, blemishes such as scratches or dents can lower the value of a pocket watch, and these cosmetic faults often suggest internal issues as well. |
AuthorBefore accepting his current position, Craig Duling served as an engineer with Lockheed Missiles and Space Company in Sunnyvale, California. Archives
September 2017
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