How to Start Your Antique Pocket Watches Collection
A vintage watch from Elgin or Waltham is more than just a collectible accessory. It's a triumph of miniaturization and craftsmanship worn on a silver chain. Springs drive gears on jewel bearings that keep everything running smoothly after being wound once a day. Looking on eBay, you can find new or pre-owned watches made of sterling silver or even gold-filled antiques. Naturally, those still in the original box are even more desirable. You can even put one in your pocket, and enjoy the feeling of walking around with a vintage Swiss pocket watch. There are American watches, English watches, and even continental examples. While antiques are never new, the term captures the imagination in a way that refurbished, pre-owned, or even used could never do.
How Do You Describe Antique Pocket Watches?
When it comes to antique pocket watches there are a number of different ways to describe them; the material is either silver or yellow gold and the case and covers vary. You can also refer to the number of jewels in the movement. Because the covers are so easily visible, they form one of the easiest ways to describe antique pocket watches.
Wadsworth Pilot Case Serial Numbers
There are three basic varieties to consider:
NOTE: The Illinois Watch Company should not be confused with the Illinois Watch Case Company of Elgin, Illinois. The Illinois Watch Case Company was a major manufacture in the city of Elgin, Illinois.
Wadsworth Pocket Watch Case Serial Numbers
- Open Face: Open faced vintage pocket watches don't have a cover at all. They are easy to read, but the crystal can be fragile. This design was required for railroad use.
- Hunter: The opposite of open face, these watches feature a full cover that completely protects the face against damage. Many have beautiful illustrations and offer space for a picture inside. The double variant adds a rear cover so that you can either view the mechanism in back or stand the watch up on a flat surface.
- Half Hunter: This variant offers either a hole or a smaller crystal in the middle of the cover so that you can see the dial without opening the watch. It can also be found in both single and double cover variants.
What about the Railroad Pocket Watch?
The simplest way to describe a railroad watch is to say that it meets the standards set by one or more railroad companies. It's a simple description, but for most collectors there is a little more involved than saying a watch is railroad grade because the standard changed over time. Despite that there are a few features you can look for when trying to decide on a pocket watch or a railroad watch:
- Jewels: Early railroad watches relied on 15-jewel movements, but this was soon superseded as Hampden introduced a jewel race which quickly raised the minimum allowed by standard to 19 jewels and some of the later models had as many as 23.
- Accuracy:Railroad watches had to keep accuracy to within 30 seconds per week; they also had to be temperature compensated so that they didn't gain or lose time due to the changing conditions as trains crossed the country.
- Size:As well as being open designs without covers, all railroad watches were also required to fit either the American standard 18-size or 16-size. The dial had to be white, with black Arabic numerals.
- Mechanism: They all had to be double-roller, lever-set designs with a steel escape wheel.
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