Antique Hamilton Railroad Pocket Watch, 1914

Antique Hamilton railroad pocket watch, 1914.

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, lever set hands and micro-metric regulation.

This particular watch has a high grade stem-winding movement, grade 972, which is working nicely. The movement has beautifully patterned plates, pink gold jewel pallets and it has been adjusted in five positions. Originally there would have been a micro regulator as well as a standard regulator, but the micro part has been removed over the years... this does not affect the functioning of the regulator. The serial number on the movement is 1106590 which dates it back to 1914.

The watch measures 50mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop. The case is gold filled and is nicely decorated on all surfaces. The case back has a central cartouche with faint initials.

The acrylic lens is in good condition.

The dial is in very nice condition and has blued steel hands, a double sunk dial and an outer minute track with red numbers. The 972 grade came in both pendant and lever set versions and this one is lever set which means the bezel is unscrewed, a small lever is pulled out and the hands set as necessary.

The watch will be sent 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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