Pocket Watches - Information for the Layman
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We have sold a slew of pocket watches over the years so I thought I knew a little something about them. Well, as it turns out, I pretty much know nothing about them. After several hours of research, what I do know is that the world of pocket watches is exceedingly complicated. Whew! Reading a medical journal about a complicated surgical procedure written by a surgeon for other surgeons is easier to comprehend.

The best we can do is to present you with just the basics concerning pocket watches. Of course this will not be helpful to the experienced collector but it will provide the novice with the necessary fundamentals. We've learned when it comes to pocket watches, you need to take baby steps and start out small. Upon reading this, maybe you will develop an interest in pocket watches and will want to learn more. That's how collectors are born!

Jewels

I personally love talking about anything that has to do with jewels! When it comes to a pocket watch, for the most part, the more jewels that it has inside the more expensive the piece. Pocket watches with no jewels were less expensive than those with jewels. You may find pocket watches without jewels in some collections but they are usually not the stars of the show. The exception to this would be the oldest pocket watches, watches made before the use of jewels were even considered. Collectors would be interested in these watches because of their age, not necessarily their value.

Why use jewels when you aren't even able to see them? As a female, this is a concept that is completely foreign to me. But that is not the case when it comes to pocket watches. As most people know, the inner workings of any watch include a series of gears. Both an upper and a lower plate of sorts guard these gears. Each of the gears has a rod running through it that connects the gear to the plates via small holes. Metal on metal will eventually cause wear and tear on these parts. To prevent this, the manufacturers placed tiny jewels at the end of the metal shafts to keep them away from the metal holes. The majority of the jewels used in this process were rubies, diamonds and sapphires.

By the middle of the 18th century, jewels had become common place in the manufacturing of pocket watches. The majority of watches offered more than 5 but less than 10 jewels. Watches with a higher jewel count were considered to be of higher quality. The better quality pocket watches had a jewel count as high as 21. There were also some really sophisticated timepieces, not all of which were pocket watches, that required even more jewels.

It is important to note that someone could have two pocket watches of the same quality but one of them could have more jewels than the other. Sometimes extra jewels were added to a watch even though they did not necessarily perform a function. In such cases, these extra jewels would have absolutely no effect on the performance of the watch. Also, when looking at the workings of pocket watches, not all jewels are visible. Two watches could appear to have the same jewel count but one of them could have additional jewels that are hidden where you can't see them.

Pocket Watch Sizes

In order to properly measure the size a pocket watch one must take off the bezel and crystal. The bezel is the metal ring that holds the crystal in place. Needless to say, you must be careful not to damage either of these pieces. After these are removed, you will then be in direct contact with the actual dial of the pocket watch. Under the dial is a plate and it is the measurement of this plate that determines the actual size of the watch. You could just measure the dial and get an approximate size but to do it right you must measure the actual plate.

The most common pocket watch sizes are 0, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20. What do these numbers mean? For American pocket watches, the Lancashire gauge is used to determine size. A base measurement had to originally be determined as the point at which to start and that measurement was 1-5/30 inches. Since this was the base measurement, it was considered zero - also referred to as "naught." Every 1/30 of an inch adds one number in the Lacashire formula.

Here is a basic list:

0 Size = 1-5/30 inches
6 Size = 1-11/30 inches
8 Size = 1-13/30 inches
10 Size = 1-15/30 inches
12 Size = 1-17/30 inches
14 Size = 1-19/30 inches
16 Size = 1-21/30 inches
18 Size = 1-23/30 inches
20 Size = 1-25/30 inches

In addition to the Lancashire gauge there is a second sizing standard that was used by the Swiss. It was called "Ligne" and was based on the decimal system. Ligne measurements are in millimeters.

Materials

Over the years, pocket watches have been made from many different metals to include gold, gold-filled, coin silver, nickel, brass and pot metal. The very first pocket watches were made of steel. We are going to briefly discuss gold and gold-filled because this is where the most costly mistakes are made.

There are actually four gold choices - real gold, gold-filled, rolled gold and gold-plated. The only way to be sure that a watch is made of real gold is to have it tested by a jeweler. You cannot always rely on a watch's markings. Today, there are kits available that will allow dishonest people to falsely stamp gold marks on items that are not gold at all.

Most everyone is familiar with the common 10K, 14K and 18K markings of real gold. Some earlier watches may have been stamped 10K or 14K without the term "gold-filled" added to the karat designation. Some watches may just show the word "filled" after the karat designation. Others will just indicate "Guaranteed 5 Years", "Guaranteed 10 Years" and so forth. Such guarantees refer to gold-filled. The longer the guarantee in years, the more gold used on the watch. The guarantee tells you how long a watch was supposed to maintain its gold content before wearing off. Rolled gold was usually never guaranteed for longer than 5 years because of the thinness of the applied gold.

