Waltham Size 18 1883-American Waltham Watch Co, 16J c1898

 

This watch was a bit of a puzzle, it is listed in the Waltham "Grey book" - a list of production runs - as being a 17 Jewel "Appleton Tracy" which it clearly is not, I a...m grateful (again) to John S for his expert help which solved the mystery.

By the late 1890's the 1883 model Railroad grade watches had been superseded by the (expensive!) 1892 model and with changing tastes the size 16 1888 and 1899 models were becoming popular. Waltham therefore produced this "Closeout Special" and used up a block of serial numbers allocated to the Appleton Tracy grade. The movement is essentially an 1883-820 or 825 but with 16 jewels rather than 15 or 17 but with cosmetic enhancements to give the appearance of a Railroad grade Waltham at a more modest price. On this occasion a top grade case in 14 carat Filled Gold was also used to produce something special.

 

Micky Mouse Dollar Watch

I am depressed, on the Antiques Road Show earlier this evening they had on a Dollar watch made in tens of millions - with Micky Mouse on the face.

Valued at £500.

Just think what wonderful antique watches you could get for that.

What a crazy world we live in.

Three of the best

 

From left to right.

Waltham 1892-Crescent St, 1904, Size 18, 21 jewels and adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and 5 positions, lever set and a true US Railroad watch.

Waltham 1908-Vanguard, 1913, Size 16, 23 jewels (Ruby plus a diamond end stones), adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and 5 positions, lever set and another true US Railroad watch.

Waltham 1892-Vanguard, 1900, Size 18, 21 Jewels (mainly ruby), adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and 5 positions, pendant set and with roman numerals on the face so not a true railroad watch, but close. In a filled gold case.

Waltham 1908-Vanguard 23J

I don't normally photograph work in process but I thought I would make an exception for this one; A Waltham 1908-Vanguard from 1913/14, it is a lever set movement with 23 jewels (including the mainspring) and is adjusted to heat, cold, isochronism and 5 positions. And as you can see it has nice gold embellishments and damascening all over the place.

As is often found with these railroad grade watches the case is in base metal but it should still look good when finished.

A slight change of plan.

My Wallingford outlet is to close:

With continuing high demand through the web site and the resultant low stock levels I am no longer able to efficiently stock two antiques centres and I am spending an inordinate amount of time going to one or the other to retrieve watches for dispatch to internet customers. I have therefore decided that I will close the display cabinet at Wallingford shortly after Christmas. Hopefully this will give me a bit more time to restore watches which is what I want to be doing.

Waltham Size 18's, Good, Better, Best:

1892 Crescent St 1904

from left to right:

1883-Sterling 7J, Negative set, 1908
1883-820, 15J, Negative set, 1917
1892-Crescent St, 21J, Lever set, 1904

The Crescent St should have larger hands but otherwise is a full spec US Railroad watch.

Rotherham 19J 3/4 plate, 1907

A Yank, then a Swiss now one of Coventy's finest. A Rotherham 19J 3/4 plate keyless for J.J. Dadd & Sons of Hackney, 1907.

Waltham 1883-1 Hunter

Here is one for those who like the Waltham 1883, Hunters and BIG watches.

Its a standard leaver set size 18 1883-1, but the case! It's in coin silver by Dueber and weighs in at 108 grams without the movement (but including the case springs), it's 2.2" / 5.7 cm in diameter excluding the pendant and 0.8" / 1.97cm thick. A serious watch

Coin Silver: US Silver standards were a mess when this watch was made with no legal definitions until 1906 but most cases stamped “Coin Silver” are between 0.892 and 0.930 pure as used in US coinage which was frequently melted down for watch cases, as English currency was for English cases

Omega c1927

And here is another cracking silver case, this time containing a very good size 12 Omega 15J from c1927.

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