Vintage Pocket Watches

vintage pocket watches

Vintage pocket watches, such as Railroad models by Waltham, Rockford, Elgin and Hamilton, and Illionois, are more than simply a hobby. Many models of these uniquely American time pieces often sell for thousands of dollars at auction, making them wise investments, as well as beautiful pieces of history.

Railroad watches are not only popular with collectors in the United States — antique watch enthusiasts from Europe and Asia are also actively buying up these pieces of Americana. Because of the limited number of railroad watches produced, they are becoming increasingly rare.

Other pocket watches manufactured in the 1800′s and early 1900′s, such as Waltham and Hampden, were mass-produced. Even so, these pocket watches are also valued by many collectors and antique jewelry enthusiasts.

The Railroad Pocket Watch – A Brief History

Why was the railroad watch developed?

By Roger L Smith

railroad pocket watch

To understand how important the railroad watch was, first we need to know a little about the railroad. By 1880 there were thousands of miles of track and hundreds of trains sharing these tracks at the same time. To be sure that no two trains met in the wrong direction, time was of great importance.

In those days there was no time standard, each city and town operated on their own time schedule. During this period the many railroads had 50 different time zones to manage.

The conductor of the train had to be aware of the always changing time zones to be able to avoid accidents. The railroads soon developed a standard of times zones across the country the Eastern, Central, Mountain and Pacific which was later adopted by congress as the national time standard.

However a great many accidents still happened due to inaccurate time keeping devices. In 1893 after a major accident claiming several lives, a standard for the manufacture of watches for railroad use was presented.