Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

Lépine · Apr 25, 2023

Canuck
@Seiji ,

Thank you for your legwork in ferreting out the escapement in the Lepine watch. According to information I found in the Shugart, Engel, & Gilbert “bible”, the virgule escapement was developed in the “mid-1700s. So, circa 1750, or so. Thomas Mudge, the English watchmaker, developed the lever escapement circa 1760. So going by this information, the virgule escapement appears to have been around for a while before the lever escapement was developed. Considering the exemplary skill displayed in the design and fabrication of this fabulous watch, the virgule escapement must have functioned without fault.

Thank you ! I appreciate the sharing of information !
https://youtube.com/shorts/Mfg0XolMHTY?feature=share

Lépine · Apr 26, 2023

Do you like these? These are double faced chronographs with 5 color enamel dials. Very difficult to create so many colors on one dial without breakage in the process. These were originally designed for early Formula 1 Automobile Racing just after WW1 . They are quite large 19.72 calibers.

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noelekal · Apr 26, 2023

Seiji
Do you like these? These are double faced chronographs with 5 color enamel dials. Very difficult to create so many colors on one dial without breakage in the process. These were originally designed for early Formula 1 Automobile Racing just after WW1 . They are quite large 19.72 calibers.

I do! I do!

I like those Seiji!

Alpha · Apr 27, 2023

Still only 2 in the meagre collection 🙁

Canuck · Apr 27, 2023

Better stop right there! After three, pocket watches become an obsession! I need two brief cases with, 40 in each. Mind you, there are a few spaces open in the one case, but perhaps later this week (or next week), I might have another one to add. I’m working on a deal for a watch I have yet to see. My latest. It has been here before.

Lépine · Apr 28, 2023

If you can imagine going back to the days of the Orient Express or Karl Gustavovich Fabergé and how elegant that period was, you might appreciate these watches.

Lépine · Apr 28, 2023

Here is a little watch I picked up when I was not in a clear state of mind. I saw the advertisement for it and could not resist the urge. As with many watches I collect, if I find a date, name, and location, I want the watch to read about the history of a person. I didn't get very far with this person.

Klau Augustssan, I believe was Swedish. He bought this for the time period and incredibly expensive movement from a retailer in Argentina when immigrants thought coffee plantations promised the the rich incredible wealth and for the hopeful poor, a new life. But you are all very educated so you know the true history and the Swedish, Chinese, and Japanese basically ended up in slavery to the plantations.

This watch was presented to a member of the family as a keepsake of Klaus at his funeral 1954. The watch was first timed in 1906.

I am sure there's a story here but I haven't worked on it in a long time. Who buy's such a watch, then takes the cover off, puts lugs on it and then has a strap made for it? All period correct, so not done recently. Pilot, Horse races, Auto races? Circa 1906 is really early for aviation in Argentina, so horse racing? But why make such a ridiculous watch from an expensive watch?

And the watch is enormous

By the way, aviation watch is not entirely impossible. Of course if he was an aviator in the 1910s, he would be in some history book somewhere.

noelekal · Apr 28, 2023

Seiji, you do beat all!

You show really grand watches and you sense of history is admirable.

Lépine · Apr 28, 2023

This is a nice watch. Originally designed for horse racing. Longines 20H.
It was Longines first chronograph.

S.H. · Apr 29, 2023

Seiji
This is a nice watch. Originally designed for horse racing. Longines 20H.
It was Longines first chronograph.

Lugrin type movement?

A big old thing I bought a few months ago. Not really high grade, but complex.

S.H. · Apr 29, 2023

Much higher grade :

With a nicer colored dial:

Lépine · Apr 29, 2023

I don't know much about these but I thought you might like to see them. Two variations of the Longines Stop Seconds Pocket Watch. With and without the column wheel. One is running seconds, the other start stop reset. Presumably USN ordered, but I have not seen evidence of such.

noelekal · May 3, 2023

Seiji, what about the lightbulb?

Is that original or a recent recreation of early style bulbs.

Reason I ask is that I have an Edison Gem that dates to some time prior to 1911, perhaps as far back as 1902.

It's been in the family since I was very young. My dad came home with it one day, having found it in an old basement. It lives in a whatnot shelf in an old fixture I found specifically for it.

Still works!

It's hard to photograph well well with my poor camera.

In other pocket watch news. We live in a town situated on the old interurban line that connected communities in North Texas. A depot and generating station was located downtown. The building still exists and is now a restaurant. http://www.heartoftexastales.com/interurban-electric-railway.html

Just last week I decided to keep an eye out for Texas Electric Railway Company artifacts. Especially nice would be to locate a pocket watch with dial marked "Texas Electric Railway." I don't know if such a watch was ever produced by companies who sold electric railroad and trolley watches.

I perused Ebay and came up with vintage postcards mostly, but did find a Texas Electric Railway pass from the late 1930s.

Here it is with a couple of non-electric railway specific watches that could have qualified for service on such lines, an Illinois Capitol with 21-jewel 606 movement and an Illinois Santa Fe Special with a similar 21-jewel movement. Both indicate three adjustments.

