Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

A bit of a pre-amble before I discuss this watch. The name on the dial is Jos. (Joseph) Pequegnat, Guelph, Ontario (Canada). Joseph Pequegnat was a brother of Arthur Pequegnat.

Arthur Pequegnat and the Pequegnat family, (pronounced “peginaw”) emigrated from Switzerland circa 1874. The family had been in the jewellery business in Switzerland, and when they settled in Berlin, Ontario (More on that later), the family established a jewellery business. Ever the entrepreneur, he established a bicycle manufactory behind his jewellery business. The bikes he produced were highly respected and innovative. They were sold to police forces in the area.

Comes the automobile! Circa 1904, Pequegnat anticipated that the bicycle business was going to be affected by the automobile. So he converted part of the bike shop to manufacturing clocks. Pequegnat clocks are highly prized by Canadian clock collectors. I have one, myself. A time and strike, solid oak mantel clock known as the “Pantheon” model. Pequegnat clock movement designs generally follow the designs of Connecticut clocks of the era. Pequegnat was known for the quality of the cases on his clocks. They were generally made entirely of solid hardwood. I don’t think he used veneer as so many American clockmakers of the era did.

In June of 1916, a British passenger liner was on its way to Russia. Several miles off of one of the Orkney Islands north of the Scottish mainland, the liner struck a German mine, sinking the liner with the deaths of over 700 people. One of whom was Herbert Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War in Britain. He was on his way to Russia for discussions with the czar.

After Kitchener’s death at the hands of Germany, in 1916, Berlin, Ontario, was renamed Kitchener, in honour of Herbert Kitchener.

Back to the subject of the watch. There were a number of young men in the Pequegnat family, one of whom was Joseph. He apparently must have established a jewellery business in Guelph, Ontario, which is 25 kms from Kitchener.

Here is the skinny on the watch. It is an 1883 model, estimated production date 1899.

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/waltham/9133508




For those who might be interested in knowing more about the Pequegnat family, there is an excellent article on Wikipedia.

Ball-Hamilton 999B Model 5 Single sunk Enamel dial
Circa 1949 16s 21j Circular Damascening
Ball Stirrup Case

One can guess its' brother in the Hamilton Lineup.....the 992B

Sweeeeeeet! Ball,was the only maker that got away with the round dial markers at the 5 minute intervals. Was that a copyright? I don’t know. Produced circa 1949. Remarkable condition for a 70+ year old watch. I don’t see many (any?) repair marks inside the case back. Perhaps never owned by a railroader?

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/ball/1B14120

Thanks for the pronunciation key! There was a big auction of Pequegnat watches and clocks today. Pequegnat named his clock designs for various Ontario towns.
My $25 low bid missed the mark for this “Sarnia” clock - my old stomping grounds

Sarnia to Kitchener, 208 kms, (~ 125 mi. Or so). Not that far. Too bad on the Pequegnat “Sarnia” mantel clock. For future reference, @DaveK . There are serious Pequegnat buyers in Canada, Be prepared to ante up if you are going to rub shoulders with them, again! An acquaintance, locally, told me he had 28 Pequegnat clocks in his own collection!

Betcha the markings on the dial are Hungarian! The vendor wouldn’t likely know. Doxa is a prominent brand in Europe. Anybody read Hungarian.

Now for some eye candy. Sadly, I know nothing about the next few watches I will show you, other than to say they are from circa the mid 18th century. And likely, French.

Mrs. C and I were on an NAWCC tour of England in 2000. It was primarily a tour of English tower clocks (38 tower clocks in 12 days), but also numerous museums. One museum we visited was the Usher Gallery in Lincoln, England. They opened their horological archives to us, and the next few watches I will show you, are at the Usher Gallery. To the best of my ability, I will try to give you a description of each one.

The majority of the next few watches I will show you are from circa the mid-18th century. These watches are all key wound and key set, with verge escapements in them. These watches are all equipped with fusees, (basically, chain drive), and the owner would be lucky if the watch ran within abut 30 minutes per day. As watches, they were a flop, in modern terms, but OMG, were they beautiful.

Our subject in this submission is 18-karat gold. About 50 mm in diameter, and THICK. Likely about 15 mm thick. This was characteristic of early fusee watches, particularly with verge escapements.

The pearls on this one are not cultured pearls! Cultured pearls didn’t put in an appearance until early in the 20th century, in Japan. These are native gem, or Oriental pearls that were harvested from the oceans by free divers (mostly women, called amas who could remain submerged for up to 2 minutes, without breathing equipment.) The amas would load a basket with rocks, and dive. As they harvested the shellfish that often grew pearls, they would discard the rocks. When the basket was full of shellfish, one tug on the rope, and they were hauled to the surface! These pearls are beautifully matched for colour, shape, lustre, and freedom of lesions. The pearls surround a central portion where there is translucent vitreous enamel over guilloche decoration (basically geometric engraving pattern). The front cover shows more Oriental gem pearls in a floral display. The button you see at the top of the pendant in the first picture is pushed to open the hinged front cover, for the purpose of winding the watch, or telling the time.

This watch would have been produced at a time when only the nobility and the very wealthy could afford a watch. Many of these watches I will show you may very well have been carried in a velvet sachet on a silk rope worn around the neck. A thing of beauty is a joy forever! Some of them carried by women, and some by men. The word “bling” hadn’t even been discovered yet.

Ok... The dedicated forum is now needed... Everybody will start buying them 😁

...

