Antique Waltham Crescent St Hunter Railroad Pocket Watch

Antique Waltham Crescent St hunter railroad pocket watch.

The watch has a high grade stem-winding movement which is working nicely. The movement is fully signed and it has the serial number 6019276 which dates it back to 1894-96. This is a high grade movement with 17-jewels (adjusted, the requirement to state how many adjustments did not come in until 1908), screw-set jewels, Breguet hairspring, Church 1885 patent regulator and nicely decorated plates in a nickel finish. The movement is protected by an inner hinged cover.

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 55mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop. The case is gold filled and was made by the Crescent Watch Case Company. In 1904, the company merged with Keystone Watch Case Company which suggests the case may be slightly later than the movement. The case is nicely decorated on all surfaces, a vacant cartouche to the front and an image of a horse to the back. The case is in beautiful condition.

The winding crown pushes in to open the front cover. Inside, there is a glass lens which is in good condition (some white reflection showing in the photos).

The dial is signed American Waltham Watch Co. Handsome ornate hands, and outer minute track with red numerals to the perimeter. One faint hairline on the chapter ring between 10 and 11 but difficult to see with the naked eye.

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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