Everyone has a different opinion about the perfect pocket watch. The main reason for this is that pocketwatches were designed for different purposes and in differing styles. Antique pocket watches are my personal favorite and tend to have more character than their contemporary counterparts. I most especially like railroad grade pocket watches. I don't know what attracts me to them over the others but that's one of the things I'm exploring about myself. What attracts us to anything? There are a few things that I've noticed though, about the watches listed on Ebay. The most glaring thing to catch my attention is that certain watches get a premium price while other (often more expensive, better watches) bring hardly anything at all, and it's not just the marketing. The guidebooks aside, watches have a monetary value based on what they bring in the open market. Ebay is a fairly good indicator of which direction that market is going to go, and it looks like American made pocket watches are it. Now I'm not going to spill too many beans here, but if you are looking for a real quality pocket watch on a budget, you can pick up some real "jewels" here on Ebay. One of the things that you have to notice is that there are a lot of pocket watch movements for sale. That is because people obtain a pocket watch with a gold case and "scrap" the gold and put the movement on ebay, under the assumption that the gold is worth more than the watch. Nothing could be farther from the truth. While a gold case doesn't add a great deal of value to a cheap watch, if you put the right movement in a gold case it can make the watch worth several times the scrap weight of the gold. I guess it's all relative, but I do hate to think of all those great cases in someone's scrap heap. This situation does open up lots of opportunities for people with even a minimum amount of skill, if they can locate enough pocket watch cases. I just looked and there is a Hamilton Ball watch movement that is going for 152.00 with twelve minutes left. It will likely go for around 250.00, but the person that gets it will have one of those "jewels" I spoke of earlier (if they can beat me out of it). Enough rambling, I haven't provided an answer to this guide's title. The way to buy the perfect pocket watch is to educate yourself about the things that make pocket watches "tick" and discover what excites you about them along the way. "Watch" out for con artists (if you're spending real money, don't buy from people with low or negative feedback), and look for the watch that makes you happy. You don't think that a watch can make you happy? I just bought one that makes me very happy, and I don't even have it yet. It's a 21 jewel tripple signed Elgin that looks all original in the pictures. Can't wait to get my hands on it...