My dad dug out of his B-17 navigator's desk a chunk of German flak that missed his head by about an inch. The only reason it missed him was because he had just turned to grab his flak jacket. It was his good luck charm for the rest of his life, and is a prized heirloom. It's about an inch and a half long, just right to carry in his pocket for his subsequent combat missions.

Maybe an heirloom is an object that is simultaneously priceless and worthless.

I recently inherited the Minolta X-700 and Nikon F4 film cameras from my grandfather who is now quite old and nearing the end of his life. Neither had been used in a long time. I gave them a good cleaning and purchased some film. Besides using disposable cameras when I was younger, I had never shot on film with a proper camera. I have grown up admiring beautiful photos of animals and nature printed on the walls of my grandparents’ home that were taken by my grandfather on his trips all over the world. I have always admired them and wanted to recreate them.

After cleaning the Minolta, I purchased some Kodak Portra 400 film and then took it on a vacation to Albania and Greece. I had an incredible time lining up shots patiently and deliberately since every shot cost $1.50, and I could not review the results in the moment. The feeling of using a camera that my grandfather had used to capture moments from his trips four decades previously is hard to put into words.

When I returned home from my trip, I had the film developed and digitally scanned. I thought the pictures turned out pretty well for being as inexperienced as I am. I built my own gallery on my website to host them because they hold a much more special meaning to me than all of the photos I have previously taken on my iPhone. After curating the photos, I went to visit my grandfather. When I showed him the photos, he really enjoyed them. My grandparents shared a few stories about traveling with that camera and how they had the prints of the animals on their wall made.

Nobody else in my family wanted the film cameras. I am very glad I acquired them, and I plan to maintain them and eventually pass them on. To me, these are absolutely an heirloom. They are high quality, still functional, were revolutionary when they were released, and came with valuable stories and experiences from my grandfather. I couldn’t have asked for a better object to receive from him. I plan to take these cameras on all of my future trips and hopefully visit places he went to and recapture them half a century later.

I've got a prism that I gave to my daughter when she was three or four. I made two round wooden discs for each end so she could position it just so on her window and put a rainbow in her room. The kid never got one mark wrong her last year in grade nine. She won every science fair too.

I have a giant 40 pound ball of elastics she made. It was an extended dad joke as she asked me if I could get her some elastics one day and I didn't look up from my work and just said yeah sure. Mom wasn't impressed when she found out what was in the beaten up heavy box that was dropped shipped all the way to our post office. She kept it in her locker at school and lovingly tormented her teachers by 'bouncing' it in the hall from time to time.

With her gone now it doesn't feel like these are heirlooms, it actually hurts a bit to have things like this around that are returned back to the previous generation. Same thing with her race skis that fit me and I used one day last season.

The stories these tell remind me of her best times but also tell me they weren't enough. So there's bittersweetness in all of it that's left behind.

Somehow, this seems too much like a Rolex ad.

Bloomberg: "Rolex Prices to Drop Further as Supply Surges: Morgan Stanley. Pre-owned watch market flooded with Rolex, Patek and AP"[1]

Rolex is a strange business. One of their CEOs once said "we are not in the watch business, we are in the luxury business." The price of Rolex watches has increased 5x over inflation since the 1950s, for much the same models. Rolex was at one time what you bought if you needed a rugged watch. Today, that market is covered by the Casio G-Shock, the choice of US soldiers.

[1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-14/rolex-pri...

I cast a tomato in table top epoxy. It is in my will and will go to possible kids or my brother. It will then be an heirloom tomato.

I have a similar story, actually. My dad carried a pocket watch all the way through the early 1980s. Actually, he had two. One was a cheap department store watch, a "Waltham" made well after the Waltham watch company went bankrupt and the name was bought by some unknown firm that churned out cheaply made watches. It runs but loses 30+ seconds a day. When I inherited it, it still had the watch strap I had made for him as a Father's Day present when I was six. He carried it every day, and I used to play with it when I went on delivery runs with him (he owned a small business, which meant spending long hours in a delivery truck).

The other is a beautiful gold pocket watch given to him by a friend who (literally) owned a bank. He never carried it, and neither do I.

Love those watches. These days you’ll hear people refer to an object as an heirloom, like an heirloom couch, which is typically an expensive object that has potential to be an actual heirloom. By definition, for an object to be an heirloom it has to be passed down through generations, but I like the use of it to refer to an object’s quality, which correlates to its potential to be passed down. Only then, when you talk about potential heirloom status does value enter the conversation. And I think that’s just because well-made things are typically expensive, especially these days. So value is only relevant given the correlation with quality. Nonetheless, I’d love to purchase an heirloom watch that one day becomes an heirloom.

I might not know what heirloom really means because it's hard for me to think of a purchased watch as an heirloom. (From the post though the Seiko is clearly the one that has the strongest familial connection.)

A piece of furniture a grandfather made feels more like what I think of as an heirloom. Something one-off, made by the person you are remembering. But also a letter my mother wrote, her handwriting, is more valuable, more heirloomish than whatever the most valuable thing is that she owned.

