Antique Waltham Canadian Railroad Pocket Watch, 1918

Antique Waltham Canadian railroad pocket watch, 1918.

The watch has a high grade stem-winding movement, grade 645, which is working nicely. The movement has beautifully patterned plates and it is fully signed and has the serial number 22,200,146 which dates it back to 1918.

The 645 was a high grade 21 jewel movement (adjusted in five positions) which met all the required specifications for a railroad watch. It has screw-set jewels, Ohlson 1908 patent regulator and a Breguet hairspring for enhanced precision.

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.

The railroad staff had to purchase the watches themselves with three monthly instalments being deducted from their pay packets. The watches were monitored on a regular basis and if they were found to be either losing or gaining time, as little as 30 seconds in seven or 14 days depending on requirements, the watches had to be sent off to approved watch makers. The overhauled watches were then examined by authorised inspectors before being released back to the railway staff.

While a railroad watch was being overhauled, the member of staff was loaned a temporary watch, known as a “loaner”. If the employee lost the “loaner”, they had to pay for it out of their own pocket.

This particular watch measures 50mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop. The case is the gold filled Banner model from P W Ellis, watch case maker of Toronto. The inside of the case back has the date Dec 1920. The case is in lovely condition and the back has the ornate initials GLL. Both the bezel and case back are screw fitting.

The glass lens is in lovely condition.

The boxcar style dial is in lovely condition with original lever set blued steel hands, an inner 24 hour dial and a subsidiary seconds dial.

The watch comes in a vintage 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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