Waltham pocket watch

Morrisseeee

I have a Waltham pockrt watch, circa 1917, 17 jewels, its not winding but does work occasionally !
1. How do I know if the jewels are still there ? Are they very small ? ( Maybe someone can tell from the photo ! )
2. How much are they worth now-a-days ? (not that I would sell it, unless its woth a million, but I guess its not)

ODD-JOB

The Waltham clock company served up massive quantities of clocks and particularly pocket watches from the US.
so unfortunately they're not terribly rare.
The pocket watch is a little impracticle these days , which dosent help your situation either.
I havent seen a gold cased Waltham come for sale , but I'd imagine it would be a couple of hundred Euro.

The jewels, .. are almost always rubys or sapphires.
By 1917 i think there were simulated sapphires in production, which may or may not have been used by Waltham. This innovation of course made the pocket watch much more affordable to the prospective purchasers !
the jewels would be found lining the pivot pins around the circular holes in your image.
jewels reduced wear and tear of the mechanical friction, and helped keep a really precise timing !!
Now , 17 jewels dosent always mean it's a special mechanism... watchmaker used to throw in a few unneccesary jewels just to boost the market appeal !
(Kind of similar to the digital camera market , where people assume a 14 megapixel camera to be better than a 8 megapixel camera, which of course is usually untrue)

All that waffle and I probably didnt offer much help in resolving your questions

Wibbs

Good post from ODD-JOB there. Now my area of collecting in the past was early wristwatches, basically 1900 to 1940 odd. The early wristlets were mostly small pocket watch movements adapted for the purpose so I'd have some idea what was good or not. Now I would agree with most of his points. I would however say that although a common make, the vast bulk of those watches were of basic quality. They work, but....

Yours on the other hand, is of a higher quality than the usual. Screw chaton set jewels. Jeweled to the center too. The addition of jewels above 17 in a standard watch(no extra complications) is as ODD-JOB says done more for market appeal than accuracy(though it will help longevity). Yours is not. Many if not most pocket watches even of good quality would have been 15 jewels or less. early wristwatches(1910/30) of which I've had a few often had even less. 15 jewels was a sign of quality in fact. The center pivot was left out in the 15's as it had little wear by comparison. Yours has the center one too. Also the regulation mechanism is a complex and precise one. Not the standard. If the case is gold and not rolled gold/gold filled/or plated, then it's unusual again as many were melted down for the gold when wrist watches became popular. Maybe try to do a search for the AWW & Co(cant really see) company as they likely cased the watch around a waltham movement.

As for value? If it is pure gold(probably 14K, any higher and up price again), it has a good movement, then its worth a fair bit more than 200 quid. The american market likes pocket watches(especially american makers naturally). So does the european vintage market. Have a look at this site http://finertimes.com/asp/watches/query.asp?Title=Pocket+Watches&SubTitle=+-+Waltham&TypeCode=7&Where=(tblUsers.Active%3Dtrue)+AND+(tblInventory.Archive%3DFalse)+AND+(tblInventory.FTUse%3DTrue)+AND+(((tblTransactions.Status)+Is+Null+Or+(tblTransactions.Status)%3D%27Pending%27))+AND+(TypeCode%3D7)AND(Man_Code%3D%27125%27)&Page=1

If it was me I would see about getting it cleaned and maybe getting the mainspring replaced and balance work done too. Sadly in this country, quality work can be hard to find and when you do it's mad money.

Nice watch.

EDIT: what condition is the face in. They usually had "porcelain" dials which are prone to cracking. Original replacement dials are handy enough to get though. If it has a gold/metal dial then that usually adds to the value.

ODD-JOB

Thanks Wibbs !!
Wow, just looking at that link , they can get quite expensive then !
Ive learned a bit from your post Wibbs , Im actually not very strong on clocks or watches.... That was about my extent on Walthams !
Furniture / Oriental art is my thing !! or anything really unusual... tribal art , Islamic art etc.

Wibbs

ODD-JOB wrote: »

Im actually not very strong on clocks or watches.... That was about my extent on Walthams !

If that's you not being very strong on watches, you must know damn near everything about furniture and oriental art!:D

The pocket watches seem to going up in value of late. Especially(like always) quality stuff. with the recession I can see them going up even more after an initial flood of the market. One like the OP's, good quality movement and gold cased will always keep a decent value. Military ones have cache too. As I say the Americans(and the French apparently) really have a thing for pocket watches.

There was a time early wristwatches were two a penny. That changed though and now watches I could have(and did) bought for 50 quid would be in the 1000's range. Finite supply and all that.

Degsy

I was gonna buy this watch on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/Patek-Philippe-Celestial-Tourbillon-Repeater-5002_W0QQitemZ230311582699QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Jewelery_Watches_Watches_MensWatches_GL?hash=item230311582699&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1326%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

But they dont take paypal!:(

old boy

try some of the watch forums that deal in that type of watch,
elitedealseeker.com/watches will throw up a few,
they are usually well moderated, and are tightly run.

carrielou

Just wondering would anyone here be able to recommend a nice pocket watch for about €500 and if I could get one in Limerick area. Thanks

Wibbs

Big subject. As far as the modern ones go, you won't get much for that money other than pretty crap stuff. Plus Irish prices are frankly daft. I've seen low grade 8 jewel pocket watches go for 3/400 quid, when they would be barely worth 80 in the real world. In Ireland in general our knowledge of watches and pricing would not be good. Same with antiques TBH. Everything here seems to be a third more expensive than in Britain say. So for 500 euro you may not get much, nothing that would be worth investing in anyway.

I would personally get one online. That crowd I linked to above, here would be their selection in your price range. http://finertimes.com/asp/watches/query.asp?Title=Pocket+Watches&SubTitle=+-+%24200+and+%24500&Where=((Publish_Price%3C=500)AND(Publish_Price%3E200)AND(TypeCode=7))&TypeCode=7&PriceCode=2
I've gotten stuff from them before. With the dollar being low, it's a good time to buy too. That would be my take anyway.