Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

Canuck · Mar 1, 2021

I too have a Hamilton 940. This one is a private label for a jeweller, G M Rioch , who was in business in Kenora, Ontario, circa 1910. I picked this one up at an NAWCC mart in Portland, Ore., about 30 years ago. It was shown by a dealer with only a few watches, and this one had been ignored because of the Canadian private label. It is in its original “swing ring” case which was another deterrent to others examining it more closely. I jumped on it when I found out it was a Hamilton 940! I love Canadian private label watches of which I have about six. This one is from circa 1907. The grade 940 was a very popular model for railroad use, until the smaller 16-size railroad standard models were introduced. Here is the skinny on my 940, but the listing shows information of the grade 940 models.

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/hamilton/567084

The 940 posted by @Waltesefalcon is a much earlier one than mine. Having been produced circa 1903.

TexOmega · Mar 1, 2021

American Watch Co. (eventually Waltham)
Model 1870 15j Crescent Street

Y: 1871
Fahy's Coin Silver #1 Hunter Case
Misaligned subdial (backside shows no repair, so it slipped by QC)
Butterfly Hands

Dial with Butterfly hands and outer track.JPG

Canuck · Mar 1, 2021

TexOmega
American Watch Co. (eventually Waltham)
Model 1870 Crescent Street
Y: 1871
Fahy's Coin Silver #1 Hunter Case
Misaligned subdial (backside shows no repair, so it slipped by QC)
Butterfly Hands

Very rarely do we see these delicate original “beetle-and-poker” hands having survived 150 years! Can you show us the movement? Some 1870 model American Watch Co. models were produced as key winders, and some may have been produced as transitional models (either stem wind OR key-winders.)

TexOmega · Mar 1, 2021

Canuck
Very rarely do we see these delicate original “beetle-and-poker” hands having survived 150 years! Can you show us the movement? Some 1870 model American Watch Co. models were produced as key winders, and some may have been produced as transitional models (either stem wind OR key-winders.)

I've never encountered "beetle-and-poker" as a term, nifty description.

Stem wind

Waltesefalcon · Mar 1, 2021

Tex, those hands are gorgeous.

Canuck · Mar 1, 2021

A pocket watch that qualifies as “different”. Made by August Loehr who was active circa 1878 to 1884. He was granted a patent for a self winding pocket watch which was based on an earlier pedometer. The idea of a self wind pocket watch had been around since 1777 when Louis Perrelet reportedly came up with the idea.

Mad Dog · Mar 1, 2021

Hammy Niner Fife Zero Bravo for Monday...

TexOmega · Mar 1, 2021

The 950B was the Masterpiece in a 16s for Hamilton. Pinnacle.

Nice example👍

Canuck · Mar 1, 2021

Later models of the 950B came with melamine dials. Yours has a gorgeous double-sunk vitreous enamel dial! I can’t read the s# on yours, but I suspect it is an earlier one than mine. My 950B came with the later melamine dial. I lucked out, though. A friend was visiting a watch material supplier in Vancouver (B. C.) about 35 years ago. They had two NOS Hamilton 23-jewel Railway Special, double-sunk vitreous enamel dials in stock. He bought them both! Mine now has one of them. Both our 950Bs have the @DaveK miracle braid leather lanyard on them. Yours has the “spade and poker” hands, and mine has the later “baton” style hands.

Canuck · Mar 1, 2021

TexOmega
The 950B was the Masterpiece in a 16s for Hamilton. Pinnacle.

Nice example👍

I agree. But I also like the Hamilton 950, one of which I have. And the 950E which I hope to acquire, someday. The Hamilton 950. This one from 1927 has the blued steel, Breguet hairspring, and the bi-metallic, split rim, temperature compensating balance wheel, which was not necessary on either the 950E or 950B.

Waltesefalcon · Mar 2, 2021

Today I am wearing my Elgin B. W. Raymond model 20 grade 571. It's another railroad grade watch, it's my newest one being produced in 1954. It's marked as adjusted to 9 positions which I must assume means they are counting temperature twice (heat and cold). When I got it it came with a desk stand and had been lacquered along with the brass stand. It took a little work to remove and you can still see a bit of it around the crown.

