Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Hamilton Railroad Pocket Watch, 1938
- Maker / attribution
- Hamilton (maker)
- Date
- 1938
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Stock no.
- 39131648
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, Analog/Shift (39131648)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Hamilton Railroad Pocket Watch (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Analog/Shift (dealer), New York (stock number 39131648), this is a pocket watch by Hamilton, made in Switzerland, dated 1938. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Pocket Watches collection. The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Dealer description — Analog/Shift
Sure, Analog:Shift is a business built around the love of watches — mostly mechanical watches. But, in essence, it’s our love for timepieces and timekeeping in general that are the common themes throughout the items we procure. And that includes the love of clocks in general: pocket watches, travel clocks, and more. After all, in the couple hundred years before the First World War, personal timekeeping was all about the pocket watch, and before that, it was larger clocks that were front and center, horologically. We still believe a good clock — such as a classic travel model from the 1920s or 1930s — has a place in the watch lover’s collection. But what we have here is special: this is an incredible Hamilton gold filled pocket watch with a classic railroad style enamel dial and subsisidiary seconds register. This piece is accompanied with its chain and key set. Dating to 1938, this piece has an Elinvar escapement and a bar over crown protector, all exceptional details that elevate this vintage classic.
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The pocket watch reached technical maturity and then began to give way to the wristwatch after the First World War. Complicated watches for collectors such as Henry Graves Jr. and James Ward Packard, railroad watches, and slim Art Deco dress watches are characteristic.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Railroad and railway watches
Timetables made accurate timekeeping a matter of safety. After a fatal collision at Kipton, Ohio, in 1891, American railroads adopted strict standards: open-face watches, lever setting, at least 17 jewels, adjustment to temperature and five positions, and a performance within 30 seconds a week, inspected regularly by approved watch inspectors. Waltham, Elgin, Hamilton, Illinois and Ball made railroad-grade watches in large numbers.
European railways issued service watches to guards, drivers and station staff, often engraved with the railway's initials and a staff number. Such watches link industrial timekeeping with the standardisation of time zones (Greenwich Mean Time adopted by British railways in 1847; North American standard time in 1883).
What to look for
- Open-face cases with the crown at 12 and lever setting under the bezel.
- Montgomery dials with every minute numbered, or bold Arabic numerals.
- 'Railroad grade', '21 Jewels', 'Adjusted 5 positions' on the movement.
- Railway initials and issue numbers engraved on the case back.
Dating clues
- American railroad standards: from 1891–93, revised c. 1908.
- Serial numbers of American makers allow dating to within a year.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Detached lever escapement
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