1926 Waltham Watch Co. Railroad Pocket Watch
Watch
GUEST:
This is my father's pocket watch, and he wore it every day that I can possibly remember, and has this little leather thong on it. He was a cattle rancher down out of Ritzville, and he wore it on his belt loop, in his pocket, and he didn't wear a regular watch because he worked so hard that he would break a regular watch, like, in three or four days, so he wore it always when he was, like, baling hay or driving tractor or throwing calves.
APPRAISER:
Let me tell you about the watch a little bit. It's made by the Waltham Watch Company...
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
...in Waltham, Massachusetts, all right? They started in Roxbury, but they soon after set up shop in Waltham. They went into business in the mid-1800s. They went out of business in 1957.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
Yes.
GUEST:
So this is old?
APPRAISER:
Yeah, sure. Now, at the end of production, they made approximately 35 million pocket watches.
GUEST:
Oh, okay.
APPRAISER:
So there's a lot of them out there.
GUEST:
Yes, it is.
APPRAISER:
Now, let me tell you about yours. It's a railroad watch. It has these large Arabic numerals. Down below, you have a subsidiary second hand. But did you ever notice the other dial up on top of the watch?
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Do you know what it's for?
GUEST:
No.
APPRAISER:
What it is, is it's a wind indicator. When you wind the watch, it tells him how much power is left in the winding mechanism, so it wouldn't run out accidentally.
GUEST:
Huh!
APPRAISER:
It's an added feature. It's the kind of thing you don't see on every railroad watch. Now what we want to do is, we want to turn it around.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
What we're going to do is talk about what makes this watch a little better than the average open-face railroad watch. In the center is a diamond end stone. Usually, they're synthetic rubies.
GUEST:
Is it a real diamond?
APPRAISER:
It's a real diamond, yes.
GUEST:
Ooh!
APPRAISER:
We see over here it's a Waltham Vanguard.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
And then we travel over here, and it tells us that it's 23 jewels. 23 jewels is a nice option. A lot of them are 21. And then we go up here and we see that it's six-position. A lot of them came five positions.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
So these are just... All those little bells and whistles...
GUEST:
Wonderful.
APPRAISER:
...that add up and tell us that it's a quality watch.
GUEST:
Uh-huh. Great.
APPRAISER:
Let's turn it around.
GUEST:
Isn't that something, that a rancher would have a railroad watch?
APPRAISER:
And a very high-end one.
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
If you have to go out and buy this watch again today, I feel you would have to pay somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000.
GUEST:
Holy Toledo! Whoo-hoo!
APPRAISER:
(chuckles)
GUEST:
That's wonderful. You're kidding?
APPRAISER:
I'm not kidding you, no.
GUEST:
I mean, he banged this thing around every single day on this thong, just tied to his... This is wonderful! Thank you!
APPRAISER:
I'm so glad you're happy.
GUEST:
Oh, I love it. Thank you so much.
APPRAISER:
You're welcome.
Appraisal Details
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