Pocket Watch Chains

Any possession worth half-a-month’s salary deserves a little protection, particularly when that object is a small and slippery as a pocket watch. That’s why jewelry and watch manufacturers produced chains to accompany them, keeping the timepieces safely strapped into one’s vest pocket even when frantically hopping a streetcar or bending down to tie your shoelaces. Antique pocket-watch chains range from the purely functional to the extravagantly foppish, with the finest made from sterling silver or solid gold. Most pocket watch chains feature a clip, hook, or T-bar on one end to secure them to a belt or belt loop, vest button, or small buttonhole-like opening made specifically for watch chains. On the opposite end, they typically include a circular or teardrop-shaped ring used to attach the chain to a fixed ring on the pocket-watch case. Before anyone had pocket watches, there were “pocket clocks” or “clockwatches,” some of which had faces with only an hour hand. These miniature spherical, oval, or tambour (cylindrical) clocks made in the 16th and 17th centuries were luxury accessories often worn as a pendant on a chain. Toward the end of the 17th century, along with the popularization of men's waistcoats, which included a waist pocket for the first time, these small portable clocks were made flatter to fit into these novel pockets. Similarly, the ring used to attach such watches to their chains was oriented so its opening would match the direction of the flat watch face and the device could easily slide in and out of a waistcoat’s small pocket. The pocket watch was born. During the early 18th century, watch chains followed the popular Rococo style of the day with every inch covered in floral embellishments and mythological or Biblical scenery. In the latter half of the century, the Neoclassical style took over, featuring more symmetrical, geometric forms. Around the 1780s, traditional chatelaines—decorative clasps with multiple chains holding small tools or pendants—came back into style, and were often used to carry a pocket watch as a centerpiece. In addition to relatively sedate chain styles like rolo (circular links), box (square links), cable (oval links), and curb chains (curving oval links that lay flat), gold and silver pocket-watch chains were made in a variety of more decorative styles. Some preferred the figaro look, which alternated longer links with a multiple curb-chain segments; rope chains, which appear to be made from woven metal; or wider bands made from several parallel segments of chain. Like the highly decorative cases constructed by early watchmakers, the most expensive watch chains were made from rare metals chased or enameled with tiny patterns. Some were even flashier, like the Patek Phillippe chains incorporating delicate links inset with cabochons made from precious gemstones or pearls. Besides high-end watch chains made of silver or gold were those of more humble metals, including copper, steel, and pinchbeck. Invented by clock- and watch-maker Christopher Pinchbeck, the metal alloy known as pinchbeck is actually a form of brass that resembles gold and is made from four parts copper and three parts zinc. At least one watchmaker, Mikhail Semyonovitch Bronnikov, made a pocket watch with a matching case, chain, and key entirely of birchwood and bone, circa 1865. During the Victorian Era, pocket-watch chains often included a second, shorter length of chain attached to the t-bar for the wearer to add a watch fob, a style that became called the “Albert chain.” So-called “Double Albert” watch chains included two parallel chains of equal length extending from a single t-bar. By the early 20th century, pocket-watch chains often incorporated a spring clasp allowing for quick removal of the watch. Watch chains were often used to express individuality, whether by carrying a monogrammed watch fob inset with a precious stone or holding other miniature tools, such as a cigar cutter or match case. In the 1910s and ‘20s, pocket watches and their requisite chains were increasingly losing sales to the popular “bracelet watches,” eventually just known as wristwatches. As pocket watches fell out of style in the mid-20th century, many watch chains made from fine metals were repurposed as bracelets or necklaces.