Everyone has a story to tell about a watch.

[jjimmerson417]

I want to hear your stories about your timepieces. The history of the piece or era it was made. maybe who gave it to you. Where they got it or if it was passed down. Pictures would be a plus, I don't have stories yet so tell me yours.

 

[Jerry Treiman]

I told the story of a couple of my watches here -

https://mb.nawcc.org/threads/i-got-a-right-to-sing-the-covid-blues-but-lets-talk-about-interesting-items-in-our-collections.167420/#post-1349630

You will find many more stories about American and European watches and clocks from our collections in that thread.

 

[BillyHelbender]

My only story is how I got my first Antique Pocket Watch. Was visiting my Mom and she was going through some of the "clutter" she has from my grandparents. I happen to look in her "Trash" and I saw what looked like a small box you would keep jewelry or something in. That box turned out to be some kind of broken Travel Clock, but moving it revealed 2 pocket watches! I picked them both up and the one was extremely heavy!
At the time I thought maybe it was real Silver or something because of the weight. I could tell it was old just looking at it but I couldn't get it open and it may have been better if I never had! LOL
I struggled a bit but finally managed to get the back off and was literally AWESTRUCK! I couldn't believe the craftsmanship had once existed to produce what I was seeing. A Waltham 1883 AT&Co Gilt Damaskeened absolutely gorgeous movement! My sister and I looked it up online and found the Pocket Watch Database and found it was made in 1891 or 92 and all the amazing facts that database holds.
Then another amazing thing happened. I wound it and it started ticking!! This watch is 130yrs old and it still freakin works!!!!!!! Amazed doesn't begin to describe how I felt!
At that point I'm hooked and have to know everything I can about these time pieces and this era in American History that I knew nothing about!
It's now been professionally serviced and I even carry it on me frequently and it keeps great time!

One day I have to take better updated pics but this is pretty much How I saw it that day!

 

[butlercreek]

Whoever etched that “19 jewels” into it should be drawn and quartered………

 

[BillyHelbender]

Whoever etched that “19 jewels” into it should be drawn and quartered………

I get that a lot! LOL!

It's actually a 15 and although I know to many it ruins the value I personally Love it! It's part of the history of this particular watch. I just wish there were a way to find out "Why" it was done.

 

[jjimmerson417]

My only story is how I got my first Antique Pocket Watch. Was visiting my Mom and she was going through some of the "clutter" she has from my grandparents. I happen to look in her "Trash" and I saw what looked like a small box you would keep jewelry or something in. That box turned out to be some kind of broken Travel Clock, but moving it revealed 2 pocket watches! I picked them both up and the one was extremely heavy!
At the time I thought maybe it was real Silver or something because of the weight. I could tell it was old just looking at it but I couldn't get it open and it may have been better if I never had! LOL
I struggled a bit but finally managed to get the back off and was literally AWESTRUCK! I couldn't believe the craftsmanship had once existed to produce what I was seeing. A Waltham 1883 AT&Co Gilt Damaskeened absolutely gorgeous movement! My sister and I looked it up online and found the Pocket Watch Database and found it was made in 1891 or 92 and all the amazing facts that database holds.
Then another amazing thing happened. I wound it and it started ticking!! This watch is 130yrs old and it still freakin works!!!!!!! Amazed doesn't begin to describe how I felt!
At that point I'm hooked and have to know everything I can about these time pieces and this era in American History that I knew nothing about!
It's now been professionally serviced and I even carry it on me frequently and it keeps great time!

One day I have to take better updated pics but this is pretty much How I saw it that day!
View attachment 710425

Awesome story and watch. I have too become obsessed with timepieces and the era's of which they come.

 

[hc3]

Probably put on by the retailer to make it easier to sell the watch.


By the time your watch was made, jewel count had become a "thing" to watch customers and the factories had started putting it on the movements.

Not the best engraving but a little bit to add to its story.

 

[Leigh Callaway]

Previously posted here: Hamilton Private Labels, Please add to the list | NAWCC Forums. Still, Frank Tolock's Hamilton 924 has a great story and bears repeating.
I've had it about four years. It's a private label sold to LD. Merrill in Sparta Wisconsin on June 1, 1903. The logo on the dial is "SWC" (Sparta, Wisconsin).


I wrote to the Monroe County Historical Society in Sparta and they replied with a 1918 article from the Sparta Democrat. Frank Tolock was killed while "engaged in the patriotic act of assisting with the harvesting." The binder on which he rode hit a hole and he was thrown from the seat to the ground. "He raised himself from the ground and uttered a few words complaining of a pain in his head, and in a short time he was dead from a cerebral hemorrhage."


Frank Tolock is buried in the Mt. Hope Cemetery in Sparta.


