Totally concur!
I donāt buy it if itās not going to be worn.
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Thank you. As I stated prior, there is quite the story as to how I acquired it, which I will share soon if anyone is interested.
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No problem. Feel free to off track any of my posts. I am really glad to have found this forum and appreciate the warm welcome.
I just updated my profile for those who were interested in my history working for Hardy at Pinto Valley and Sleeping Beauty mines.
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āā¦seeing that big red Bulova sticking out like a suppurating nipple on a boar hog.ā
OMG, I almost lost my cookiesā¦that is one of the most overly descriptive terms Iāve heard 
.
Now that Iāve composed myselfā¦back to this thread. Iām in agreement with @Ziacat. When I first saw this watch, I thought āIthica Peak!ā From the known examples Iāve seen and what Iāve read, Ithica Peak is specifically known for heavier pyrite inclusions. My two rings stated to be Ithica Peak both have the most striking beautiful blue with those large chunky pyrite inclusions.
Although Iām generally not attracted to gold turquoise jewelry, in certain pieces it does look fabulous, especially with deep blue turquoise.
Thanks for sharing your story and this piece, and welcome to this forum! With your history and knowledge youāll be an asset to this group.
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@Bisquitlips. After reading about your experience at the Sleeping Beauty mine, Iām hoping to quiz your brain. Back in the late 1990ās, I spent some time in Globe while traveling with friends. We all purchased some cabs at the Sleeping Beauty Turquoise shop in Globe. The gentleman at the shop showed us some beautiful cabs he called Lost Vein Sleeping Beauty. As I recall there was not much of it, but it was a beautiful deep blue with a redish-chocolate matrix, completely different from what we know as Sleeping Beauty. A friend and I purchased a few cabs. Have you ever heard of this type of unusual turquoise from the Sleeping Beauty mine?
Iām thinking this was some atypical Sleeping Beauty turquoise from one vein, possibly named by the shop owner?
I had 3 of my smaller cabs made into jewelry:
Any thoughts will be greatly appreciated as Iām sure this group is tired of hearing about my unknown ālost veinā sleeping beauty
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Iām also really curious about your turquoise!
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LOL! Sorry, I grew up in the West Texas ranchland and even my wife has to refer to the Redneck dictionary occasionally.
I do think you and the others are correct. Ithaca seems to be the logical identification for the stones in the cuff due to the characteristics of the turq.
Hardy, being who he was, likely highgraded some really nice turquoise to put in his watch cuff. When he visited us at the mine in 1976, I do remember him going into some detail about the cost and design of it. He wanted simplicity and the stones to be the true north of the piece. I should have asked him āwhy the ugly watch?ā, but glad I didnāt in hindsight.
Actually it is a beautiful timepiece in its own right and I walked around in a Bulova forum and was surprised to see the interest of Bulova collectors in it. And they were impressed by its condition, but Iām sure its likely been a safe queen most of its life and I have only worn it once myself.
As the āTurquoise Kingā, he could have afforded anything. I will say it is gosh-awful heavy. At 194 grams (almost 7 ounces), when you pick it up or especially put it on, it surprises you.
Anyway, I do think Ithaca makes sense for its location. I was taking the Kingman location from the description of the estate folks.
Thanks for chiming in!
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Well, I happen to know quite a bit about that vein. Jesse DeAnda and I actually found it and we both worked it for over a week.
Itās a long story and when I get so time I will post the whole story for you guys.
Iāll give you some tidbits:
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While mining that vein, Jesse and I pulled out a football-shaped nugget of deep blue high-grade spiderweb that weighed 64 pounds. It went to the Arizona State Fair that year to be viewed by the masses. It was the good spiderweb where it is made up of individual nuggets in matrix.
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We took around 2 full 5 gallon buckets of it between us before it started to peter out. Not all of it was spiderweb, but it was incredibly blue and had great matrix.
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We later found out that this strike was the reason Hardy himself came down to the mine for a visit.
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I worked there for another 3 years, and we were always looking for more of that turquoise. We never found it.
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You should feel blessed to have a few pieces of it. It was truly a unique type for Sleeping Beauty. Yours is gorgeous!
More later.
