This thread is such a happy place to hang out

Thanks to the contributors for taking the time to tell the stories behind the watches.

 

The whole story on @Waltesefalcon ’S Hamilton 992. First 992 I ever recall seeing in a B o C case. Sharp!

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/hamilton/2440830

Listed as a model 2. The model 1 992 had two screws on the crown wheel core, and a four-footed dial. The model 2 has a single screw on the crown wheel core, and 3 dial feet.

 

I started collecting pocket watches when I was 9. My first was a Westclox pocket Ben I bought in an antique store in Carson City, NV on a school field trip- it still runs.
I collected nearly 50 by the time I was 16- many I have given away as gifts (some of my better ones), but I still have a handful.

Here are two I have always been curious about. Both picked up in an antique store in Brighton, UK in the mid 80’s. Maybe ya’ll can tell me something about them.




This one is a double cased fusee, it ran when I got it, I broke the chain tinkering with it. I haven’t found a watchmaker who was able to work on it-yet.

 

I too got my start with a Westclox Pocket Ben that my dad bought me when I was in second grade.

 

My first pocket watch was also a Westclox Pocket Dax which I took to pieces in class, in Miss Byers room, in grade 1, in 1946.

@JwRosenthal ,

Tanis could be a Unitas 6445 or the Eta equivalent, or it could be a clone. I see stampings under the balance wheel, but can’t make them out. Mikrolisk has this to say about the Tanis name. And here is a picture of the Unitas 6445 movement.

Your English pair cased watch appears to be an English lever, fusee, unfortunately with an anonymous movement. The case was hallmarked in Chester (England), in (it appears to be) 1842-43. The case makers mark could be T.H, in which case it could have been made by Thomas Howl, 32 Norman’s Buildings, St. Luke’s. It could be I.H in which case it might be by John Harris, 6 York St., Butts, Coventry. Both makers were active at about the time the watch was hallmarked. Information courtesy of Phillip Priestley’s excellent volume on English watch case makers.

 

Thanks Doug.
Any clue on the train, and the logos on the back of the Tannis?

Do you know anyone who can repair the fusee?

 

Just answered my own question with google- Turkish railways.
This logo is from 1927

 

And I just found this- apparently mine is the low rent version of this watch

 

Hammy Niner Fife Zero railroader circa late 1920s for Thursday...have original box and mitt with matching movement and case numbers...trusty @DaveK lanyard for secure hauling...

 

Working hard at proving we need our own Pocket Watch forum. Thanks all!

 

When you find someone who will give you a quote for repairing the fusee, better be sitting down!

 

Holt crap! That watch was $105?!?! That’s was a fortune!

 

Was hoping I could find someone who loves bringing watches like this back to life and would do it for a bottle of scotch and a pizza.

 

Darn, that Hamilton 950 is a gorgeous movement! I have a 950, and a 950B, but I would like to add a 950E (Elinvar) to my collection, as well. Tres expensive, however.

 

I once saw a 1.5 oz. bottle of 1958 Glenfarclas for $1,250.00 (Cdn.)! At that price, it had probably been ageing in that liquor store for a long time!

 

@tyrantlizardrex might know some fusee fixers from his highly entertaining Time 4 A Pint interviews available online now at https://youtube.com/c/Time4APint

 

Correct...we disassembled/reassembled the ETA 6497-1 at AWCI build-a-watch school in March of 2018. Initially, our class started with the Seagull equivalent...but things got pretty ridiculous very quickly [with the Seagull] and leprechauns switched the class to the ETA 6497-1 on St. Patrick’s Day. Needless to say, our class [as well as the instructors] were pretty happy about the switcheroo.

 

Such a great thread and reading... Congrats guys! Keep on subliming us with your watches

 

GrandPappy Ball would had been spinning in his grave in the 1950’s when a Swiss Made movement was sourced for is Railroad Approved models.
A last gasp.




He wrote the rules 50 years before specifically excluding Swiss Made as an approved RR grade movement in the US.

 

The Ball 435B was made for Ball, after the last American watch manufacturer closed shop. That was Hamilton, in 1969. It appears as though Ball might have had input in designing the 435B and 435 C, because there are some features about these that mimic features on the Hamilton 992B. These Swiss Ball watches were made by the Record Watch Co., of Switzerland. I have worked on these Swiss Ball watches, and I much prefer the American Ball watches! As to Ball not accepting Swiss watches for his Ball ORRS watches? Did he actually deliberately forbid Swiss watches in his time service rules, or was it simply a matter of there were so many American makers to choose from? Ever the business man. When he was no longer able to procure American watches, he had to have something to sell, So Record watches filled a need. Some Swiss railroad standard watches were approved in the time service rules of some American railroads. Universal Geneva, Zenith, Longines, and Brandt (Omega). Time service rules as set out by Ball were not 100% adhered to by some railroads.