Pocket Watches · Watch
Watch - Cowboy & Horse, Plastic, 1950s
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1950s
- Historical period
- Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
- Country of origin
- Unrecorded in source
- Object type
- Watch
- Dimensions
- 178 mm (Length), 32 mm (Depth), 8 mm (Height)
- Holding institution
- Museums Victoria, Melbourne
- Accession / object no.
- HT 18983
- Catalogue title (original)
- Watch - Cowboy & Horse, Plastic, 1950s (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by Museums Victoria, Melbourne (object number HT 18983), this is a watch, dated 1950s. The Atlas places it in the Modern Mechanical Horology period (1945 – 1969) of its Pocket Watches collection. Recorded dimensions: 178 mm (Length), 32 mm (Depth), 8 mm (Height). 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
Summary — Museums Victoria
Child's watch with cowboy and horse image on face. Used and owned by Bill Boyd in the 1950s. The William Boyd Childhood Collection includes most of the childhood possessions of William (Bill) Boyd, who was born in 1947 and raised in the Victorian town of Maryborough. Kept by Lillian Boyd (Bill's mother) for decades, upon her death the Collection was donated by Bill to the former Museum of Childhood at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia. When the Museum of Childhood closed it was transferred to Museum Victoria.
Physical description — Museums Victoria
Watch comprising square face with cowboy and horse motif, green plastic band printed with guns and swirls, and square metal buckle.
Significance — Museums Victoria
Encompassing toys, books, clothing and other items, the William Boyd Childhood Collection is rare in its comprehensiveness: even ephemera such as the back of a Cornflakes box are included. The Collection demonstrates a range of prominent themes in the lives of postwar Victorian children, such as the ability to 'make do' under austere circumstances; the shift in toy manufacture towards plastic materials and mass production; the continuing cultural influence of Britain; the increasing embrace of American popular culture; the prominence of gender roles; and the popularity of transport and war themed toys for boys.
Provenance
Donation from Museum of Childhood, Edith Cowan University, Warren Snell - Edith Cowan University, Western Australian Museum (WAM), 13 Feb 2008
Historical context
Modern Mechanical Horology (1945 – 1969)
Tool watches for divers, pilots and astronauts; electric watches anticipate the electronic age.
After 1945 the pocket watch became a niche product — presentation and railway watches, inexpensive pin-lever watches, and commemorative pieces — while most innovation moved to the wrist.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking
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
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