Day 19 WRUW Wednesday October 19 Wear A Pocket Watch

[cd_god]

It is October 19th (somewhere)

Day 19 of the October WRUW daily theme.

Today's theme is “Wear a pocket watch”

Pocket watches were the original take it on the go timepieces.

Of course originally only the "Haves" owned one.

Wrist watches didn't come out until WWI when it wasn't convenient for soldiers to keep pulling out a pocket watch in the heat of battle.

The first wrist watches were SMALL and the military WWI trench watches had metal guards over the face.

I don't get why they had open face pocket watches back in the day when they didn't have sapphire crystals.

I get the concept of Hunter Cases and Double Hunter Cases with the protective covers.

Looking on Ebay at used pocket watches over the years a lot of the base metal gold plated case covers show a lot of wear even when protected in a pocket.

They didn't do stainless steel back then.

Gold and fake gold was all the craze back then.

If you hate fake gold like I do the best you could do was a Nickel or Sterling Silver case.

So let's see your pocket watches.

A wrist watch carried in your pocket does not count.

A fob watch with a belt loop clip MIGHT count.

[tempelkim]

Seiko 6102-0010 from December 1969. The case is Palladium plated.

[leffemonster]

My only Seiko pocket watch is this 6602-9010 from May ‘72 -



I wear it on a silver snake chain watch Albert with a St. Christopher charm.



30 years ago when I was in Scotland I used to wear a waistcoat to work every day and my watch then was this Crossior Geneve, powered by a Unitas 6498 movement.



I wear this one on a .925 sterling silver double curb watch Albert.



The fob is a .925 silver florin (2 shillings) minted in 1915 during the reign of King George V. In 1911 the reverse of the florin regained the shields and sceptre design used in the Victorian era, and this remained on the reverse until 1937.





And especially for Josh -





30 years ago it would never have been this tarnished… Clearly, I need to get the Cape Cod out!

I’ve also got this 18-jewel Russian Molnija railroad-style pocket watch that belonged to my late father. It was always on a wooden watch stand on a chest of drawers in his bedroom, and he wound it religiously every day. I continue his tradition, and it now resides on the same wooden stand but on my work bench.

[inboost]

From my Great Grandparents, a his and hers pocket watch set by the Stewart Dawson Company out of Liverpool. Interestingly the larger is dial marked T. E. Weisener of Sydney but the movement is clearly a Dawson. My greater family history is of Australian decent so this makes some sense to me. As you can see he wore his a lot and she did not. The larger of the two worked at some point in my vague recollection of receiving these when I was a young man, but now it's fully wound and halted. The balance does swing freely but it will need my attention to get going again. The smaller runs beautifully and has been keeping good time. Please excuse my most unsophisticated chain. The guys with the vests and the chains should get extra points in the contest today!

[rossr]

Gadzooks! Is that the time!

Skyliners are popular.

[russtmurray]

Can't really help you there because this pocket watch remains with the family back east in a safety deposit box. It's the watch that was temporarily affixed to the instrument panel of my dad's Hawker Typhoon that he flew in WWII.



It would mount in a rubber sleeve in position 31A

[69ChevelleSS]

I do have one pocket watch but sadly it is inoperable.  I tried to get it fixed but was not successful.  It's an art deco watch from a small jeweler in NYC that used an IWC movement.  14K case!  Took the watch to IWC "salon" in NYC as I was told they can repair any of the movements they have ever made.  

I was VERY disappointed when they came back and said they would not fix it because it was a "counterfeit".  They said this because the dial was NOT an IWC dial.  They probably just didn't want to work on it because either they didn't have the skills in house (to make the parts).  I'm pretty sure they have records and could have tracked the movement based on the serial number which would have shown it was sold to a private jeweler who cased it, dialed it and sold it under his name.

At this point, I still have a tiny bit of hope.  I could try to find an identical IWC movement (type 77) but they're not easy to find and kind of expensive!