More on LD. Merrill in Jim Haney's post #399 here: Hamilton Private Labels, Please add to the list | NAWCC Forums

 

[Clint Geller]

Each of my thirteen Civil War provenance watches has a story to be told about it. The attached PDF presents one of them.

 

[Lee Passarella]

Each of my thirteen Civil War provenance watches has a story to be told about it. The attached PDF presents one of them.

A great story about General Palmer, Clint. If he had been at Gettysburg and rendered similar service after the battle, the war might have been shortened considerably. But then after Franklin and Nashville, Hood's army was a ghost of an army.

 

[Clint Geller]

A great story about General Palmer, Clint. If he had been at Gettysburg and rendered similar service after the battle, the war might have been shortened considerably. But then after Franklin and Nashville, Hood's army was a ghost of an army.

There is a lot more to Palmer's story, Lee. My Bulletin article goes into some of it in greater depth, but even there I was limited by the allowed length.

 

[Clint Geller]

Here is another watch with an interesting and important history.

 

[John Cote]

Years ago I tried, without success, to put together a collection of all of the types of 18s, 17j Illinois Bunn model watches. Most of the time people who try to do something like this fail because there is a unique or rare variant which simply can't be bought. One of the watches which needed to be in the collection was the double roller hunter, which I had a chance to buy once during my quest but was too cheap to pull the trigger. The most famous example of this variant is on the cover of the Meggers and Ehrhardt book, "Illinois Watch Co, Encyclopedia and Price Guide."

Well, at some point in this quest I sort of lost interest and sold most of the collection to a good friend. Shortly after selling them all, Bill Meggers passed away and his example from the cover photo was offered to me by a mutual friend who was helping to liquidate Bill's collection. I happened to have the money in my pocket at the time so I bought it.

I think I now have 3 of the 10 or so known examples of this variant but Bills will always be one of my favorite watches.

 

[Clint Geller]

Years ago I tried, without success, to put together a collection of all of the types of 18s, 17j Illinois Bunn model watches. Most of the time people who try to do something like this fail because there is a unique or rare variant which simply can't be bought. One of the watches which needed to be in the collection was the double roller hunter, which I had a chance to buy once during my quest but was too cheap to pull the trigger. The most famous example of this variant is on the cover of the Meggers and Ehrhardt book, "Illinois Watch Co, Encyclopedia and Price Guide."

Well, at some point in this quest I sort of lost interest and sold most of the collection to a good friend. Shortly after selling them all, Bill Meggers passed away and his example from the cover photo was offered to me by a mutual friend who was helping to liquidate Bill's collection. I happened to have the money in my pocket at the time so I bought it.

I think I now have 3 of the 10 or so known examples of this variant but Bills will always be one of my favorite watches.
View attachment 710794

Great watch and great photo.

 

[Clint Geller]

Here is another watch with a story. The watch was previously in the collection of the late Dr. Bill Heilman of Newcastle IN. The attached pdf about this watch is an excerpt from a larger presentation I made so that my daughter, who will inherit my watch collection some day, will understand and hopefully will gain a broader appreciation for what she will be inheriting. She is busy completing med school right now, but the pdfs will be waiting for her when she is ready to devote some attention to them.

 

[miguel angel cladera]

I am absolutely sure that if watches could talk, they would tell us many stories. The most curious case that happened to me with a watch was this. For my birthday I received a beautiful cylinder pocket watch made by a Jewish watchmaker as a present. The gift was very appropriate and very special, given my Jewish roots.


As some of you know I like to write about my watches and so I did with this one, with as little information as I could find.

A Cylinder Pocket Watch by Abraham Bernard Of Bristol

En esta nueva entrada sobre relojes de bolsillo, vemos la historia de un magnífico reloj inglés con escape de cilindro fabricado en 1776 en Bristol por el relojero judío Abraham Bernard.

www.safonagastrocrono.club

One fine day I received a comment and a letter from Bristol from a current relative of this watchmaker! I was very pleased that this happened and also totally unexpected and I was very happy that in a way I had contributed to the memory of this watchmaker not being completely lost. The chances of this happening are very small. Two different languages, two geographically distant places on the map and a character who has been virtually unknown for the last 240 years...

(I found the watch near to my city in Spain)

 

[Tom McIntyre]

Here is another watch with a story. The watch was previously in the collection of the late Dr. Bill Heilman of Newcastle IN. The attached pdf about this watch is an excerpt from a larger presentation I made so that my daughter, who will inherit my watch collection some day, will understand and hopefully will gain a broader appreciation for what she will be inheriting. She is busy completing med school right now, but the pdfs will be waiting for her when she is ready to devote some attention to them.

A great memorial from the insurrection.

 

[Les harland]

Billyhelbender
If you post a picture of any marks 0n the the inside back of the case some one here will be able to tell you if it is Silver
Your watch starting as soon as you wind it is exactly what it is meant to do