>> An heirloom does not have to be expensive; it simply needs to be made well enough to last. What truly distinguishes an heirloom is the accumulation of stories, memories, and wear.

Going by these criteria, the main heirlooms that I've inherited and still have are some of my father's tools. I still use them when I can, even when they aren't always the most convenient. Back in the early 90s, I also inherited a Vauxhall Victor [0] as my first car from an uncle who died young. It was 17 years old and amazingly had less than 5000 miles on the clock. It was quickly christened 'Old Vic' and kept me going until I got a job with a long commute that required something more reliable. Old Vic had some interesting quirks: i.e. windscreen demister, windscreen wipers, headlights, choose two. But it also had a 2.3 litre engine so once it got up to speed it was quite pokey.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vauxhall_Victor

Exciting! A few years ago, as an academic design researcher, I pondered the same question and wrote a few research papers.

Like the author, my inspiration for doing this work had come from a vintage watch I received from my dad!

Turns out, there’s a rich literature in design and psychology research on the heirloom status of objects. And more generally, on why and how people imbue things with value.

Here’s a link to the page from my academic projects archive, with citations: https://www.baytas.net/work/computational-heirlooms

We even went as far as to apply for (and receive) a grant for UX design research, exploring how to create for heirloom value in the digital world. I’ve moved on from academia since then, but AFAIK our PhD is working on it at KTH in Stockholm: https://www.baytas.net/work/digital-preciousness

An object becomes an heirloom when its significance of existence and the story which that tells becomes more important than its functional use.

My father received of his aunt, one of the last relics of his mother's grandfather, the family patriarch, a stoneware milk jug. He then gifted it to my daughter, and it's been kept safe, awaiting her getting a home of her own for it to be placed in.

I also have my grandfather's cast-iron reel mower, which I replaced the handle and roller on --- still works fine, and does a good job of cutting the grass, but I use a more modern Fiskars out of concern of the possibility of breaking a part which can't be readily repaired/replaced.

That said, I'm never forgiving my father for selling his father's anvil.

I have two notable pieces that stand out from my father that I consider heirlooms. One is actually a gift, souvenir he gave me. The other just something of his I took when he passed.

The first is a Plankowner belt buckle he received from the SSN USS Olympia. He was not in the Navy, but, rather a contracted engineer along for the maiden voyage doing things he could not talk about.

The other is a yellowed, framed poster. It has a sketch of an astronaut doing an EVA along with the signatures of the team that worked on the project.

The project was a biological experiment that took place in cislunar space on the way back from Apollo 16s moon landing. My Dads signature is there along with Ken Mattingly’s (the command module pilot who performed the EVA).

I have this hanging above my computer in my home office.

Not really an "Heirloom" but something of the sort of Nostalgia (Time Capsule items); I'm thinking and planning of building/creating a museum of assorted items that I have owned and used. Unfortunately, this idea came after I have destroyed or lost quite a few interesting items such as my first walkman, bunch of audio cassettes, some very early DVDs, and my first 5.5-inch Floppy with my first QBASIC Programs.

Now, I do have some items such as the 1st gen iPhone, 1st gen iPad, the MacBook Air that came out of an envelope, amongst many others. Not yet so interesting at this time but imagine this after 2050s, 60s, or 70s or after I'm gone. Future family members, seeing them would definitely have a kick out of it.

Beyond the physical value, an heirloom requires a multi-generational dedication to family because if your a bad parent and all your kids want nothing to do with you it doesn't matter how many valuable objects you posses.

I've got a couple of heirlooms, both from my great grandfather. He was an artist.

1. A painting he created, landscape with a deer. He wasn't very good at painting deer, it looks like a pig. :-)

2. A set of chess pieces. Very well made, with lead inside the pieces to make them balance better. Really, really nice. They went to a different son than my grandfather, but I managed to /almost/ beat the one that got the chess pieces as a 10 year old. He was the county champion. He willed the chess pieces to me.

I have 2 Oyster Perpetuals that belonged to my dad. I'm certain he bought both of them, so it's not got the history that would give it the "heirloom" title. Unfortunately I have no interest in wearing them, and don't think any of my relatives would either -- one of these days I should ask around.

For someone who wants to create heirlooms today, how would you go about it? Something sturdy and well made, but not so valuable that it’s tucked away into a box (like the Rolex in the article). The watch that I rock today (a smart watch) is well made but I don’t see it being useful in 50 years much less 20.

What's something I could buy today that'd be most likely considered a heirloom in the future?

It being a non-trivial object, and having been explicitly passed down as a remembrance thing, or having a strong memory connection to a close parental relative.

The Rolex Oyster Air King is one of my fave watch designs. It's so simple but elegant when paired with a nice leather strap.

The answers seem to be converging on "something imbued with more meaning than anyone would naively expect".

Swiss wristwatches everywhere. I feel like in Geneva or Zurich airport, where are we flying to?

No idea, but I think a hairloom is something used to make wigs...

Huh, never thought I’d see PTO on HN.

