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| What do you collect? | Fashion + Jewelry | Watches + Clocks | Pottery + Glass | Furniture + Home | Art + Photos | Music + Movies | Toys + Games | Sports | Coins + Stamps | Paper + Books | Advertising | Autos + Transport. | Eras | Other » |
Pocket watch use peaked in the late 19th century as a wave of investment went into pocket watch design and manufacture. This was because railroads needed highly accurate, precision timepieces so their locomotive engineers could maintain strict schedules, thus avoiding collisions.
Hunting case watches, popular during the 19th century, have a closed cover that flips open when you push a button. By 1900, the open face watch took over and hunting case watches became less commonplace...
The shafts on the wheels of pocket watches are made of steel, and the plates are made of different kinds of brass, most commonly nickel brass (also known as nickel plate). The gears are usually made of brass, but some were made of steel and gold was used on high-grade watches.
Antique pocket watch collectors care both about a watch's movement and its case. Cases were made of different metals like silver and gold. Many were gold-filled, with two thin sheets of gold on the outside around a thicker layer of brass.
Pocket watch cases were also made from a wide variety of silver colored material, with names like silveride, usually nickel based. While gold watch cases are appealing to collectors, today's value has more to do with what was appropriate to the watch at the time.
The quality of an antique pocket watch movement is related to the number of jewels it has and other factors. For a more detailed discussion of jewels see railroad pocket watches.
I got interested in clocks in 1967, and I started collecting watches fairly seriously in the early ‘80s. I … [more]
I got started collecting pocket watches partly because I hated wearing wristwatches; I used to carry my wrist… [more]
Barry Goldberg’s excellent collection of pocket watches, mostly American models from the late 1800s and early 189… [read review or visit site]
Tom McIntyre’s reference site on antique watches, especially those made by the American Watch Company (later know… [read review or visit site]
This simple but impressive site features visually stunning, high resolution photographs of American pocket watch mo… [read review or visit site]
This virtual museum, created by the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors, lets you stroll through tim… [read review or visit site]
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