Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

@DaveK ,

I think you might be referring to the red Arabic numerals in the seconds bit of my Howard. ‘Tis a bit unusual. I like the decorous Arabic numerals on the rest of this Howard dial.

Another goodie from the Usher Gallery in Lincoln, in England. The Wikipedia article, and other online sites that feature the Ushers, are indefinite as to whether James Ward Usher, or his father, James Usher, was the person whose collection is housed in the Usher Gallery. The father founded a jewellery business in Lincoln, in 1837. James Ward Usher joined his father in the business. The collection might have been assembled by them both. The watches I have shown in this thread are now approximately 350 to 375 years old. But the collection of these watches appears to have started in the mid-19th century, when such items were probably more readily available than they are today.

The subject work of art (more so a work of art, than a watch) is probably French, and I would estimate it to have been made in the late 18th or early 19th century. The watch is typical of that era. Likely a verge escapement with a fusee, key wound, and key set. What is more obvious about it is the vitreous enamel work on the case!

The scene on the case may comprise about 10 or 12 different colours of enamel. Each separate colour of enamel would have been applied by hand with very fine brushes. Some brushes as fine as a single strand of sable hair. After each application of colour, the item would require a separate firing in a kiln to fuse the enamel, with temperatures up to about 1,200° F for up to one hour. In that era, kilns were fired by coke, and the amount of spoilage was high owing to fly ash, and spoilage resulting from repeated firings. The enamels that were used were in the form of finely powdered, coloured glass. The powdered enamel in no way resembled the colour of the enamel after firing. It was fusing of the glass particles as they liquified from the high heat of the kiln, that brought out the colour.

This watch is somewhat newer than an earlier one that I posted, as evidenced by the presence of a minute hand and a seconds hand. That would seem to indicate that the watch mechanism had advanced to the point that it was accurate enough, that the owner could now rely on the watch to be only minutes out in a day, rather than hours! The pushpiece on top of the pendant likely opens the back cover of the case to permit winding and setting.

Had I known, all those years ago, that I would be showing these watches in a forum such as this, it would have been prudent of me at the time, to record more information about these splendid items.

Incredible artistry in making these @Canuck 👍

In 1870, there was no such thing as a universal system of standardized time which was a huge problem in the safe operation of railroads. At this time in the U S A, there were 10 observatories broadcasting time to subscribers. A rail system might subscribe to a particular time source for their own rail system which would broadcast by telegraph, over their system. So regardless of what solar time might be anywhere on that system, crews were to operate on a form of standard time.

The next problem for railroads who followed a form of standard time to have to contend with, was the uneven performance of the watches used by crews on their system. In 1871, the Pennsylvania Railroad issued Elgin American Watch Co. B W Raymond watches to engineers and conductors on its system, in an attempt to enforce standard time. Within one year, most of the watches were either broken, or had been pawned. The program was discontinued.

The pictured Elgin B W Raymond pocket watch is similar to the watches mentioned above.

According to the Shugart, Engle, and Gilbert book, there were three variations of your watch. Variation 1 serial numbers ran from 2B001 to 2B700. All from circa 1943. The rest of production had s# starting with 1, and according to Col. George Townsend in his book American Railroad Watches, the second series (beginning with #1B001, ran to 1B27,500, produced between 1943 and 1954. According to the Shugart book, the third variant ran from 1B 26,900, to 1B 27,600*. *Townsend says the series ended a 27,500. I don’t know who was correct. Townsend doesn’t mention a third variant, and he implies that the third variant was lumped together with the second variant. The third series had straight line damascening, rather than circular. Your handsome 999B (I was going to say handsome BALL😁) is likely from the second variant.

Now, aren’t pocket watches a whole lot more interesting than wrist watches?

Gruen
12s circa 1930-40’s
By this point, Gruen was making their own movements, but was one of the first to import high end Swiss movements before 1900 in high numbers.
The Gruen Guild marking is the key in dating.

Gruen was also one of the two companies that managed to identify and capture a then hitherto unidentified potential market, in the nineteens. Wrist watches for women! Between Gruen and Bulova (both were American companies marketing Swiss products), they caught the U S watchmaking companies, sleeping at the switch! At one time, top of mind in North America, it was American pocket watches. By the right kind of advertising, in the right places, at the right times, and in the right amounts, top of mind in North America became Swiss wrist watches. And we all know where that eventually ended up! I have a few Gruens, myself. But only wrist ones. Nice watch!

@Fritz ,

I have a Hamilton 944 private label for D R Dingwall. Ball did have an office in Canada.

Antique watches can keep you humble. When I took this one out of the safe, it was wound, but not running. I surmised a cleaning would be the answer. It ran fine for two days, and quit! Did I miss something? It appears as though I did! On this movement, the mainspring barrel fits under the centre wheel, and the third wheel. There was not a lot of space between the top surface of the mainspring barrel, and the under side of the rim of the third wheel. The mainspring barrel has a torsional reaction to the wound up mainspring. There were times when the mainspring barrel was rubbing on the under side of the third wheel. Solution? Tighten the top barrel arbor bearing in the barrel, reducing “wobble” caused by the wound mainspring, and reduce the endshake of the barrel arbor by about 0.03 mm so the barrel sits a bit lower. Nice clearance now, between the rim of the fourth wheel, and the top surface of the mainspring barrel. Step one.......diagnose. Step two.....repair.

You don’t give enough details for me to come to a hard edged conclusion. But this is a modern watch. The absence of “QUARTZ” on the dial tells me this likely has a mechanical wrist watch movement in it. Parts of the case appear to be die-cast, and the case, electroplated. The surround on the front and back of the case is likely acrylic “enamel”. Sort of cute, but most assuredly, not my cup of tea. Especially at $400!

You provide two terrible pictures of a watch, absolutely no information about it, whatsoever, and you think we should be able to give an opinion and an evaluation on it? What material is the case made of? We need pictures of the markings inside the case back, the weight of the case without the mechanism, diameter, and information regarding do you own it, or are you considering buying it, or if yours, are you wanting to sell it? If it’s yours, and you are wanting to sell it, you won’t be able to do it here! And don’t be surprised if any evaluation amounts to only scrap value!

Nobody but the owner can put a number on how much he or she values that item. The only number we can hope to put on it would be a ballpark idea of what we feel a current value in the market place might be. Be prepared for a shock! With so many people having so much stuff for sale, this is a buyer’s market, not a sellers market. Particularly pocket watches!