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Wow! And now @Bmpdvm finally has an answer. It is beautiful turquoise, with a great story behind it. I would have never guessed itās SB turquoise. The cab in the cuff looks to have quite a bit of goldish pyrite.
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Oh my gosh, Thank you so very much @Bisquitlips! You made my day! I finally feel vindicated! I had hoped that there might have been mention of this vein in my reference books, but no luck. Iāve told the story of lost vein turquoise to many people; most feel it was just a name made up by the shop! Your story pretty much matches what we were told, that after that vein petered out, no more was found. Itās such unique wonderful dark turquoise!
My friend who also purchased some cabs passed away a couple years ago; he had an extensive turquoise collection. If his wife still has his Lost Vein cabs, Iām going to try to purchase them.
Iām excited and look forward to hear the whole story!
And @Ziacat, thanks for your interest. There certainly is a silvery sheen in the photo. Iām going to pull it out tomorrow and get better photos in natural light. Sleeping Beauty with pyrite was discussed in a prior thread: Sleeping Beauty W/Pyrite Cabochons
This was what I posted regarding this cab:
ālooking at the matrix of the stone in the cuff, it actually has pyrite!!! Iām used to seeing the larger cuboidal crystals as in my Morenci, Kingman and Ithaca Peak pieces , but these are itty bitty tiny weenie crystals when viewed with my 30x loup. Without magnification the matrix just has a silvery sheen.ā
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The shop owner was probably Waldo. I donāt recall his last name but I think it was Nichols and Waldo may have been a nickname. He was our crew chief (there were 3 crews at that time) and as I understand it, he bid against Hardy and won the concession for turquoise reclamation at Sleeping Beauty about 1983.
A little while later he opened āYellow Hair Trading and Miningā in Globe (Waldo had long blond hairā¦Makes sense).
Waldo was a great guy, but had very bad issues with alcohol. He passed a few years after opening the business and it was sold to someone else or passed to the family. Waldo was young when he passed. Like late 30s. He had a close friend named Norman who was a manager at Hardys and struggled with him over the drinking almost daily.
Wow, I canāt believe all these memories are coming back. Sheesh! 
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I love hearing your stories! Please keep sharing!
It must have been amazing to work in the mine. My brother in law lives waaaay up and over in the UP of MI, and there was a huge copper mining industry there in the 1800s. Weāve had fun visiting the museums and old mining sites. Unfortunately those big open pit mines in southern AZ helped finish off the UP copper industry; along with the fact that they were having to dig too deep.
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No reason to be sorryā¦I love hearing uncommon descriptive (and accurate) portrayals, redneck or not 
. Adding a bit of humor to any conversation adds a lot! Keep it coming!
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If you do happen on more of the lost vein turquoise, I would Love to purchase a specimen for my small collection if you are so inclined and have enough. 
.Cheers!
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I will share the entire story in a bit. Itās long and, I think, remarkable in several ways.
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Absolutely @Bisquitlips! Iād be happy to share; Iāll contact my friend soon, if she still has the cabs sheāll likely sell to me. Iāll let you know; after all, until your post you and I were the only ones who appreciated the history of this fabulous turquoise. Fingers crossed!
@Ziacat, as promised I took a couple of better pictures of the lost vein Sleeping Beauty cab in natural light. You can see the sheen that appears to be pyrite when viewed with a loup. You can also see the deep chocolate- red matrix at the sides of the cab.
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Thank you, itās beautiful turquoise. I definitely thought I saw pyrite; I was just surprised that it was goldish instead of silver. So cool.
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Everything about your cuff is amazing. The stunning cab is icing on the cake.
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Thank you!
We worked that vein and were told to get every scintilla, spec, and modicum of that turq in a bucket. It was kept totally separated from the other turquoise and put in the pit bosseās Jimmy. It was then whisked away never to be seen by me again. LOL.
Of course none of us knew that we would never see another vein of it again. For all we knew we would likely mine more of it at that tier and even more as we blasted lower and worked those lower levels, but we did not. I will say everyone knew it was special!
Itās a real treat for me to actually run into again after 50 years. Thank you again for your kindness in being willing to part with a small bit.
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