I am curious about your thoughts on this Hampden Pocket Watch, that I inherited. It seems to date to 1908 according to:

https://pocketwatchdatabase.com/search/result/hampden/2486674

It has a plastic crystal, would it originally had glass? I am told it is railroad grade. What is a good source for a fob to go with it?

I seem to recall @Mad Dog is a pocket watch guy.

 

As I read it, by 1908, a railroad approved watch would have to have had the name of the manufacture of the movement, on the dial. John Dueber was a watch case maker who produced cases for many American watch manufacturers. Dueber earned the disfavour of many of the American watch manufacturers, and they quit buying his cases. So Dueber needed an outlet for his cases, so he bought the financially struggling Hampden Watch Co. You showed a lot of Hampden watches in your link. Please post a picture specifically of yours so we might make a judgement. I think that pretty well all American watch manufacturers of anything but the cheapest watches would have used glass crystals.

 

I forget to include the photos when I first posted, but quickly edited. Maybe if you reload you will see them. Thank you for the history . . .

 

Really amazing that the watch is 111 years old. Is it running?

 

It runs. I have not used it regularly, so I am uncertain if it keeps time well. It has a cool story. My dad worked in a jewelry store as a young man, and this was a customer's watch. The customer was a railway guy and had used the watch for work. My dad had always admired the watch and at some point the customer gave it to him. It is quite likely I am the 3rd owner of this 111 year old watch.

 

Hampden did make some models that were railroad approved. With the Hampden dial and the Dueber movement, yours may not be considered railroad approved, but it could very well be railroad grade. That is, having most of what railroads might demand, but not quite enough to be railroad approved. On the other hand, some railroads tended to pick and choose what features they would let slide by. CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) accepted 17-jewel, 3-position adjustments, and stem set watches, (not lever set necessarily), well into the 20th century.

 

Yours is a very nice PW but not RR approved as stated.

Fobs and chains are readily available at ebay, vintage and new.

Here’s some info






And mine which was RR approved that I placed in a rare Dueber-Hampden display case.

 

Thanks for all of this. It is still unclear to me if the story I was told could be true. That is could this watch have been used on the job by a railway man? It would have been in the Northwest US, likely the Great Northern Railway.

 

As I stated in an earlier post in this thread, railroads often did approve the use of watches that were railroad grade, but not railroad approved. I gave an example of the Canadian Pacific Railway. I think the fact that the dial is marked Hampden, and the movement marked Dueber, might have meant it did not meet the standards of that era. But I think it might otherwise be considered railroad grade. If you could locate a copy of the time service rules for the Great Northern Railway that were in effect in that era, it might help determine if the watch could have been approved for use on their system. I think you have every right to believe what you were told, but the acid test for the story you were told would likely be the GNR time service rules.

 

I appreciate your response, clears things up.

 

I would say, no, it would not have had an exemption from the rules, your pw is a middling grade watch and would have been a good watch just not good enough to be authorized by a RR Line.

For the times, a very good watch. 99% of Americans would not have carried this quality. Too expensive.

 

It is adjusted to 5 positions, lever set, patent regulator, temperature compensated, and the John C Dueber grade is listed as approved. I contend that SOME railroads may have accepted it.

 

I am...however, I don’t have the knowledge base that @Canuck , @TexOmega , @Fritz and @JimInOz have...I just like American railroad grade pocket watches and own/wear ten railroad grade machines from Elgin, Hamilton, Illinois and Waltham.

 

A statement I would completely agree with. It ticks all the right boxes and could very well have been accepted, especially if the jeweller who originally sold it was the service point for railway watches in that particular railway town and a Hampden dealer.