1905 Elgin Railroad Full Hunter Pocket Watch

1905 Elgin railroad full hunter pocket watch.

UK POSTAGE ONLY FOR THIS ITEM

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.

This particular watch has a high grade 21-jewel, three adjustments, stem-winding movement which is working nicely. Beautifully patterned plates with a nickel finish and gilt detailing, Moseley patent regulator, Breguet hairspring for enhanced precision and screw set jewels with gold fittings. The movement is fully signed and the serial number 11,185,285 dates it back to 1905.

The movement is protected by an inner hinged cover which has some scratching where it has been opened in the past.

The watch measures 54mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop. The case is gold filled and was made by the Baystate Watch Case Company of Boston, Massachusetts and they were listed as manufacturers of gold filled, gold and silver watch cases. The case is nicely decorated all round. The front has a sunburst effect pattern with a cartouche which contains the initials GK. The back has the same sunburst pattern together with a small image of a building with three conical roofs, perhaps a chateau. There is some light surface marking and a little rubbing but overall the case is in good condition for such an early piece.

The winding crown pushes in to open the front cover.

Inside, there is a glass lens which is in lovely condition.

The signed double sunk dial is in lovely condition. It has an inner 24 hour dial and numbered minute markers around the edge. Lever set blued steel hands.

The watch comes 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).

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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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