Railroad Watches

[awalker1829]

I’ve most recently been building up a collection of railroad grade pocket watches. I had a small collection years ago but sold it all off. Right now I’ve got about nineteen watches, of which seventeen work.



This is my Elgin BW Raymond 18 size 15 jewel Model 2 Grade 70. It is my oldest watch, made in 1883. I just got it back today from my watchmaker. A couple of months ago I sent it in for cleaning, oiling and rate adjustment. When it came back from the shop, I noticed that the hour and minute hand would get out of synch. So back to the shop it went. Discussed the issue with the watchmaker and concluded that something was wrong with either the hour wheel, the minute wheel or the canon pinion. So I went on eBay and bought a non functional Model 2 Grade 70 movement for parts. It also had a minute hand that matched my hour hand, so the mismatched minute hand was changed along with the other parts. Now it works just fine.





This is my 18 size 21 jewel Ball Model 999A made in 1906. Instead of being in a proper Ball Model case, it is in a case made by the Dueber Case Company for the Order of Railway Conductors. This case was used by the union as a prize for recruitment of new members. The Ball Watch Company did not manufacture watches but sold watches made for them by other watch manufacturers. The 999 series watches were made for Ball by the Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.






This is my 16 size 23 jewel Waltham Vanguard Model 1899 made in 1904. The center wheel, regulator star and raised jewel settings are made of gold. This was common on high grade watches, particularly railroad watches. This watch has a custom case made of brass with a 1921 Morgan silver dollar set into the case back. Whoever made this watch case knew what they were doing-that required a lot of skill.

As of now, there are approximately 1,800 professional watchmakers in the USA. A watchmaker is also a clockmaker, but not all clockmakers are watchmakers. The National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors runs a trade school that trains the watch and clockmakers of tomorrow on those arts. I am fortunate that we have a good watchmaker in Tucson. I am slowly sending all of my watches in for cleaning, oiling and adjustment. A watch that is used daily should have that done every two years. That type of work is very time consuming, requiring the watch to be completely disassembled, run through a watch cleaning machine, reassembled with any necessary repairs made and then tested on a timing machine to set the rate at which the watch runs. Most watchmakers charge anywhere from $150-200 dollars just for the cleaning, oiling and adjustment-repairs drive the cost up more. I’ve got four watches in the shop right now. Two of them have been in the shop going on three months now-the watchmaker has been so busy running the retail side of the shop that he sometimes is prevented from getting any time at his bench to do cleanings or heavy repairs.

[Junk Yard Dog]

They are something aren't they? I have been collecting vintage pocket watches for many years, the workmanship is superb, and the US watch making industry led the world at the end of the 19th century. The Swiss would copy US designs and produce the cheap knockoffs back then.I only recently found a good local watchmaker and had four watches taken care of. He's $250 for the service, $225 in my case because I was doing four at a time. That included cleaning and new mainsprings, and one balance staff. Of course he had to go injure himself doing something not watch related or he would have the next four by now. Great collection

[awalker1829]

They are pieces of workmanship. This is only a small sample of the watches I have. My watchmaker charges just under $200 for a cleaning and does a good job. He was going to become the local watch inspector for the Southern Pacific Railroad here in Tucson, but they abolished the position before he could get in the program. I'm constantly feeding him a stream of watches to be cleaned and oiled or repaired. Right now he has one of my Hamilton 18 size, 17 jewel Grade 936s. This one has a pretty low serial number-10263. it was made in 1895. it was running erratically and we discovered that the lower pivot of the balance staff was bent. That means a new balance staff is required. He's working on cutting the new staff, but doesn't know if he'll have it ready by Saturday. Normally during the weekdays, it's just him and another watchmaker running the shop. He gets enough traffic through the door that some days, he doesn't have time to do work on the bench. Anyways, I have a South Bend 16 size 21 jewel Grade 227 ready for pickup.

I've also made a deal to purchase a railroad standard clock. The standard clock was the clock with which railroaders were required to compare their watches to when going on duty. This one is a Self Winding Clock Company of New York model that came out of a California railroad facility. The seller is a fellow member of our local National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors chapter and is currently repairing the clock. It has a nice wooden case and the required STANDARD CLOCK sign affixed to it.