Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

According to Brittens Old Clocks and Watches and their Makers, ninth edition, page 147.

“A method of jewelling pivot holes (in watches) was invented in 1704 by Facio de Duillier, and P and J Debaufre, but it (jewelling) is rarely found in watches before 1715..............For nearly a century, the art of jewelling (watch movements) remained an exclusively English secret.”

Brittens doesn’t go into any detail but I have read elsewhere in the book that agate was used in the earliest jewelled watches.

Images of a watch by Quare & Horseman from 1710. The balance cock is set with a rose cut diamond.

For more information re: locomotive 6060. Go to the Rocky Mountain Railroad Society which is presently raising funds to restore 6060 which is not currently operational.

https://6060.org/

So, watches! Where does it all begin? Early mechanical clocks (after hour glasses, sun dials, clepsydra, candles, etc) were weight driven, and had what is known as verge and foliot escapements. This arrangement was okay as long as you had a wall to hang them on. But they weren’t very portable. Enter Peter Heinlein who invented the mainspring to replace weights and cables on traditional clocks. We showed a picture of the “Nuremberg Egg” by Peter Heinlein (1485-1542), earlier in this thread. But before the fabled “Nuremberg Egg” was a clockmaker named Jacob Zech (known as Jacob the Czech) who combined the principle of the verge and foliot clock with the mainspring, to result in what is believed to be the earliest spring driven clock in Europe. This clock was not wearable, of course, but it was a vision of what was to come. Heinlein miniaturized Zech’s clock to produce among the earliest watches.

When we were on an NAWCC tour to England in 2000, we got to visit the Clockmaker’s and Watchmaker’s Guild Hall. I could go on and on about what we saw there, and maybe I will, later. Among the artifacts we were fortunate enough to see was Jacob the Czech’s clock, believed to be the oldest spring driven clock in Europe, from circa 1520. Every time I see the picture of the mechanism, it occurs to me that it might be mistaken for a tinker’s Saturday afternoon project in his garage. But as primitive as it appears, it was cutting edge in 1520!

@Tony C. ,

I am compelled to guess your handsome Longines is equipped with an alarm? Tandem wind (two mainsprings, one for the alarm?), stem wound, pin set. Very unusual. Enquiring minds want to know what you can tell us about it,

Might that be solar powered? Has anyone checked the capacitor? That may be all it needs! 😁

It’s a very nice piece, and in exquisite condition. Being pin set, and luminous on vitreous enamel dial, it is quite old. Do you have any idea of vintage?

Art Deco at its finest. Excellent quality, excellent condition, artistically a showpiece. So often with these vitreous enamel inlaid pieces, the enamel is damaged. Circa1919. 14-karat gold case, and I don’t see any watchmaker marks inside the case back. Someone with deep pockets and an appreciation for fine watches will own this!

The first experimental electric clocks made their appearance circa 1840. Probably powered by wet cell batteries. They didn’t become common until electric current distribution became more common. In those early years, a synchronous clock’s source of power was from hydro-electric sources. Synchronous clocks in North America generally relied on either 50 or 60-cycle power. If the power supplied to these clocks varied, the clocks would gain or lose time. As demand peaked, generators slowed down, and the clocks lost time. As demand dropped off and the generators speeded up, synchronous clocks would gain time.

To counter this problem, many power companies came up with systems to try to govern power plant output, to eliminate these variations in rate. In the mid 1920s, our local power source instituted a system that involved the use of the subject Waltham, 21-jewel Crescent Street model pocket watch. The Waltham was kept in plain view, in the control room. At the beginning of each shift, the board operator at the power plant, would make certain the Waltham was wound, then he would telephone the National Research Council to get the correct time, then to re-set the Waltham as required.

On the wall in the control room was a synchronous electric clock which took its 60-cycle power off the mains. During his shift, the operator would compare the time on the synchronous clock with the time on the Waltham, and he would adjust the flow of water past the generators, in order the keep the synchronous clock on the wall, on time. And thereby, every synchronous clock in every home and office on time, as well. By the early 1930s, our local power source found automated ways of doing this, and the Crescent Street was retired.

If any reader has access to NAWCC BULLETIN issue 308 from June 1997, check out the article I wrote on Frederick Stranack Gaskell who was an inventive genius who designed and built magnificent clocks, and also was the fellow who automated our local power company. Upon he retirement in the 1960s, our local power company presented him with the Waltham Crescent Street. To the watch.

The skinny on the watch:

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/waltham/23133136