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Waltesefalcon
·I’m for it! What are you going to wear? I have 50 (or so) to choose from, so I’ll decide by Thursday. It might be my hunter cased Waltham 1877!
Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs
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Canuck
·
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noelekal
··Home For Wayward WatchesI'm in.
I think I'll wear a pair. My first thought was to break out ol' Sangamo, the 1926 vintage Illinois Sangamo Special, but I'm doing another full week's test run of the Hamilton 944 so may also include it.
I think I'll wear a pair. My first thought was to break out ol' Sangamo, the 1926 vintage Illinois Sangamo Special, but I'm doing another full week's test run of the Hamilton 944 so may also include it.
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Canuck
·I’m only in for one pocket watch. But I shall continue to wear my Rolex Oyster Date-Just which I have worn 24/7 since March 11, and my one Bulova Accutron 218. My Rolex currently is 1.5 seconds fast since March 11 (yes, March) without have either having been re-set, or stopped. It has been 3 seconds slow, and 2 seconds fast. But that’s it!
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Pastorbottle
·I’m travelling and without my pocket watch. I’ll have to get this on my calendar for next year
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DaveK
··Yoda of Yodelers
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DaveK
··Yoda of YodelersI've been wishing for a 19-jewel Hamilton 944, a slightly uncommon 18 size Hamilton with a total production of 6590 produced between 1905 and 1908. Picked this one up off of Ebay recently. Serial number dates it to 1908.
The watch runs decently, gaining about 30 seconds on a five day "test drive" of both wearing it and alternately resting it on back and on face. I'm not as enthused about the case. I read somewhere that no trainman would buy watches with locomotives on their cases and this one has a worn 1890s-1900s period depiction of a locomotive on its Philadelphia Watch Case Company silverode case with signs of previous case screw marks. A re-cased specimen? What do y'all think?
I missed out on a dandy gold filled 944 a couple months back by being second high bidder. Should have stretched just a bit more.
When serviced, this one ought to be a useful pocket watch though.
The engine engraving on the back looks convincing to me. I haven’t studied them, but yours looks age appropriately.
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noelekal
··Home For Wayward WatchesYeah Dave, the locomotive looks right for the age of the watch.
Oodles and gobs of pocket watches were sold in cases having a locomotive motif. I am wondering though if actual trainmen shunned train decoration on their railroad watches as I read somewhere (I mean ... I saw it on the internet so it must be true).
Makes sense in a way. As a now retired banker I can't see me wanting to carry a watch with an engraved cheesy bank logo, a dollar sign, a vault door, or horror of horrors, a credit file full of loan documentation!
Oodles and gobs of pocket watches were sold in cases having a locomotive motif. I am wondering though if actual trainmen shunned train decoration on their railroad watches as I read somewhere (I mean ... I saw it on the internet so it must be true).
Makes sense in a way. As a now retired banker I can't see me wanting to carry a watch with an engraved cheesy bank logo, a dollar sign, a vault door, or horror of horrors, a credit file full of loan documentation!
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DaveK
··Yoda of YodelersYeah Dave, the locomotive looks right for the age of the watch.
Oodles and gobs of pocket watches were sold in cases having a locomotive motif. I am wondering though if actual trainmen shunned train decoration on their railroad watches as I read somewhere (I mean ... I saw it on the internet so it must be true).
Makes sense in a way. As a now retired banker I can't see me wanting to carry a watch with an engraved cheesy bank logo, a dollar sign, a vault door, or horror of horrors, a credit file full of loan documentation!
That’s a good point. Was it a flex move to have an engraving on the back? Did you even want to think about trains when you finally got off shift? Did some people forget what they needed the watch for so the engraving helped them get ready for work 😁. A train on the back of the watch makes a lot more sense than those cheesy Dominos Rolexes (see what I did there?). I saw one watch with a telegraph engraved on the back, and regrettably didn't buy it. The engraving looked crude, but legit https://omegaforums.net/threads/ill...-model-5-circa-1910-16-size-lever-set.108083/
The question is a good one to research further
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noelekal
··Home For Wayward WatchesI wish I could recall where I read that trainmen didn't have trains on their watches. I don't think it was in a post to a thread on NAWCC forum, but was some pocket watch site.
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Canuck
·Most railroad standard watches I find are in gold filled cases. Engraving a gold filled case back cut through the gold veneer, thus the case back was prone to shedding the gold veneer when carried in a trainman’s bib overalls for decades, under demanding conditions. The brass underlay turned dark brown, and corroded. I suspect that is why these were rarely engraved.
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noelekal
··Home For Wayward WatchesThat sounds most reasonable.
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Pastorbottle
·Back when the company I worked for had a contact with one of the rail operators, I worked on the repair and maintenance of freight rolling stock, there were always sad bastard train spotters hanging about the rail yards, we always called them Gunzels, they would ambush you on your way in or on the way to the car park so they could ask questions about the locomotives and stuff.
This would be the market for anything with trains on it. No real rail guys would avoid that stuff like the plague!
This would be the market for anything with trains on it. No real rail guys would avoid that stuff like the plague!
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Canuck
·As previously noted herein, I have chosen my 18-size, 11-jewel, 1877 model Waltham in its Cashier gold filled hunter case, to wear, in preparation for Pocket Watch Day (Thursday 18th). I have chosen to don the watch a day in advance. Shown on my leather @Duracuir1 lanyard. I’ll wear it until Friday at which time it will be placed in our upcoming railroad standard pocket watch display.
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ghce
·Back when the company I worked for had a contact with one of the rail operators, I worked on the repair and maintenance of freight rolling stock, there were always sad bastard train spotters hanging about the rail yards, we always called them Gunzels, they would ambush you on your way in or on the way to the car park so they could ask questions about the locomotives and stuff.
This would be the market for anything with trains on it. No real rail guys would avoid that stuff like the plague!
I have also always avoided any train motifs on pocket watches as in my mind these are the stock and trade of railroad wannabes, cheesy is what springs to mind for all of the above stated reasons.
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Canuck
·On the topic of trains, Canadian Pacific Railway steam locomotive 2816, Empress class, 4-6-4, leaves this week for a trip to Mexico City. The trip is to honour the merger of the CPR and KCS railroads. This locomotive was restored by CPR at a cost of one million dollars (Cdn., plus, in year 2000 dollars), and returned to service in 2001.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_2816
This post is about trains, but also railroad standard pocket watches on this, National Pocket Watch Day.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_2816
This post is about trains, but also railroad standard pocket watches on this, National Pocket Watch Day.
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DaveK
··Yoda of YodelersI have also always avoided any train motifs on pocket watches as in my mind these are the stock and trade of railroad wannabes, cheesy is what springs to mind for all of the above stated reasons.
I always thought that the train engraved watches looked pretty cool. Now I need to reassess that 😬
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Canuck
·Friday, 11:45 pm, the evening before our two day railroad standard pocket and wrist watch exhibit. It has taken me one hour and 45 minutes to wind and set 80 pocket watches, at least 70 of which are lever set. My fingers are cramping, and I am exhuausted after a busy day. The reward? Two days to revel in the pleasures a being a watch collector. Pictures to come.
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HamDoctor
·Friday, 11:45 pm, the evening before our two day railroad standard pocket and wrist watch exhibit. It has taken me one hour and 45 minutes to wind and set 80 pocket watches, at least 70 of which are lever set. My fingers are cramping, and I am exhuausted after a busy day. The reward? Two days to revel in the pleasures a being a watch collector. Pictures to come.
Looking forward to those pictures 😀
... and winding this many watches should be considered a sporting activity. Enough gymnastics done for the day!