When you see a karat designation followed by "Warranted US Assay" or just "US Assay" it means the pocket watch is real gold, not gold-filled.

Pocket watches from Europe will usually have their gold content marked in decimals. 10K gold is the equivalent of .417, 14K gold is .585 and 18K gold is .750.

Styles of Pocket Watches

There are two main styles of pocket watches - hunter case pocket watches and open-faced pocket watches.

A hunter case pocket watch has a circular hinged metal lid that closes over the crystal to protect it from damage. Some hunter cases are rather plain while others have quite elaborate designs. The hinges are usually attached at the 9:00 mark and the stem is usually located at 3:00.

An open-faced pocket watch is only protected by the crystal covering the dial. The stem appears at 12:00. Occasionally you might come across an open-faced pocket watch with the stem located at 3:00. This type of pocket watch is called a sidewinder.

Types of Movements

Key-wind. These pocket watches required a key to wind them and they were manufactured until the late 1800's.

Crown-wind/Crown-set. The development of this type did away with the key-wind version. It was developed in the 1850's. This is the most common type of pocket watch.

Crown-wind/Lever-set. Setting this type of watch required opening the bezel and crystal in order to pull out the lever. Once the time was set, the lever was pushed back inside. After a certain period of time, this was the only type of watch considered acceptable for railroad workers. This movement prevented someone from changing the time accidentally.

Crown-wind/Pin-set. This movement is similar to that of the crown-wind/lever-set movement. A small pin near the stem or crown must be depressed in order to set the time and then released after.

Adjusted Movements

Pocket watches can be calibrated or "adjusted" to a number of positions as well as to temperature, usually from 34 degrees to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. This means that when a watch experiences the different conditions for which it was adjusted it will continue to keep time properly. For example, if a watch is adjusted for a particular position, it will keep accurate time when held in that position. A pocket watch may be adjusted for any of six positions:

Stem up
Stem down
Stem left
Stem right
Dial up
Dial down

Many pocket watches can also be adjusted for what is called isochronism. This means that the watch will maintain consistent time while its mechanism is winding down.

Railroad Watches

Railroad pocket watches were unsurpassed in quality and time keeping beginning in the late 1800's. They ultimately became the most famous of all the pocket watches. A deadly train crash between Lake Shore Railroad and Michigan Southern Railway in 1891 was attributed to a single pocket watch not keeping proper time.

By 1893, the "General Railroad Timepiece Standards" had been written and put into effect. These standards were designed to make sure that two trains would never again end up at exactly the same place at exactly the same time - the ultimate death sentence. A man named Webb C. Ball who was the time inspector for the railroad system in North America developed these watch standards.

American watch companies accepted the challenge and those who were able to develop pocket watches that met the new standards became the approved watch vendors for America's railroads. Railroad workers were not allowed to purchase any other pocket watches, only the official railroad pocket watches made by such companies as Waltham, Elgin and Hamilton. Waltham and Elgin made the most RR pocket watches with Hamilton coming in third.

There were specific guidelines concerning adjustments, repairs and inspections and these guidelines remained in place until the 1960's. The Hamilton Watch Company made the very last American railroad pocket watch in 1969.

Here are some of the railroad standards that were etched in stone so long ago:

Railroad watches had to be open-faced.
Sizes 16 or 18 only.
Had to have a minimum of 17 jewels.
Watches had to be adjusted to at least 5 of the 6 available positions.
Could only have a gain or loss of 30 seconds per week.
Watches had to be adjusted for temperature.
Watch stems had to be at 12:00.
Dials had to be simplistic - black numbers on a white background.

In the late 1930's, some of these standards were updated. Railroad pocket watches could only be size 16, they had to have 19 jewels and they had to have lever-set movements. Lever-set movements removed some of the concerns over possible human error. With a lever-set movement, the time could not be changed by mistake.

There are some pocket watches out there that appear to be railroad watches but are only decorated as such. In order for a pocket watch to be a RR watch, it has to meet the standards that were set by the railroads.

Most Famous American Pocket Watch Manufacturers

Waltham (American Watch Company)
Elgin (National Watch Company)
Ball
Hamilton
Howard
Illinois
Hampden

The last one standing was the Hamilton Watch Company.

We salute all those that are serious collectors of pocket watches. In this article we didn't even skim the surface of what someone has to learn in order to be proficient in the world of pocket watches. And for those who can repair them…well, there are no words.

Written by Anne Benedetto, Auction House Talk
 All Rights Reserved

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