Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

TexOmega · Jul 19, 2024

The case numbers should match so a jobber/jeweler/WM could order a repair part(back/dust cover/front cover) and more importantly, the factory could marry them to a run of movements internally.

Yes, over the years, I(via a WM) service alot, but by no means all, of my PW's.

Dials are tricky.....most(almost all I've seen) here in US had a manufacture's name or a private jewelers name.

Waltesefalcon · Jul 19, 2024

While I am working on a tweaked hinge on the case of my Model 5 Bunn Special, I have placed it in one of my display cases. This one is a Waltham marked case, I don't own an Illinois one.

pdxleaf · Jul 20, 2024

Here's an auction item that ends in 7 hours. It's gotten pretty pricey ($2k), which is a bummer.

Question is, what is it?

I am thinking it's some kind of salesman model, based on the inside engravings and decorated movement.

Looks to be 1902ish. Reported to be 18k but not marked 18k.

Does anything stand out to you?

Edit: I was wondering if the sales reps name was engraved above "Locle". I the think the engraving next to ,"Hands" is "761", the same as the number in the case.

Canuck · Jul 20, 2024

Certainly not a high grade highly finished movement that might attract a price like that. Especially since the case doesn’t appear to me to be karat gold. Shill bidder?

pdxleaf · Jul 20, 2024

Canuck
Certainly not a high grade highly finished movement that might attract a price like that. Especially since the case doesn’t appear to me to be karat gold. Shill bidder?

I don't think a shill. Goodwill often has bidders pay more than retail. There seem to be a lot of people who buy based on gold content. Plus, there's just some crazy bidding sometimes. Hard to say exactly why.

Any thoughts on this?

It seems like a list of features, which is why I thought it might be a salesman item.

DaveK · Jul 20, 2024

pdxleaf
I don't think a shill. Goodwill often has bidders pay more than retail. There seem to be a lot of people who buy based on gold content. Plus, there's just some crazy bidding sometimes. Hard to say exactly why.

Any thoughts on this?

It seems like a list of features, which is why I thought it might be a salesman item.

It kind of reminds me of how cars used to have all their features listed on the back of the trunk 16v DOHC, Grand Touring

Canuck · Jul 20, 2024

The inner cover (cuvette) is an ideal spot for boasting about features of the movement. Many Swiss brands will have the cuvette emblazoned with images of medals awarded and competitions won. I’m certain most pocket watch aficionados have encountered such cases. A difference between the subject watch and (for example, America made, railroad standard watches), is that the features on an American watch will be on the movement, not the case. My impression is the this is window dressing on a case that contains an orchard run, unadjusted movement.

Waltesefalcon · Jul 20, 2024

pdxleaf
Here's an auction item that ends in 7 hours. It's gotten pretty pricey ($2k), which is a bummer.

Question is, what is it?

I am thinking it's some kind of salesman model, based on the inside engravings and decorated movement.

Looks to be 1902ish. Reported to be 18k but not marked 18k.

Does anything stand out to you?

Edit: I was wondering if the sales reps name was engraved above "Locle". I the think the engraving next to ,"Hands" is "761", the same as the number in the case.

[/QUtrio.

Looks like a fairly run of the mill Longines. Without it having a hallmarked case, I'm not sure I'd pay $200, much less $2,000.

Canuck · Jul 20, 2024

Hanging loose for the week end. Too dammed hot to do anything that requires effort. Expected high next Tuesday (23rd) is 34° C (93°F). Thought I’d wear a pocket watch for a change. I’ve chosen one of my 16-size Keystone Howard series V watches. Near perfect Canadian 24-hour Montgomery dial. Interesting! The Keystone Watch Case Company bought the rights to manufacture pocket watches from E. Howard and Co. The company was known as the E. Howard Watch company. The E, Howard Co. Was still in business, but was no longer making watches. What is strange is that this is a Keystone Howard case made by the Crescent Watch Case Co.! The16-size series V movement has 19-jewels, is fully equipped to railroad standard, end equipped with a safety mainspring barrel. I have several of these, and have always liked them. I’ll wear it on an @DaveK lanyard. Circa 1911, so 113 years old.

