INTRODUCTION : Pocket watches have been an important part of modern civilization and developments in the watch world. Ever since the 16th Century, they have been an integral part of male fashion. These small, round timepieces represented...
Many European-made pocket watches have a wealth of information written on the dust cover and/or movement. Unfortunately, not only are the words often in a foreign language such as French, they are often highly idiomatic and not in common usage today. Many novice...
Early clocks were powered by heavy weights attached to long chains. Every day the weight was returned to the top of the clock, and throughout the day gravity pulled the weight down, thereby causing the gears to move. Unfortunately, this only worked if the clock was...
For much of human history, precise timekeeping simply wasn’t that big of a deal. Aside from the fact that there wasn’t any way to keep accurate time thousands of years ago, there simply wasn’t the need to do so. Early cultures that were based on agriculture worked as...
With many old pocket watches, it is difficult or even impossible to determine the exact date of production. In many cases, especially with lower grade European watches that were marketed under a variety of names, it is often impossible to even determine who the true...
American Waltham Watch Company (Waltham, MA. 1851-1957) Also commonly referred to as the “Waltham Watch Company,” the American Waltham Watch Company was the first company to mass produce watches in America and is generally considered to be the most important American...
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t get e-mail from somebody wanting my help in identifying an old pocket watch that they just bought or inherited. Often the person includes a ton of detail about the watch, but at the same time fails to give me the information I...
Although silver isn't nearly as valuable as gold, it's still nice to know if your watch is in a silver case or just a silver-colored case. Watch cases made in Europe were often stamped with hallmarks to guarantee that they were silver, but this was not the case [no...
For obvious reasons, it's important to know whether your watch is in a solid gold case or whether it is merely gold-filled or gold plated [“gold-filled” consists of a base metal such as brass sandwiched between two thin layers of gold]. The only way to be absolutely...
Many collectors feel that American watchmaking reached its pinnacle with the invention of the railroad watch. In an effort to meet the stringent and rigorous demands of the railroads, where the incorrect time could and did prove disastrous, American watchmakers were...
Many pocket watches state that they are “adjusted” to temperature and to a number of positions. This basically means that they have been specially calibrated to maintain the same accuracy under a variety of conditions. A watch that has been adjusted to temperature...
A watch movement mostly consists of a number of gears [called “wheels”] held in place by an upper and a lower plate. Each wheel has a central shaft [called an “arbor”] running through it, the ends of which fit into holes in the plates. If you have a metal shaft in a...