# Regarding Cased Time Pieces



## nbckly (Mar 17, 2010)

My question regards the latch on a pocket watch with a case. Recently, I was ill fortuned to have purchased a cheap watch for an event. It served its purpose, that of being a showpiece and conversation starter, but it was not for keeping time. Whenever the case was opened, by the pressing of a button in the center of the crown, the crown would, along with the button, be pushed down, enabling the time setting function. Because of this, the time would skip forward and back so that the watch would not be accurate. My question is this: do most pocket watches with a case suffer this same design flaw? I would hope that they do not. I am also looking to but a watch with a case for a price under one hundred dollars. If you have any answers to my questions, I would greatly accept and appreciate them. Many thanks to you.


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## Julian Latham (Jul 25, 2005)

I've got several Swiss hunter cased watches dating from the forties to the sixties and half a dozen Russian ones from the seventies and more recently, none of them have the problem you describe.

I have seen some very poorly made Chinese watches that can be picked up on ebay for a few pounds. Modern pocket watches appear to be fairly expensive in retail shops but good Swiss and Russian ones can still be picked up at auctions and on ebay.

Most of mine are 'open faced', like this ..........










........ but are still interesting and unusual as they have embossed case backs of different design.

The embossed case of one of my Turkish Railways watches ...........










........ either would meet your requirement as a conversation piece - and still serve as first class time-keepers.

Happy hunting.


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## nbckly (Mar 17, 2010)

Fantastic. I expected that to be the case, but I am relieved to hear that from another body. On a side note, the back of your watch is simply marvelous! It has the air of another time, and I certainly appreciate it. I would congratulate you, but more so should I congratulate the smith! May I ask his name, or perhaps the company's that furnished that fantastic watch.


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## Julian Latham (Jul 25, 2005)

nbckly said:


> Fantastic. I expected that to be the case, but I am relieved to hear that from another body. On a side note, the back of your watch is simply marvelous! It has the air of another time, and I certainly appreciate it. I would congratulate you, but more so should I congratulate the smith! May I ask his name, or perhaps the company's that furnished that fantastic watch.


The design is for Turkish State Railways (TCDD) who had them supplied initially by the Swiss company Cortebert. Most were open faced with a smaller number being Hunter cases. The Russian company Molnija supplied TCDD ('60s/'70s) with an open faced watch with the locomotive & Demiryolu embossed case back and seem to have used the locomotive only quite widely on other watches they sold.

Try ebay for combinations of the following (in watches and jewellery) (TCDD,T.C.D*,Turk*) or (USSR,RUSSI*,MOLN*) or (train,engine,loco*,rail*) or, simply, Cortebert.

It might take a while to sift through the results :lol: An example, ebay item No. 170461562559.

Julian (L)


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## nbckly (Mar 17, 2010)

Wow, thank you! I have been looking, but I am not sure of buying off of ebay. Simply because I cannot be assured of quality. Do you, or does anybody, know of a reputable internet vendor that offers pocket watches of sound quality for near one hundred US dollars? I mean not to invite the breaking of rules, and I hope that I am not breaking them in asking. I ask merely out of curiosity, despite the fact that this is probably mentioned elsewhere in the forum. I feel that this would be an appropriate time to ask.


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## Shangas (Jan 27, 2008)

You could try www.pocketwatcher.org and www.pocketwatchsite.com


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