Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

It's lovely TexOmega.

It would be nice to have a Civil War era Waltham.

The movement appears to be a 3/0 size (about 1 1/10 inch diameter) which would likely have been designed for use as a fob watch by a woman. In that application, it might have well been in a hunter case. Such a movement was ideal for conversion to a wrist watch. The case is by the Illinois Watch Case Co. which was not associated with the Illinois Watch Co. On occasion, such a watch might well have been re-purposed years after it was made. But when the U S watch factories who had subsisted on pocket watch sales woke up and decided to jump hastily into the wrist watch business, this type of movement was used in many early wrist watches. I personally avoid 7-jewel watches, but provided the watch is not worn out, it might work well for you.

There are two Hamilton 992s on hand here, but I don't recall featuring this 1918 example before. It was acquired during the 2021 pocket watch madness and may be the last one I had not yet featured.

This one shares space in a display cabinet here with a 1926 Illinois Sangamo Special. It was made the year Mrs. noelekal's father was born and the Sangamo Special was made the year my dad was born. They're the father watches.

Canuck is right. These Hamilton 992s are an accurate piece of kit when they get sorted out and regulated.

When the 992B was introduced to replace the 992 and 992E circa 1941, it was called the “watchmaker’s watch”. The 992E was fitted with a mono metallic balance wheel, friction staff, and alloy hairspring. Just like the later 992B. Simpler in some respects than the 992, but you still have to contend with all those individual cap jewels and hole jewels. The 992, on the other hand, was a bigger challenge. The bi-metallic, temperature compensating balance wheel, blued steel hairspring, riveted staff, etc., plus all those cap and hole jewels. The 992 and 992E can be just as accurate today as they were decades ago if you are fortunate enough to have one that hasn’t been “jiggered” by some blacksmith. The 992B is so much easier to work on! It came along at a time when the capabilities of average watchmakers was suffering, so the 992B was a welcome change.

I have one of these small Waltham 3/0 conversions myself. This one is a grade no. 367, and was made in 1928 according to the Pocketwatch Database.
It was in a box of stuff that came from a watchmakers estate sale I bought about twenty years ago. It's been relegated to living in a parts drawer since that time, but when I wound it to take its picture is ran just fine. Maybe I ought to clean it and see if my daughter would like it.

Your Waltham stacks up well with what Waltham called the “Jewel” series (diamond, emerald, ruby, sapphire) which were sold in karat gold cases. Always sold as watches for women. But these movements might also have been sold as watches for men (without the gemstone names). If the lady has an appreciation for antiques, she might well enjoy this one.

Would be great to see it again in your photo after you receive it.

Could that model be said to be uncommonly seen?

The case is stamped .935. Sterling silver is .925. The .935 marking was only used by the Swiss, on silver watch cases destined for Great Britain. This information from the vintagewatchstraps.com information on Swiss precious metal hallmarks.

.935 silver

The British 1887 Merchandise Marks Act allowed the British Customs to accept silver items hallmarked in their country of origin, so long as they were at least of sterling standard fineness. The Swiss Act of 1880 recognised only 0.800 and 0.875 silver as legal standards in Switzerland, and these were the only standards that could be hallmarked in Switzerland. This presented Swiss case makers with a problem, because neither of these was legal in Britain.

This lead to the legalisation in Switzerland in December 1887 of a fineness 0·935 (93.5% fine silver) for hallmarking of silver watch cases destined to be exported to Britain.

The apparently higher fineness of 0.935 over the minimum of 0.925 required for sterling was used because Swiss assays allowed a tolerance so that an item that assayed slightly below the nominal fineness could still be hallmarked, which was not allowed on British assays. The nominal standard of 0.935 gave a margin to ensure that a Swiss watch case marked 0.935 would pass a British assay as 925 sterling.

The Swiss Bureaux de Contrôle were authorised to mark three rampant bears, one small and two large, on silver items that assayed 0·935 fineness within the normal allowed tolerance.

In 1890 the use of three bears was made optional for hallmarking watch cases of 0·935 fineness. Such cases could then be stamped with either three bears or a single large bear at the manufacturer's request. Sometimes cases of 0·935 fineness which also have the German half moon and crown mark are seen with two bears, one large and one small. This was probably so that they were consistent with the two squirrels marked on 14 carat gold cases with the German sun and crown mark.

The standard of 0·935 was introduced to comply with the British legal standard of sterling silver, signified by the “lion passant”. For more about this see the section below about 935 Silver and the Three Bears.

Looks like a Swiss masquerading as an American.

Swiss, I’d say. This is known as a “fake railroad watch”. It was made at a time when gullible shoppers wanted a high grade (railroad) watch but were not prepared to spend the money. This type of watch was usually tarted up with claims like adjusted, six positions, and highly jewelled. Lots of these had cap jewels made of celluloid, and only two hole jewels. They had many other visual cues that the gullible buyer took to be the same as those found on high quality watches. The maker of the subject watch even went so far as to mark it adjusted, twice! This one might be trying to masquerade as a product of the U. S. Watch Co. of Waltham, Mass. NOT the Waltham Watch Co. The dial being marked U S A leaves me with that impression. Mono-metallic, balance wheel (not bi-metallic, temperature compensating).

Hey, at least the little engraved owl is cute.

The double sunk vitreous enamel dial (if original to the watch) might indicate an 1892 model movement of above average grade. I rarely see a d/s dial on an 1883 model. Rare to find a matching pair of “keyhole” hands. They are fragile. Please let us know what the movement is.