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/e.-howard-watch-co.-keystone/1108992

ghce · Jul 21, 2024

My Seth Thomas saga continues with the discovery of a tiny inscription almost unnoticeable on the cuvette.
It led me on a great chase that has allowed me to determine most of the watches owners history and the strange story that found this PW turning up in NZ

Canuck · Jul 21, 2024

ghce
My Seth Thomas saga continues with the discovery of a tiny inscription almost unnoticeable on the cuvette.
It led me on a great chase that has allowed me to determine most of the watches owners history and the strange story that found this PW turning up in NZ

Now that you have a bunch of us hanging on to your suggestion re: the story of your Seth Thomas, and how it found its way to you, why would you not tell us? Sounds interesting! In my collection of over 50 pocket watches, I only know the story behind maybe 3 or 4 of them. An inanimate object comes to life when you discover its back story. C’mon! Tell us!

ghce · Jul 21, 2024

Just waiting on some further info from the seller who sells these as part of their business ( antiques gold silver, you get the picture) but also shares a surname related to the original owner.

Bobby j · Jul 21, 2024

I should have kept this one. One of the first Ball/Hamilton collaborations.

Canuck · Jul 21, 2024

Another fairly early collaboration between Hamilton and Ball was the Ball grade 999, 18-size, 23-jewel model of which there were only 100 produced. All of them in 1911. I have a picture of the only one of these that I have ever seen. I worked on one for a member of the watch repair fraternity, locally, many decades ago. It needed a balance staff, and he was unable to locate one. He asked for my help. I went to his shop where he had the watch open on his bench. I recognized it as a 18-size Hamilton from six feet away! I saw it was a Ball grade 999. I told him that any balance staff from any Hamilton grade 940, 941, 942, 943, 944, 946, or 947 was the same balance staff. He didn’t have any of these. When I asked if I could do it for him (I had the staff), he asked me to do it. I had it back to him, done, the following day. Unfortunately, this was before digital photography, and before I discovered how to take decent pictures of watches, so the picture is lousy. However, three members of the Omega board own the Hamilton grade 946, 23-jewel version of this watch. It is a Hamilton grade 946, NOT a Ball grade 999, 23-jewel version, but you’ll get the idea.

TexOmega · Jul 21, 2024

Gruen VeriThin Pentagon Gentleman's watch
Gruen Precision grade V2.....19j adjusted to 6 positions, temperature and isochronism
14kt. white gold Pentagon case by Wadsworth

I edited(crossed out) an owners private number in black, skillfully.😁

Mid 1920's....it shows a 1927 inscription, he was a Fire Chief

Has the sign a dial foot was overtightened at some point
Never been serviced while I've had it.

Bernhard J · Jul 22, 2024

Ah, art déco, great!

Here another one.

The movement might benefit from replacing incorrect screws and adding the missing swanneck regulator. The dial has a imo lovely patina and will for sure not be "refinished".

Cheers, Bernhard

Canuck · Jul 22, 2024

Closest I have to the outstanding Vulcain is an Omega which I (right or wrong) class as art deco. The dial name is for Murpy’s in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada), and came in a faux sharkskin fitted case. I believe the watch to be from the late 1920s or early 1930s, a time during which my late father was watchmaker in that very store.

Bernhard J · Jul 22, 2024

Yes, this also is art déco, I believe. Lovely!

Waltesefalcon · Jul 22, 2024

I would say more art nouveau due to the caseback motif. Lovely watch, though.

Waltesefalcon · Jul 22, 2024

I've been wearing my trusty old Illinois Model 2, Grade 5 since Saturday and it has lost four minutes! I guess it's time for a service, it has been about four years now.