Serial # C287188 would be circa 1949. Hamilton replaced vitreous enamel dials with melamine dials in 1949*. In 1955, they discontinued the oval spokes on the train wheels*. From 1952 on, Hamilton gradually eliminated rounded and polished plate edges, and changed to flat head screws from rounded heads*..

The subject watch has a badly crazed and scuffed melamine dial. Rust on the hub of the minute hand! Had they tried, I am certain one of the owners of the pristine 992Bs that have appeared in this thread, would gladly have loaned their watch for the video!

* Art Zimmerla pamphlet “Hamilton and the 992B”, 2003.

Here’s another one from the Usher Gallery, in Lincoln, England.

The dial on this one is clearly designed for the Turkish trade. The dial is marked with the maker’s name, A Bartholony (Abraham), Paris. There is a listing in G H Baillie’s book Watchmakers & Clockmakers of the World, Vol. 1 for a maker named A Batholomy (with an M), 1749. The listing includes “watch set with diamonds and rubies, for Turkey, Lincoln (Usher) Museum (Gallery).” I interpret this listing as referring to this watch. I think I also see emeralds in some locations, around the perimeter. In 1749, diamond cutting was a whole different art compared to today. The diamonds are cut in triangles, trapezoids, ovals, and rounds. The cutter chose the rough stones based on their natural shapes that could be cut to suitable shapes for this work of art, with the priority of ease of cutting, and weight saving. The round diamonds are cut in a shape known as “Old Mine” cut. There are also “rose cut” diamonds, particularly on the hands. Many of the stones appear quite dark, or transparent. That is because the undersides are polished flat, and do not reflect the light. The case is 18-karat gold and sterling silver. Silver was used extensively for fancy diamond items at this time. The alloying of gold with base metals to create a white gold alloy was likely a century in the future when this watch was made. They may have known about platinum, palladium, and iridium at the time, but the processing of the platinum group of metals was about 150 years in the future. I very much doubt that both the case and the watch were made by the same artisan.

If you look closely, you may see two holes in the dial. The larger one is for the winding key which is also used to set the time. I suspect the smaller hole is for a “set up” regulator. The watch is a verge, with a fusee. The set up regulator was used by the wearer to try to control the timekeeping. A futility with a watch with a verge escapement.

This watch is typical of the era. Probably about 50 mm in diameter, and 15 mm thick, or thereabouts. The life style of the owners of watches such as this one were such that I doubt they were worn at other than grand soirées, balls, banquets, and dances. Snob appeal, prestige, staying ahead of the Joneses, and conspicuous consumption. A great display of wealth.

Waltham Vanguard 16s 23j
Circa 1936
RR grade and approved

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/waltham/29308245

This handsome specimen posted by @TexOmega is listed in the information as “1623”. That is the Waltham shorthand for 16-size, 23-jewels. Noticeably absent are the tiny polished screws holding the jewel chatons. At about this time, all the U S watch companies were looking at ways to reduce the cost of producing these works of art. The oval spokes on the gold centre wheel, and the flat spokes on the brass train wheels. The chatons holding the jewels are gold, and so to probably the screws on the balance wheel. The single cut vitreous enamel dial is also the way things were headed. But these Vanguards are just about the prettiest of the American made railroad watches in my view. This model also has the motor (or safety) barrel we discussed, earlier in this thread. Earlier, I posted images of my 1945 model Waltham Vanguard. A visual comparison of the two will show that the subject watch is much more spectacular than my 1945 model. Nice!

Thanks, it has not been serviced since I bought it, so it looks a bit ratty.

But, yes, the race to keep costs down affected the unseen part to the consumer, and later to the dial materials and construction.

I could only watch it for 1:04 the guy's narration was driving me crazy.

Agreed! I watched that one, but others that pop up? No thank you!

The Smithsonian has posted an interesting story regarding President Abraham Lincoln’s pocket watch. This may be old news to our American brethren, but others might find it a good read.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/lincolns-pocket-watch-reveals-long-hidden-message-57066665/

publish date is 2009 unless I am missing some update to the story, but fascinating if true.

An interesting item in Forbes about the Breguet watch owned by George III of England who was instrumental in seeing that John Harrison was finally paid what he was owed.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/katema...2-million-london-bidding-war/?sh=6a2ba659256b

In an earlier post in this thread, I uploaded images of a badly rusted Keystone Howard series 5 that I rescued for a friend. That was the first of those watches I had ever seen. The parts movement that replaced the rusted one was the second of that model I had ever seen. I quite liked this model of Keystone Howard, and I resolved to eventually acquire one.

I joined NAWCC IN 1984. In one of the first NAWCC Mart publications, I read about a Canadian member who had series 5 for sale. I bought it. Had I seen the watch in the flesh, I might have had second thoughts. This watch might well have been used by a railroader, because the gold filled finish was worn through to the brass in a few places.

However, I decided to live with it. Later, I turned the case over to a goldsmith friend who electroplated it for me. But the plating only lasted for a year or two, even though I wasn’t wearing the watch. I still have it. And since then I have acquired a series 7, a series 11, another series 5, and an original E Howard series VII hunter model.

Earlier in this thread, I posted a story about a CPR engineer who lost his life in 1912, in a head on collision with another train, in central British Columbia. I showed a picture of his series 5 Howard which was retrieved from the wreck, and presented to his mother at his funeral. Mine is the same model, different case.

Here is the skinny on my Howard.

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/e.-howard-watch-co.-keystone/1108822