Antique Waltham Vanguard Railroad Grade Pocket Watch.

Antique Waltham Vanguard railroad grade pocket watch.

The watch has a nicely patterned high grade stem-winding movement which is working nicely. The movement is high spec with 23 jewels, five adjustments, jewelled pallets and patent Ohlson regulator, and it is indeed railroad grade.

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 and micro-metric regulation.

While this particular watch would not have been used on the railways as it is not lever set, the specification was still at the required high levels and these high grade watches were purchased by other professionals and also civilians.

As well as being fully signed, the serial number dates the watch back to 1910.

The movement is protected by an inner hinged cover.

The watch measures 50mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop. The case is gold filled and it is in very nice condition. We believe that the case and movement are not original to each other although both of the same period.

The watch glass is in good condition.

The signed dial is in lovely condition and has blued steel hands, a subsidiary seconds dial and outer minute markers.

The watch will be sent in a new presentation box.

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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With regards to appraisals / valuations, we receive a huge number of information requests each day and unfortunately do not have the manpower to deal with them all individually. Our advice would be to contact a local auctioneer for a full appraisal.