The Russian Mosin Nagant Forum

Just picked this watch up at the watchmaker today. It’s a Ball railroad standard watch made in 1921 by the American Waltham Watch Company.


Standard Ball Official Railroad Standard watch dial.


Waltham Model 1899 movement with the interchangeable gold plug. Different plugs could be used to customize the watch movement for the different railroad unions. The jewel settings are 8k yellow gold. Most high end watches had gold settings. Really high end watches had raised gold jewel settings like this one does. High end watches also usually had a gold center wheel (the big gear seen in the center of the watch movement) like this one does.


This is a Ball Model case made for the Ball Watch Company by the Keystone Watch Case Company. Ball started casing watches at their company around 1900. The cases were marked Ball Model and the absence of a Ball Model case usually has a negative effect on value if the watch should be in a Ball Model case. This case is 14k white gold filled and is original to the watch.


Plain rear case cover-sometimes the case had an image stamped or engraved.

Hard to believe the watch is 103 years old, the dial and all looks so clean/crisp that you'd think it was made recently.

It just goes to show/prove that:

A) Things were made better or to last back then.
B) People took better care of their things back then.

Believe it. A railroad watch was a railroad man or woman’s prize possession and a piece of safety equipment he or she didn’t leave home without. The American watch manufacturers mastered the technology of mass production. Henry Ford is generally credited with inventing the modern assembly line, but he got his ideas from studying the mass production processes developed by the American Waltham Watch Company.

It's not uncommon for RR grade movements to be found today in non RR cases as the original case might have worn out or the owner retired and wanted to fancy things up a bit.

A couple of examples:





This is my Hamilton 944. It is in its original case and has the wear to prove it was a working man’s watch.





This is my Ball Hamilton 999A. It would have originally left the Ball Watch Company in a Ball Model case. However, the owner was a proud member of the Order of Railway Conductors and upgraded his watch with a union watch case made for the ORC by Dueber Watch Case Company. The case by itself is worth at least $300 and probably much more. In my years of collecting, I’ve only seen one other union watch case made by Dueber. It was for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Engineers. These were sold to union members through the union magazines.