Canuck · Mar 2, 2021

The movement is marked “nine adjustments”, not adjusted to nine positions. Nine adjustments means six adjustments to position, heat, cold, and isochronism. The grade 571 has the mono-metallic, solid rim balance wheel, and alloy hairspring, which means it is also anti-magnetic. Most railroad time service rules mandated five positions, heat, cold, and isochronism. Elgin went one better with the grade 571. According to figures listed in Roy Ehrhardt’s Elgin reference, there were 87,000 grade 571s produced. A lot of 571s have been converted from lever set, to stem set. Mine included. The lever set mechanism on the 571 was prone to failure after about 50 years. By the time these began to fail, replacement parts were no longer available. The usual answer was to replace the setting components with the setting mechanism parts from a stem set model, (grade 575?). That’s what I was obliged to do with mine. The nicest grade 571 I ever had, I sold about 35 years ago. S T U P I D!

Jones in LA · Mar 2, 2021

My expectations for this thread were high, and they have been greatly exceeded 😀

Canuck · Mar 2, 2021

Jones in LA
My expectations for this thread were high, and they have been greatly exceeded 😀

The bulk of my watch collection is wrist watches. They are okay, but I find the background information with pocket watches to be far and away more interesting. Not just the mechanisms themselves, but the factors affecting their evolution over the 350 plus years that pocket watches have been around.

Jones in LA · Mar 2, 2021

Canuck
The bulk of my watch collection is wrist watches. They are okay, but I find the background information with pocket watches to be far and away more interesting. Not just the mechanisms themselves, but the factors affecting their evolution over the 350 plus years that pocket watches have been around.

Yes, I think that's what has struck me here -- the history behind the watches.

Waltesefalcon · Mar 2, 2021

Canuck
A lot of 571s have been converted from lever set, to stem set. Mine included. The lever set mechanism on the 571 was prone to failure after about 50 years. By the time these began to fail, replacement parts were no longer available. The usual answer was to replace the setting components with the setting mechanism parts from a stem set model, (grade 575?). That’s what I was obliged to do with mine.

Saying it was adjusted to nine positions was a bone headed mistake on my part, thank you for the correction.

Mine is still a lever set and still functions well, if not a touch stiffly.

kingsrider · Mar 2, 2021

With all due respect to the contributions in this thread. There is one member here that has a memorable collection of Omega pocket watches. At a GTG more than a few years ago, I saw @Modest_Proposal collection of late era models. Amazing! I hope he sees this thread and will share some of his beautiful watches with us.

TexOmega · Mar 2, 2021

Hampden Watch Co
18s Dueber-Hampden display case.
21j Railway Special
RR grade and approved
Y:1901

Hampden made a handsome high grade watch.
The branded display case was hard to find back when I was collecting pocket watches.

But who wants to hide such a beautiful movement?

DomB · Mar 2, 2021

TexOmega
Hampden Watch Co
18s Dueber-Hampden display case.
21j Railway Special
RR grade and approved
Y:1901

Hampden made a handsome high grade watch.
The branded display case was hard to find back when I was collecting pocket watches.

But who wants to hide such a beautiful movement?

I really like Hampden pocket watches and have several in my collection.
They seem undervalued. Why is that so?

Canuck · Mar 2, 2021

TexOmega
Hampden Watch Co
18s Dueber-Hampden display case.
21j Railway Special
RR grade and approved
Y:1901

Hampden made a handsome high grade watch.
The branded display case was hard to find back when I was collecting pocket watches.

But who wants to hide such a beautiful movement?

Interesting that your dial is marked Hampden, but your movement is not! However, the movement is marked Canton, Ohio. John C. Dueber was a major watch case maker who ran into problems with the watch companies that Dueber made cases for. Elgin, Waltham, Illinois. Other watch case makers boycotted the Dueber Watch Case Co. Dueber had to decide whether to fold, or stay in business by buying a watch company. In 1889, he bought Hampden, and moved it to Canton, Ohio! Yours might be an early Dueber/Hampden. I believe that Dueber was one of the first to use the word Railway on his movements. Other companies got into trouble with Dueber when they marked their watches with Railway, as well.

As to why Hampden watches are under appreciated? Perhaps it was because of their modest beginnings, evolving from watch companies such as Mozart who made a cheap “three-wheeled” watch, and later, the New York Watch Co. which was succeeded by Hampden. Then, succeeded by Dueber who seemed to always be in trouble with other watch companies, and case companies. Dueber was a controversial guy! In his book American Watchmaking, a Technical History of the American Watch Industry, Michael Harold covers the Hampden & Dueber/Hampden companies quite well. The book may be available from the NAWCC in Columbia, Pa. This is an excellent book, by the way.