From a recent newsletter sent by Nick Hacko, an Aussie watchmaker. I found it rather interesting that he was impressed by a 90 year old pocket watch, but then again, so am I.
***What do watchmakers do on a rainy Tuesday morning?
A couple of things. First, we admired one of the most beautifully executed bridge layout movements of all times: a 1930’s Ball pocket watch. This one was made for architects! Superbly inspirational.
I mentioned this thread to my wife, and magically 2 pocket watches appeared on my desk. I think she had inherited these over the years. The Elgin "sort of works" and the Illinois seems to be working and keeping adequate time. Interesting find.....
That Illinois is a great find.
This one is not a railroad chronometer but it's a very nice watch all the same. Illinois was one of the better US watch makers around and they built some very high grade watches.
Believe it or not US railroad specs were just as rigourous as the COSC, to be considered a railroad grade movement it could not have a variation of greater than thirty seconds in a week, which is a tad over four a day, and they had to be adjusted to five positions and temp. The movement had to have a micrometer regulator assignment, double roller escapement, and a Breguet balance spring. So don't feel bad that yours isn't railroad grade.
Ball Official Railroad Standard, 16-size, 21-jewels, movement produced for Ball Watch Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, by the Hamilton Watch Co., Lancaster Pa. Basically, it’s a Hamilton 992 produced to Ball specs, shipped to Ball where final adjusting and testing was completed. This case is a Ball “20th Century” case with the patented stirrup safety bow. The 20th century model was a 23-jewel model. So while this movement is in a Ball case, the case is not original to the movement.
In answer to OMTOM’s post about the scarcity of Omegas in this pocket watch thread, here’s one. The dial is marked Louis Brandt & freres which was the name of Omega before the name was changed to Omega. This watch is a 19-jewel grade CCR which was railroad approved in Canada. I have a suspicion that the Brandt name was used for these watches so they could be sold to railroad watch inspectors who weren’t Omega dealers. Omega produced 16 and 18 size railroad watches for railroad use, perhaps some of the 18 size ones having been produced before the name change to Omega. So it could be the Brandt name was also used on all the railroad grade models of both sizes, to continue the tradition. The 16-size, 19-jewel version was the CCR grade, and the 23-jewel version was the CCCR. The 19-jewel version of the 18-size models was DR, and the 23-jewel version was the DDR. I have two of these CCRs, this one being the nicer of the two. The other CCR that I have is a private label for A. Logan & Co., a jeweller and railroad watch inspector in Greenwood, B. C., just e few miles north of the 49th parallel.
