Most American watches will have the maker’s name on the dial of the watch and the movement.
The mid-1800s saw the rise of mass manufacture watches from the United States (Elgin, Hamilton, Waltham, Illinois, South Bend, and others). Most of the cases were easily opened and identified. These watches have their maker proudly displayed on the dial and the movement. Well-known makers manufactured timepieces of quality. The wheels and plates were manufactured by individual shops and sent out to be assembled by jewelers or individuals. Many were cottage industry “generic” watches. Lever and cylinder escapement pocket watches (non-Fusee) were produced in abundance throughout Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries. Carefully sliding a lever will remove the dust cover gaining access to the movement for identification. These early movements used a mechanism called a chain-driven “fusee.” These typically had two cases, an outer shell and an inter case that swings out, exposing the dust cover. Watches from the 1700s-1800s will usually have the origin and name of the maker engraved on the movement (the movement is the inside workings of the watch).
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Hamilton’s Piping Rock watch, an Art Deco–inspired design that featured elegant Roman numerals set in black for the hour markers, made its debut in 1928 and was gifted to the New York Yankees to celebrate their World Series win that year. Byrd timed his historic flights over glaciers and chunks of sea ice with a Hamilton pocket watch in the late 1920s, and a Hamilton timepiece used by Byrd during these expeditions went on display in 2018 at the National Watch & Clock Museum. Legendary polar explorer Admiral Richard E. The general public’s interest in Hamilton watches grew rapidly in the 1920s.
The new style of watch was also appealing to aviators, and Hamilton aeronautical watches became all the rage among pilots, specifically those flying for the new U.S. Hamilton transitioned from pocket watches to wristwatches in 1914, as it supplied timepieces to American troops fighting in World War I. Wristwatches, naturally, were more convenient to wear and use in battle. The East Coast company’s timepieces eventually earned the moniker “The Watch of Railroad Accuracy.” Hamilton’s pocket watches were extremely alluring to train conductors, who began buying them en masse. Railway workers would be required to wear a pocket watch, as the timepieces were responsible for keeping conductors on schedule, and the watchmaking industry - and early American pocket-watch manufacturers such as Hamilton, Elgin National Watch Company and the Waltham Watch Company - benefitted. But, despite setting these zones, train conductors were not always synchronized, leading to deadly accidents on the railroads.Įnter watchmaker Hamilton, founded in 1892. Therefore, in 1883, the railroad companies established the four time zones as we know them today. Back then, time was not standardized across the country. In an era when the safety of America’s bustling railroads absolutely depended on accurate timepieces for its conductors, watchmaker Hamilton pioneered cutting-edge, impossibly precise watches in a complex that spanned one square city block of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, during the late 19th century.Īs railroad tracks were laid across the United States and steam locomotives began traversing vast distances, the American railroad system ran into a problem.
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