# Waltham Pocket Watch



## Podie (Jul 27, 2010)

My grandfather has just passed me a Waltham pocket watch... (sorry for the poor quality photos)










It still winds, ticks along fairly nicely, the movement is clean and it even seems to keep pretty good time - pretty impressive given it has sat in a drawer for decades.

A quick check on the Internet against the serial number would suggest it was made in 1910, but I don't know much about them - is the back as they came from the factory?










I'm guessing the logo in the middle has been added afterwards?










Can anyone tell me much about them?

Thanks


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## Podie (Jul 27, 2010)

Oh, and it's a 17 jewel movement, marked "American Waltham Watch Co"

The inside of the rear case states "Banner Gold filled 125960" and has a maple leaf...


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## AVO (Nov 18, 2012)

That does look nice. A picture of the movement would be good, as these are often beautifully decorated. Also, if it has been lying in a drawer for decades, you should really get it looked at by a watchmaker before you run it too much.


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## Podie (Jul 27, 2010)

My parents took it to a "specialist", who just wound it up straight away apparently...

Movement is very plain...


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## Shiner (Mar 2, 2011)

Your watch is a Waltham 18 size open face Model 1883, Grade 85 with 17 jewels and a 'Star' micrometric regulator and adjusted to temperature.

It is housed in a case of Canadian manufacture. There is usually a letter 'E' in the centre of the Maple leaf and is the trade mark of the Ellis Company of Toronto.

The company retailed various types of jewellery plus pocket watches, including Omega, Waltham, Hamilton, Illinois etc., The company imported the watch movements and then housed them in their own cases. There were various grades of cases such as 'Regal' for solid gold and silver cases, 'Sovereign' for their 14K gold filled 25 years guaranteed cases and 'Banner' for their 14K 20 years gold filled cases.


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## Podie (Jul 27, 2010)

Blimey, thank you.

Due to the year of manufacture, we suspected it belong to my Great Grandfather - and the Canadian connection certainly ties in.

His initials were "CG" so I was wondering if the marking on the back of the case (on the outside) was to denote that.

Excuse the ignorance, but what does "gold filled case" actually mean?


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## Shiner (Mar 2, 2011)

The floral decoration on the rear cover would have been originally applied in the Ellis workshops, leaving a small vacant area in the centre for the initials of the original owner.

In making a gold filled case the following process was used. Two bars of 10K or 14k gold, twelve inches long by two inches wide and half an inch thick were placed on either side of a bar of base metal three quarters of an inch thick and the same length and width as the gold bars. The three bars were then soldered together under pressure and at a high temperature. The bars were sent through rolling mills under tremendous pressure, this rolling was repeated until the desired thickness was reached. The new sandwich type gold was now in a sheet. Discs were punched out of the sheet and pressed in a die to form a dish shaped cover. The cases were marked ten year, fifteen year, twenty year, twenty five year or thirty year. The number of years indicated the duration of the guarantee that the gold on the case would not wear through to the base metal. The higher the number of years indicates that more gold was used and that a higher price was paid.

In 1924 the US government prohibited any further use of the guaranteed terms of years. After that manufacturers simply marked their cases 10K or 14K Gold Filled.


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## Podie (Jul 27, 2010)

Brilliant, thank you. 

One last question - any idea what the list price would have been?


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## Shiner (Mar 2, 2011)

Your watch is a Grade 85 of which they made 68,400 made in 54 runs between 1st April 1897 and 31 August 1898. Your watch is from the 40th run which consisted of 2000 movements.

The cost of a Grade 85 was listed at the time as $18.68 for the movement only. The case would have been chosen by the purchaser when he bought the movement at the jewellers shop.


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## Podie (Jul 27, 2010)

Shiner, you sir are a legend.


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## Shiner (Mar 2, 2011)

Glad to be of some help. :yes:


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## neiln (Oct 24, 2013)

Shiner, if I have only Mastermind were still running!

Beep beep beep! I've started so I'll finish....


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