Show us your watch!

[Surf Monkey]

In the last year or so I've become a collector of American railroad grade pocket watches. It's a fascinating and historical field to be into, and the watches are beautiful and functional. I currently have six railroad watches in my collection: three Hamiltons, one Hampden, one Waltham and an Elgin. I've got another Elgin and another Hampden on the way.

Below are pictures of my 'daily carry' watch. It's a Hamilton 992L with 21 jewels, adjusted to 5 positions in a rose gold Wadsworth bar-over-crown case.

Do you have a cool watch, wrist or pocket? If so, post pictures here!

 

[Surf Monkey]

Oops. I meant to post this in the Lounge, not OUTSIDE. If one of the mods wants to move it, that would be peachy.

 

[LisaLisa]

You carry a pocket watch? That's neat, I didn't think anyone under 70 was into those anymore. My husband used to have a large vintage watch collection, we sold all of them on ebay many many years back. He had some killer antique solid gold fully engraved pocket watches too. Those watches funded the downpayment on our first home.

I wear a vintage ladies 18k rolex. The crystal is scratched tho, I need to get a new one. Hadn't even thought about it till I read your post.

 

[Surf Monkey]

You carry a pocket watch?

I do right now, yes. Before I got into railroad grade watches I wore various mechanical wrist watches. I've always been interested in mechanical watches. I won't buy or wear a quartz watch.

The rail watches were some of the best time keeping machines ever built. Better than most Swiss watches and really things of functional beauty. My great grandfather was a railroad conductor and he carried a watch very similar to the one I use now. That's where my interest sprang from. The 992L that I wear right now keeps time to within 30 seconds a week and it's nearly 100 years old. My Waltham Crescent St. is 109 years old and it's accurate to within 10 seconds a week right now.

There's nothing wrong with young people (something I'm really not anymore) carrying pocket watches. They're cool!

 

[LisaLisa]

Yea railroad watches are nice, but I like moon phase watches even more.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Yea railroad watches are nice, but I like moon phase watches even more.

Those are cool. Repeaters are nice too.

I favor the railroad watches because of my family history with them, but also because of the incredible engineering that went into them. They're really unique in that respect.

 

[NCC]

Nice watch! Nice photos of the watch! Nice signature line!

I've never collected watches. But, I have been a coin collector for many years and I can see the attraction. That watch is a work of art.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Well, I'm a semi-professional photographer, so I know my way around a camera.

Yeah, watches are fun to collect for sure. There are lots of really interesting examples to add to the collection.

But you don't have to be a collector to show off your watch in this thread. Even if you wear a five dollar quartz Timex, be proud of it and show us some pictures!

 

[Katmar]

Well, I'm a semi-professional photographer, so I know my way around a camera.

Yeah, watches are fun to collect for sure. There are lots of really interesting examples to add to the collection.

But you don't have to be a collector to show off your watch in this thread. Even if you wear a five dollar quartz Timex, be proud of it and show us some pictures!

A photographer, too??? Awesome, You should post some pictures. What do you like to shoot?

 

[Surf Monkey]

A photographer, too??? Awesome, You should post some pictures. What do you like to shoot?

I do photography for my design clients, mostly. Product shots and stuff. Personally, I shoot a lot of landscape and architectural subjects. I'm particularly interested in neon signs.

Here's my Flickr account. Not a whole lot there, but some interesting stuff once you get past pix of my car, my cat, watches and etc...

Flickr: locnar89's Photostream

 

[tarheeldan]

Wow! That is beautiful and I'm highly envious of your photography skills!
Here's a Hamilton that's been in my family for a while and a little worse for wear:

 

[Surf Monkey]

Here's a Hamilton that's been in my family for a while and a little worse for wear:

oooh. Nice one! Do you know what grade it is? 19 jewel?

 

[tarheeldan]

oooh. Nice one! Do you know what grade it is? 19 jewel?

I don't, my father passed it on to me when I was 12 or so and didn't tell me much about it, probably knowing at that age (I was a little punk) I wouldn't pay much attention to the details - just "wow, cool, great-grandad's watch!"

 

[tarheeldan]

Btw I looked through some of the photos on your account - beautiful! Really made me miss P-town.

 

[Surf Monkey]

I don't, my father passed it on to me when I was 12 or so and didn't tell me much about it, probably knowing at that age (I was a little punk) I wouldn't pay much attention to the details - just "wow, cool, great-grandad's watch!"

If you can take the back cover off and tell me the serial number (it's the number on the movement, not the inside of the back cover) I can look it up and give you a lot of information about the watch. I collect Hamiltons, so I know quite a bit about them...

 

[Surf Monkey]

Btw I looked through some of the photos on your account - beautiful! Really made me miss P-town.

Thanks! I wish some of my better shots were up there, but my Flickr account is more for snapshots than my serious work.

Portland is great! I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone.

 

[tarheeldan]

Popped off the back :

It says, "917 17 jewels Adjusted 3 Positions"

Think the S/N is: XI94069

 

[Katmar]

Surf,
Some beautiful pics. Don't have time to see them all, so I bookmarked them. Some amazing architectural photos.
Thanks for sharing...

 

[Surf Monkey]

Think the S/N is: XI94069

Interesting. Your Hamilton is a grade 917. It's a 10 size dress watch (10 is pretty small, for comparison, my Hamilton is a size 16) and it does indeed have 17 jewels, making it a mid to high grade watch. Anything from 17 to 23 jewels is generally considered a nice, accurate movement. There were about 205k of these made and yours was probably built in the mid to late '40s. It's a 3/4 plate movement (that means that the plates inside only cover 3/4 of the space and you can see the wheels through the opening, as opposed to a full plate movement where you can only see the balance wheel) and it features solid nickel plates and a double roller. The double roller is a mechanism inside the escapement that makes for a more accurate watch. It's wound and set from the stem. 917 grade watches were sold in both 14k solid gold and gold filled (basically gold plated brass) cases. If it's solid gold it's pretty valuable. If it's gold filled it's still actually a pretty collectible watch. If you search on eBay for Hamilton 917 you'll see several for sale.

It's a very cool watch. You might want to consider getting it serviced. It'll cost you a little money (up to a couple hundred for a good cleaning, oiling and adjustment) but if the watch is in good shape right now a service will insure that it works perfectly for decades to come.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Surf,
Some beautiful pics. Don't have time to see them all, so I bookmarked them. Some amazing architectural photos.
Thanks for sharing...

No problem! This wasn't intended to be the "look at Surf Monkey's photos" thread, but I'm glad you enjoyed them. As I said, my best ones aren't on my Flickr account, but there are a few that I like there...