More than you would ever wished to know on the local interurban that once ran through this region.

https://wacohistory.org/items/show/117

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Electric_Railway

There's even a museum dedicated to this topic near Dallas. I intend to visit this museum soon.
https://interurbanrailwaymuseum.org/

Waltesefalcon · May 3, 2023

Last year I taught at Chickasha and I managed to find an Illinois, A. Lincoln,that had belonged to the Rock Island station in Chickasha. The engraving on the back doesn't photograph the best but it reads: "Loaner" across the top, "Chickasha, OK" along the bottom, and "9" in the middle.

Canuck · May 3, 2023

Waltesefalcon
Last year I taught at Chickasha and I managed to find an Illinois, A. Lincoln,that had belonged to the Rock Island station in Chickasha. The engraving on the back doesn't photograph the best but it reads: "Loaner" across the top, "Chickasha, OK" along the bottom, and "9" in the middle.

But did you add it to your collection?

I have a Swiss pocket watch in my collection which has a private label dial for a local watch inspector from about a century ago. It is quite a good movement for a non-railroad standard movement, but it is not railroad approved. The movement is engraved Service which I’ve long felt that it might have been a loaner such as your Illinois.

Lépine · May 3, 2023

noelekal
Seiji, what about the lightbulb?

Is that original or a recent recreation of early style bulbs.

Reason I ask is that I have an Edison Gem that dates to some time prior to 1911, perhaps as far back as 1902.

It's been in the family since I was very young. My dad came home with it one day, having found it in an old basement. It lives in a whatnot shelf in an old fixture I found specifically for it.

Still works!

It's hard to photograph well well with my poor camera.

What a great light!! No...my light is a fake LED light. Looks okay when it is on, but when it is off it looks like an orange Q-tip inside a glass bottle. I hope your light bulb never burns out!

Canuck · May 3, 2023

noelekal
Seiji, what about the lightbulb?

Is that original or a recent recreation of early style bulbs.

Reason I ask is that I have an Edison Gem that dates to some time prior to 1911, perhaps as far back as 1902.

It's been in the family since I was very young. My dad came home with it one day, having found it in an old basement. It lives in a whatnot shelf in an old fixture I found specifically for it.

Still works!

It's hard to photograph well well with my poor camera.

In other pocket watch news. We live in a town situated on the old interurban line that connected communities in North Texas. A depot and generating station was located downtown. The building still exists and is now a restaurant. http://www.heartoftexastales.com/interurban-electric-railway.html

Just last week I decided to keep an eye out for Texas Electric Railway Company artifacts. Especially nice would be to locate a pocket watch with dial marked "Texas Electric Railway." I don't know if such a watch was ever produced by companies who sold electric railroad and trolley watches.

I perused Ebay and came up with vintage postcards mostly, but did find a Texas Electric Railway pass from the late 1930s.

Here it is with a couple of non-electric railway specific watches that could have qualified for service on such lines, an Illinois Capitol with 21-jewel 606 movement and an Illinois Santa Fe Special with a similar 21-jewel movement. Both indicate three adjustments.

More than you would ever wished to know on the local interurban that once ran through this region.

https://wacohistory.org/items/show/117

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Electric_Railway

There's even a museum dedicated to this topic near Dallas. I intend to visit this museum soon.
https://interurbanrailwaymuseum.org/

This doesn’t refer to electric inter-urban railways. This doesn’t refer to railroad standard watches. It DOES refer to an electric urban railroad, aka street cars. The inter-urban railroad map and story reminded me of an incident involving our early street car system. The picture is from circa 1910 or 1915.

Background. The map included highlights 17 avenue, from left to right. This avenue includes a hill that is several blocks long. It also highlights 14th street from the centre (at the bottom) which goes south to north, meeting with 17th ave., the intersection being circled At that intersection was Crooks Drug Store, indicated by the arrow. Over the decades of our street railway system, Crooks Drug Store had been run into numerous times, by street cars coming down the 17 avenue hill, losing control, derailing, and smashing into Crooks Drug Store as shown.

Canuck · May 6, 2023

Random thoughts on coronation day of King Charles III of England. King Charles of England, (the second) reigned from 1660 until 1685. So what has that to do with pocket watches, you might well ask! Well, men’s fashions in the era of his reign did not include pockets! Not only that, watches of the era tended to be very large, and very heavy. Wealthy men who had the resources to own a watch back then, generally carried them in a pouch, or a sachet on a cord, or lanyard of some sort. King Charles, circa 1675, acquired a new watch which he felt was small enough that a sack to carry it in, was not to his liking. He spoke to his tailor about designing and fabricating (get it, fabric, heh, heh!) a novel article which had a pocket for his new watch! That article of clothing was called a waistcoat, or what we might call a vest, today. So, there you have it. Charles II was in the Vanguard (get it! Vanguard!) of a new movement, a migration to carrying a watch in an actual pocket! Thought it was topical, and that you might like to know it. By the way, this information came from Britten’s Clock and Watchmakers, ninth edition. Just in case you thought I was making this up! Truth can be stranger than fiction!

Alpha · May 7, 2023

Hanging next to my desk 😀

Bernhard J · May 9, 2023

Here is a "bycatch" from last weekends auction. Vaucher Frers, about 1830. What I had to pay, including premium, was the gold scrap value.

It has several unusual features. First, it is a duplex. Second, the duplex wheel is steel. Third, the hairspring stud is on the "wrong" side, Fourth, the gaps of the compensation balance are on the "wrong" side of the balance spokes.

I really wonder how other could have overlooked this watch. Other pocket watches did well.