1918 Silver Waltham Vanguard Railroad Grade Pocket Watch

1918 silver Waltham Vanguard railroad grade pocket watch.

The watch has a good quality 23-jewel stem-winding movement, Vanguard railroad grade, which is working nicely. This is a beautiful movement with patterned plates, Ohlson 1908 patent regulator, screw-set jewels, and gilt Old English writing. The movement is protected by an inner hinged cover which has some unevenness. The movement is fully signed and the serial number 22255311 dates it back to 1918.

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.

The watch measures 48mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop. The case is silver and there are hallmarks inside both of the case backs for 1914, together with a maker's mark for Aaron Dennison... the Dennison Watch Case Company made the majority of cases for Waltham UK. The case is in good condition, just a little unevenness to the hinged case back.

The watch glass is in lovely condition, and it has a nice deep bevelled edge.

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

The watch comes 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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