Pocket Watches and Others

[Tmuir]

I promised to post these up a few weeks ago, but have only just got the pictures off the camera.

The first photo is of most of my pocket watches or movements, other than the two in the top row from the left which are workers, all the others are movements I have purchased at different times for me to learn on.

The Waltham is a 15 jewel 16s garde 620 model 1908 for those interested.

The Silver Fusee watch is a English lever hallmarked Chester Assay Office 1888 - 1889 with the makers mark RJP, which going by Jacksons Silver and Gold marks book was most likely R.J. Pike from Coventry.

The rest of the movements are in varying states of disrepair either waiting on me to learn the skills to fix, or were purchased just to practice on.

My 3 non pocket watches worth mentions are in the 4th photo, a 1940s Bulova that is in lovely condition, I think its the Senator model and a genuine trench watch in a silver Dennison case hallmarked Birmingham 1917 - 1918 which needs some TLC and a womens watch in working condition in the trench watch style in a sterling silver case with  London import hallmarks dated 1922 - 1923.

If anyone is interested I can take more photos of any of the other movements

[WillFly]

Some nice things there - I particularly like the Waltham Grade 620 and the Bulova, which reminds me of my Hamilton Durham...

 

[Tmuir]

Yes I think Waltham is my favourite brand of pocket watch, maybe because good ones can be had that fall within my price range, or I just haven't seen enough other brands.

The Waltham used to be my every day watch for a number of years as I used to live and work in the outback of Australia in the heat and humidity and I developed a bad allergy to being able to wear any type of wristwatch, so for some time I wore a pocket watch every day until phones got good enough to replace it and then I still wore my pocket watch when I went out and didn't want to carry a phone.

Thankfully I can now wear wristwatches again.

I'm guessing the Hamilton is of similar vintage to the Bulova which is a lovely looking watch, but styles have changed and its too small for me to be able to read the time now without wearing my glasses.

[WillFly]

Waltham made some excellent movements. My favourite is the Ball-Waltham - one of the first certified railroad grade pocket watches. Essentially, Webb C. Ball had responsibility for ensuring the accuracy of RR grade watches, and Waltham was one of those companies - like Hamilton - that were "certified" by  Ball. I won't bore you with detail  because you can read all about it here:

http://www.pocketwatchrepair.com/histories/ball.html

Here's my own Ball-Waltham from 1903:

 

[Tmuir]

Nice, I don't own any railroad grade watches, but they are on my list to own, I worked for our government railway a number of years back so have a soft spot for railroad items and have a few things around the house and I'm still on the lookout for a WAGR fusee clock, but my budget has never been big enough when one has turned up.

[digginstony]

Walthams are very under valued, certainly in the UK. Sort of nonsense I hear is "Walthams are machine made and mass produced " yet there Swiss or English counterpart are somehow "Handmade " exclusive and of excellence " What utter nonsense! Do these people honestly believe these guys sit at a bench with a block of steel and produce a watch.
Yes Walthams were produced using machine shop methods, in large numbers but even these require a certain amount of " Hand finishing "
I believe a high grade Waltham movement is on par with any other Watch Maker of the period.
My favourite pocket watch (Movement) that I own is a Waltham P S Bartlett 17 jewel made circa 1915.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

[WillFly]

You're absolutely right. Until the Swiss domination of the wristwatch market from the 1950s - followed by the quartz revolution - American watch movememts were some of the best in the world. Elgin, Hamilton, Waltham and others had brought the art of mechanical, hand-wound, machine watch manufacture to a high point.

Will