Antique Waltham Crescent St Railroad Pocket Watch

Antique Waltham Crescent St railroad pocket watch.

The watch has a high grade 21 jewel stem-winding movement, Crescent Street railroad grade, which is working nicely. The movement is fully signed and it has the serial number 10,525,656 which dates it back to 1901. The movement is protected by an inner hinged cover which has a little marking but nothing too serious at all.

The Waltham Watch Company named their first railroad watch Crescent Street after their address by the Charles River.

The great North American railroad watch became an institution after a fatal crash in 1891, which was caused in part by the stopping and then restarting of the engineer's watch, which caused it to be four minutes slow. In the early days of railroading, when trains ran by strict time and timetable rules, that four minutes proved to be fatal. As a result, in 1893, the General Railroad Timepiece Standards were adopted, which mandated high grade specifications including being lever set, having a minimum of 17 jewels in the movement, five adjustments and micro-metric regulation.

The watch measures 54mm diameter excluding the winding stem so slightly larger than a standard 50mm pocket watch, and more chunky. The case is coin silver which is an alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper. The case is in good condition, just a few very minor marks and two gentle “dings” to the back but all very acceptable. There is a vacant cartouche to the back.

The dial is a period replacement dial with period blued steel hands which are lever set. There are three or four hairlines to the outer chapter ring.

The watch comes in a new presentation box.

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All of our watches are checked over before listing, and are also checked for accuracy which is usually within around +/- two to three minutes over 24 hours (unless otherwise stated), which is considered respectable for a vintage watch.

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