[Myles]

This was my father's mother's father's watch. It's a 15-jewel Elgin from around 1911. My great grandfather was an immigrant from Oviedo, Spain who worked in a paper mill and did a little private investigation on the side. He was killed in a mill accident when my grandmother was 3 years old. My uncle seems to think there was foul play related to one of his investigations, but my uncle is a bit of a drama queen, so take that with a grain of salt.

[Myles]

Oct 19, 2022 6:21:47 GMT -8 69ChevelleSS said:

I do have one pocket watch but sadly it is inoperable.  I tried to get it fixed but was not successful.

Did you try International Watch Works? They got my Elgin working.

[scubarob99]

A Movado and a Longines, both belonged to my grandfathers and both date to be pre 1930 based on the serial#
Not sure which one belonged to which.
I am now the keeper of what I will surely pass on to my kids.

Rob

[ouroboros]

[cd_god]

Today's Seiko golf tip of the day: look at the line of a putt from the side, to see any slope you can't see from behind the ball.

Davosa open face pocket watch with Unitas movement.

Russian pocket watch with motorcycle on it.

After the watch meetup with Noah fuller wristsushi.proboards.com/post/265353/thread a year or 2 later my local watchmaster and I and a guy from the previous meetup joined up with a couple of guys from the Watchuseek forum and we met at a small brewery and restaurant and had a private room and shared watch talk.

Yobokies and Noah Fuller and Jay from Motor City Watch Works donated some prizes to give away as well as those of use in attendance brought some stuff we didn't need anymore to give away.

We around the table and everyone kept picking something until it was all gone.

I picked up this pocket watch, a Yobokies strap, and a Yobokies Pirate dial and chapter ring for my Monster.

And of course the old post has been scrubbed from history and I can't find the pics on my old computer.

EDIT:  I found the pics online from the meetup.

[69ChevelleSS]

Oct 19, 2022 6:45:01 GMT -8 Myles said:

Oct 19, 2022 6:21:47 GMT -8 69ChevelleSS said:

I do have one pocket watch but sadly it is inoperable.  I tried to get it fixed but was not successful.

Did you try International Watch Works? They got my Elgin working.

Thanks Myles.  I've sent them an email and will see what they say.

[dapellegrini]

I don't have any cool relatives that gave me a pocket watch - something I think I need to bring up next time I see anyone over say 70 in my family...  There are some awesome pocket watches and stories today!

When I was in high school I wore a cheap pocket watch. Back then everyone wanted to be different. It seems today kids all want to be the same - strange turn if you ask me. Anyways, I can’t find that old pocket watch anywhere - still searching.

These are the two I can find:



At left is a Swatch Pop pocket watch from 1993, at right is a Hamilton 940 from 1899. More attention on the Hamilton for today's WRUW...





You have to unscrew the front glass on this Keystone branded case, then pull the crown out, then grab the small edge and 6-oclock the the whole movement and dial is on a little holder that swings out.







Apparently theses are very common for what they are. This particular one is among the first few hundred ever made. The 940’s serial numbers started at 48002, and it is not clear if all of the numbers from there until mine were used on 940’s. This one was cased in March of 1899 and sold in April of 1899 - so over 123 years ago. Here’s the line in the ledger



Taken in the right light (with crystal removed) you can still see the shadow of someone’s name that was painted on the dial - likely the original owner. Perhaps that “Harry V Paulitz”? Any one have a great-great grandfather by that name? I am told it was common back then to have your pocket watch dial painted with various images and/or your name the like. This one also appears to have a star in the sixty seconds sub-register.



The case is 10k gold filled and seems to match the watch. It runs as good or better than my most accurate wrist watches.

I always get a bit of a buzz handling objects like this that have so much history. It’s fun to imagine what experiences this watch participated in throughout several human lifetimes.

[69ChevelleSS]

Oct 19, 2022 7:46:17 GMT -8 69ChevelleSS said:

Oct 19, 2022 6:45:01 GMT -8 Myles said:

Did you try International Watch Works? They got my Elgin working.