The item doesn't matter so much as the memories that get attached to it. If you want to do this through conscious effort, make sure to use the item frequently in activities that you do with whomever you intend to pass it on to.

Anecdotally, the things that are most likely to become multi-generation heirlooms are things like woodworking tools. They last forever with moderate care, and woodworking as a hobby or profession can also be passed from one generation to the next so that the tools will continue to be useful.

Stuff in general is a lot cheaper than it used to be, and there's been a kind of hollowing out of the middle - everyday-use things are cheap enough to be disposable, so almost by definition anything sturdy is likely too expensive to use. (If you look at medieval wills, even shirts or crockery were valuable enough to pass down; if you go back a few decades then everyday furniture was expensive enough that you would avoid buying new if you could).

The only things I can think of my friends having that are valuable enough to pass on without feeling "expensive for the sake of being expensive" are Patagonia jackets, and even then it's hard to imagine one of them becoming an heirloom - while they are well-made, the price is partly because of the cutting-edge materials which will likely become cheaper and more effective over time. (And Patagonia specifically seems to be headed in the Rolex direction of becoming a luxury brand).

A wall clock would be my suggestion, having inherited a couple of lovely ones myself.

Even though one of them is worth quite a lot of money, it's not like a watch where using it risks easily damaging it - it's mounted high enough on the wall that any visiting kids can't reach it, and while it's not quite as convenient as modern clocks I quite enjoy winding it every couple of weeks, and remembering to put it forward/back an hour a couple of times a year. Though it did cost a few hundred pounds to get it repaired a couple of years ago (which came with a side benefit of being shown around a local clock specialist's workrooms that must've had >100 clocks, some being built by him and his intern, some being repaired, some just being clocks).

And actually, I'm growing to slightly prefer the other clock which is the one my mum learned the time on as a kid - it's a cuckoo clock with two chains and removable weights, one chain needs daily pulling to power it, the other chain is usually not in use but when you hang the weight on it the cuckoo is powered and comes out / makes a noise once on the half hour, and on the hour it does as many as the value of the hour. Shame it runs about 5mins fast per day, but I'm too lazy to think about fixing it and it's a quirk that I don't mind.

A similar heirloom is a painting, which again has the benefit of being enjoyed (it's on the wall I face at my home PC desk) with minimal chance of damage. I'm lucky enough that it's got some real family history to it - my great, great grandfather (or was it 3x great, I forget) had it commissioned and it shows the ship he owned, at sea. Was very relieved a couple of years ago when a relative doing family research was able to finally confirm that the ship was never used in the slave trade which had always been a worry in the back of our minds (though given the world back then, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if some of the spices it transported between various parts of the world and the UK had involved slavery / other immoral acts to acquire, but still pleased my family were never involved in nor 'owned' any slaves.)

Some things I've made, or am working on which I hope will become heirlooms:

- an Ascham (archery case) for a Bear Custom Kodiak Takedown bow: https://www.lumberjocks.com/showcase/archery-case-ascham-of-...

- a reproduction of Thos. Jefferson's Lap Desk in bamboo

- a collection of woodworking and machinist tools which I need to make a nicer case for, probably one modeled on the H.O. Studley tool cabinet, though I've been debating making a nice set of drawings from the typo-ridden book and making a replica of that

- the Spellbinder deck box which has my first Magic: The Gathering deck in it, which includes a play set of Tropical Islands

- a collection of books on type and typesetting which includes some of the more interesting books I did the composition on, or assisted with in some way which warranted my being mentioned

- a collection of fantasy and science fiction books, including pretty much everything J.R.R. Tolkien wrote: https://www.reddit.com/r/tolkienbooks/comments/sfi4qp/over_4... (his translation of the Exodus poem really, really needs to be reprinted, ideally w/ a lengthy scholarly examination) as well as pretty much everything Michael Moorcock wrote in paperback, as well as some other authors, either in hardcover or paperback.

and as mentioned else thread, there are a couple of more traditional heirlooms I have of my forebears (milk jug, lawnmower, my father's Seiko which unfortunately has a broken date wheel and is too large for my wrist/taste anyway), and one which I don't have which I still rage about (anvil).

That is pretty hard. I can't think anything off the top of my head that I would actually want as inheritance from my parents. It is all just stuff.

My mother has some old glass-ware she has kept in the cupboard for decades that were her inheritance from her grandmother or something, but we've checked and it is not worth anything it is just set of old cups and have definitely not been used for decades.

My father has a collection of some coins, but they are just something he used to collect when he did traveling in the 80s. Not really an heirloom or something I will be keep collecting - maybe if it has some monetary value I might keep the collection intact since I am not scrapped for cash.

Honestly, the answer is a Rolex (or another mechanical watch) that you actually wear. A lesson my father taught me was that things were made to be used; the Rolex in this article is just an asset, not a watch.

That, or another piece of jewelry is an obvious place to start. Essentially, anything that has utility, and you use it for that task.

I bet the scrapbooks people could give helpful advice.

I don't think you should worry about usefulness at all. It's impossible to say what you have that will be useful to your grandchildren, but probably not very much.