Pocket watch
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This article is about the portable timepiece. For the Dave Grohl album, see Pocketwatch (album).
A gold pocket watch with hunter case and watch chain
A pocket watch (or pocketwatch) is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwatches became popular after World War I. Pocket watches generally have an attached chain to allow them to be secured to a waistcoat, lapel, or belt loop, and to prevent them from being dropped. The chain or ornaments on it is known as a fob. They often have a hinged metal cover to protect the face of the watch; pocketwatches with a fob and cover are often called "fob watches"[citation needed]. Also common are fasteners designed to be put through a buttonhole and worn in a jacket or waistcoat, this sort being frequently associated with and named after train conductors.
An early reference to the pocket watch is in a letter in November 1462 from the Italian clockmaker Bartholomew Manfredi to the Marchese di Manta, where he offers him a 'pocket clock' better than that belonging to the Duke of Modena. By the end of the 15th Century, spring-driven clocks appeared in Italy, and in Germany. Peter Henlein, a master locksmith of Nuremberg, was regularly manufacturing pocket watches in England by 1524. Thereafter, pocket watch manufacture spread throughout the rest of Europe as the 16th century progressed. Another early example of a pocket watch measured in minutes was created by the Ottoman watchmaker Meshur Sheyh Dede in 1702.The first American pocket watches with machine made parts was manufactured by Henry Pitkin with his brother in the later 1830s.
Contents
1 Early pocket watches
2 Use in railroading in the United States
3 Types of pocket watches
3.1 Open-face watches
3.2 Hunter-case watches
4 Types of watch movements
4.1 Key-wind, key-set movements
4.2 Crown-wind, crown-set movements
4.3 Crown-wind, lever-set movements
4.4 Crown-wind, pin-set movements
5 Jewelled movements
6 Adjusted movements
7 Watch-chains
8 Decline in popularity
9 Pocket watches in fiction
10 Watch Manufacturers
11 References
Early pocket watches
Antique verge fusee pocketwatch movement, from 1700s.
The watch was first created in the 16th century, initially in spherical (Pomander) or cylindrical cases, when the spring driven clock was invented. These watches were at first quite big and boxy and were worn around the neck. It was not for another century that it became common to wear a watch in a pocket.
Use in railroading in the United States
Main article: Railroad chronometers
The rise of railroading during the last half of the 19th century led to the widespread use of pocket watches. Because of the likelihood of train wrecks and other accidents if all railroad workers did not accurately know the current time, pocket watches became required equipment for all railroad workers.
The first steps toward codified standards for railroad-grade watches were taken in 1887 when the American Railway Association held a meeting to define basic standards for watches. However, it took a disaster to bring about widespread acceptance of stringent standards. A famous train wreck on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway in Kipton, Ohio on April 19, 1891 occurred because one of the engineers' watches had stopped for 4 minutes. The railroad officials commissioned Webb C. Ball as their Chief Time Inspector, in order to establish precision standards and a reliable timepiece inspection system for Railroad chronometers. This led to the adoption in 1893 of stringent standards for pocket watches used in railroading. These railroad-grade pocket watches, as they became colloquially known, had to meet the General Railroad Timepiece Standards adopted in 1893 by almost all railroads. These standards read, in part:
"...open faced, size 16 or 18, have a minimum of 17 jewels, adjusted to at least five positions, keep time accurately to within 30 seconds a week, adjusted to temps of 34 °F (1 °C) to 100 °F (38 °C), have a double roller, steel escape wheel, lever set, regulator, winding stem at 12 o'clock, and have bold black Arabic numerals on a white dial, with black hands."
Railroad employees to this day are required to keep their watches on time, and are subject to spot checks by their superiors at any time. Failure to keep their watches on time can lead to disciplinary action, due to the gravely serious safety issues involved.
Additional requirements were adopted in later years in response to additional needs; for example, the adoption of the diesel-electric locomotive led to new standards from the 1940s on specifying that timekeeping accuracy could not be affected by electromagnetic fields.
Types of pocket watches
There are two main styles of pocket watch, the hunter-case pocket watch, and the open-face pocket watch.
Open-face watches
An open-face pocket watch made by the famous Polish watchmaker Franciszek Czapek, circa 1876.
An open-face pocket watch is one with the winding-stem at the top of the dial, above the '12' and with the seconds sub-dial at the 6 o'clock position. As the name suggests, these watches have cases which are without a cover to protect the watch-crystal from any form of damage. All railroad chronometers had to be of the open-face kind.
Hunter-case watches
A hunter-case pocket watch is the kind with a spring-hinged circular metal lid or cover, that closes over the watch-dial and crystal, protecting them from dust, scratches and other damage or debris. The majority of antique and vintage hunter-case watches have the lid-hinges at the 9 o'clock position and the stem, crown and bow of the watch at the 3 o'clock position. Modern hunter-case pocket watches usually have the hinges for the lid at the 6 o'clock position and the stem, crown and bow at the 12 o'clock position, as with open-face watches. In both styles of watch-cases, the sub-seconds dial was always at the 6 o'clock position. A hunter-case pocket watch with a spring-ring chain is pictured at the top of this page.
Types of watch movements
Key-wind, key-set movements
The very first pocket watches, since their creation in the 16th century, up until the third quarter of the 19th century, were of the kind which had key-wind and key-set movements. A watch-key was necessary to wind the watch and also to set the time. This was usually done by opening the caseback and putting the key over the winding-arbor (which was set over the watch's winding-wheel, to wind the mainspring) or by putting the key onto the setting-arbor, which was connected with the minute-wheel and which turned the hands. Some watches of this period had the setting-arbor at the front of the watch so that removing the crystal and bezel was necessary to set the time.
Crown-wind, crown-set movements
Created by Patek-Philippe in the 1850s, the crown-wind, crown-set movement did away with the watch-key which was a necessity for the operation of any pocket watch up to that point. The first crown-wind and crown-set pocket watches were sold during the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 and the first owners of these new kinds of watches were Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Crown-wind, crown-set movements are the most common type of watch-movement found in both vintage and modern pocket watches.
Crown-wind, lever-set movements
Mandatory for all railroad watches, this kind of pocket watch was set by opening the crystal and pulling out the setting-lever, which was found at either the 10 or 2 o'clock positions. Once the lever was pulled out, the crown could be turned to set the time. The lever was pushed back in and the crystal and bezel were closed over the dial again. This was a secure way of setting the time and there wasn't any chance of an erroneous time because there was not crown that could be left out or forced into its 'up' setting-position to set the watch to an incorrect time.
Crown-wind, pin-set movements
Much like the lever-set movements, these pocket watches had a small pin or knob next to the watch-stem that had to be depressed before turning the crown to set the time and releasing the pin when the correct time had been set.
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