Silver Elgin B W Raymond Railroad Pocket Watch

Antique silver 1911 Elgin B W Raymond railroad pocket watch.

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 a minimum of 17 jewels in the movement, five adjustments, micro-metric regulation and lever set hands.

The B W Raymond model was named after Benjamin Wright Raymond, the first president and one of the primary investors in the National Watch Company of Chicago (later renamed the Elign National Watch Company).

The watch has a beautifully patterned stem-winding movement, grade 385 with ruby and sapphire jewels, which is working nicely. The grade 385 was produced in very low numbers in 1911 and 1912 with only 2000 being produced in total. The serial number on the movement, 15,330,338 dates this particular watch back to 1911.

The watch measures 56mm diameter excluding the stem and the loop. The case is silver and is stamped as such inside the case, together with the Crescent Watch Case Company mark. The case is in beautiful condition.

The watch glass is in super condition.

The signed dial is in lovely condition and has blued steel hands, a sunken subsidiary seconds dial and minute markers with red numbers to the perimeter. The bezel unscrews to reveal the lever at 2 o'clock.

The watch will be sent in a new presentation box.

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ALL PRICES INCLUDE UK POSTAGE (because of GPSR legislation, we no longer post items less than 100 years old to Europe, including Northern Ireland).

Please contact us regarding international shipping.

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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