Thanks Myles.  I've sent them an email and will see what they say.

Hey Miles,

Got an email back saying I need a pocket watch specialist and he referred to me to American Timekeeper.

[longbike]

    Aloha 
This for the WRUW today
ELGIN 12.0 
I do my own repairs so far since I have been doing Watch Collecting.
I have yet to get a .... Seiko or Citizens Pocket Watch yet.
But I do have .......WW2 Stop Watch's that I did get going.
 I have always done my own work since learning but never had one sent out yet.

A Few ,...... Pocket Watch's collected.
ELGIN -1903 12.0 Size Rose Gold / 7 - Jewel 


ELGIN 1923 12.0 Size

_______________________________________

I got a few ...... Seiko -WW2 Stop Watch Timer's




Louis

[pip]

I have a few pocket watches and related. Tend to start on this size of movement when you start watch school as they are so easy compared to normal watches. Plus I’ve gathered a few more over time.

I wore this one to the office today which has a pocket watch movement in it.


And here are a couple more…
This is as gifted to me by my dear departed neighbour.





This one I picked up at an auction recently, it is an issued watch around the end of WWII


That’ll probably do, the two most famous watch houses. I also have another Omega that is toast (a long term project) a couple of cylinder escapements, an Elgin and a couple of others.

[cd_god]

Oct 19, 2022 0:40:39 GMT -8 leffemonster said:

And especially for Josh -

You didn't have to go and get all dressed up on my behalf

[small]

Day 19 Wear a pocket watch...more like carry

Man 19 days in already. I have to say I’m glad to be back with you guys. Might just try and find some time to get back to the bench.


This particular watch is a twin. I got them both from a coworker that new I had interest in watches. He thought I could use them to practice with. I thanked him and kind of tossed them in a drawer. Fast forward to my daughter being born and I found myself needing to get her to sleep. For some reason I remembered falling asleep to the tick-tock of my grandparents Big Ben wind up alarm clock. On their wall hung this picture of a grandpa and grandson. I dug one out and wound it up. The tick-tock was not what I thought it would be but it was a novelty for her at the time.

The watch was made as far as searching can put it in the mid 60’s so this could also be tomorrows watch and since it was also day 16’s watch that would make it a triple word score!!! (three times all the words I bore you with) Mabe I save some for tomorrow? When I did pop the back off again today, I noticed that this was actually serviced at one point as the screws have marks from assembly and disassembly. Who’d work on such an inexpensive watch? It is a style 3. Seems Westclox was making these from the time of the depression in 1929 all the way up and in to the 80’s? Pretty good run. The other in my mind comparable and one that has more “history”, Is the watch that made the dollar bill famous. While this was a dollar watch too. It seemed Ingersoll earned the reputation. They actually market watch made by a clock company, Waterbury Clock Company, in 1910 they were making 3.5m watches a year for them! My google-fu s n the fritz because I couldn’t find out much about my Bulls Eye.

I carried this in my pocket with all the other EDC and really felt like Denise today.

Can’t say I took it out to tell time, and felt naked since I didn’t bring a wrist watch to work...I have some there so not to worry.

The Painting is a reproduction (until I can track down and buy the original) Claudio Rinaldi, Italian 1852-1909. His paintings come up at auction from time to time but I’ve never seen this particular one... Most of his paintings have some pretty expressive features...This picture was compromised in the fire. They Reprinted it and I like the original better. You see my grandmother tried to sell the picture in a garage sale years ago. I gave her the $5 and hung it on my wall. Years later she saw it hanging in the bedroom. She told me how bad she felt because my older brother asked about it and she told him she sold it. She just didn’t remember it was to me! My mom asked if there could be a copy made (before the fire) I said I'd look in to it, never really did. I don’t care for my brother very much, so I got this back from the "restorers" I gave him the copy and kept the original.

[Rod]

My Father bought this from an antique shop in the 1970's and that's all i know about it! The fob chain is pewter and the watch 14c Gold.