Pocket Watches · Pocket watches
Pocket watches by Illinois Watch Company, American, founded 1879, United States, ca. 1920s
- Maker / attribution
- Illinois Watch Company, American, founded 1879 (Manufactured by); Harry Tyson Moore, American, 1905 - 1951 (Owned by)
- Date
- ca. 1920s
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- United States
- Place
- New Carrollton, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, North and Central America; Mims, Brevard County, Florida, United States,…
- Object type
- Pocket watches
- Materials / technique
- metal and glass
- Dimensions
- metal and glass; H x W: 2 5/16 x 1 11/16 x 5/16 in. (5.9 x 4.3 x 0.8 cm)
- Holding institution
- National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC
- Accession / object no.
- 2013.157.2
- Credit line
- Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Donated by Juanita Evangeline Moore, daughter; "Skip" Pagan, grandson; and Darren Pagan, great-grandson
- Catalogue title (original)
- Pocket watch owned by Harry T. Moore
Record summary
Held and catalogued by National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC (object number 2013.157.2), this is a pocket watche by Illinois Watch Company, American, founded 1879, made in New Carrollton, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, North and Central America; Mims, Brevard County, Florida, United States,…, dated ca. 1920s. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Pocket Watches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: metal and glass. Recorded dimensions: metal and glass; H x W: 2 5/16 x 1 11/16 x 5/16 in. (5.9 x 4.3 x 0.8 cm). The record is illustrated with 2 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
Description
Pocket watch by Illinois Watch Company used by Harry Tyson Moore, Sterling model. It features a circular white face with black hands and numerals. Under the twelve it has the company and model name "ILLINOIS/ STERLING." There is a second smaller face for marking the seconds at the bottom of the main face. The casing is a plain brass colored metal with a loop and ridged crown at top. The back has a faint cross hatching pattern with a small heraldic crest in the center.
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
Pocket watches
The pocket watch was the dominant personal timekeeper from the late seventeenth century until the First World War. Its development tracks the history of the escapement: verge watches with fusees until the late eighteenth century; Thomas Mudge's lever escapement (c. 1755) and the cylinder escapement popularised by George Graham and later by Swiss makers; and the Swiss and English lever watches of the nineteenth century. Lépine's bar-bridge calibre and keyless winding made watches thinner and easier to use.
Industrialisation transformed the trade: American factories such as Waltham (from 1850) and Elgin produced interchangeable parts by machine, and Swiss makers responded with their own mechanisation after the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition. By 1900 a reliable watch was affordable to millions; the finest makers continued to produce complications and precision watches.
What to look for
- The escapement: verge (crown wheel), cylinder, duplex, English or Swiss lever.
- Key winding (a square arbor in dial or back) or keyless crown winding.
- Signatures and serial numbers on the movement, dial and inside case back.
- Hallmarks, case maker's marks and gold or silver standards stamped in the case.
- Dial material: enamel, silver, gold, later printed metal.
Dating clues
- Verge watches dominate before c. 1800; cylinder watches c. 1770–1900; lever watches after c. 1820.
- Keyless winding: increasingly common after c. 1860.
- Manufacturer serial number lists exist for Waltham, Elgin, Longines, Omega, Patek Philippe and others.
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:Verge escapementDetached lever escapementFuseeIdentification Centre
Related records
Pocket Watches · circa 1900
Pocket watch by American Waltham Watch Company, United States, circa 1900
Science Museum Group, London
Pocket Watches · 1900
Pocket watch by Robt. H. und Bro. Ingersoll, United States, 1900
German Clock Museum
Pocket Watches · 1904
Pocket watch by American Waltham Watch Company; Dennison Watch Case Co, United States, 1904
Science Museum Group, London
Pocket Watches · 1905
Pocket watch by Brooklyn Watch Case Co. B. W. C., United States, 1905
German Clock Museum
Pocket Watches · 1910
Pocket watch by New Haven Clock Co., United States, 1910
German Clock Museum
Pocket Watches · 1910
Pocket watch by Robt. H. und Bro. Ingersoll, United States, 1910
German Clock Museum
Pocket Watches · 1915
Pocket watch by Robt. H. und Bro. Ingersoll, United States, 1915
German Clock Museum
Pocket Watches · 1915
Pocket watch by Waltham A. W. W. Co., United States, 1915
German Clock Museum