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# www.antique-pocket-watch.com

> Antique Pocket Watch is the definitive resource for collectors — history, serial numbers, values, repairs, eBay tips and more.

## Ball pocket watch.html

[The Ball Pocket Watch Company | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/ball-pocket-watch.html): History of the Ball Watch Company, formed 1879 - the railroad standards, who really made Ball watches, and how to read the markings. Learn more.

## American watch industry.html

[The American Watch Industry — Waltham to Hamilton | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/american-watch-industry.html): The full industrial story of American pocket watchmaking: how Waltham invented machine production, how the Civil War created the market, the rise of Elgin, Hamilton, and Illinois, the railroad standard, and the quartz collapse.

## Dublin hallmarks.html

[Dublin Hallmarks: Hibernia, Harp and Date Letter | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/dublin-hallmarks.html): Hibernia began in 1730 as the stamp for a sixpenny duty, not as Dublin's own mark - the crowned harp has been the standard mark since the first assay in 1638. A two-way lookup for 1638-1920, the three stretches of Jackson's tables that carry no usable cycle, and the asterisks with which he marks the years he could actually ascertain.

## Edinburgh hallmarks.html

[Edinburgh Hallmarks: Castle and Thistle | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/edinburgh-hallmarks.html): Edinburgh date letters from 1755 to 1921 from Jackson's tables, with a two-way lookup, and why Scots hallmarking guaranteed the standard with a named assay master until the thistle replaced him in 1759.

## Fake pocket watches.html

[Fake Pocket Watches — How to Spot Them, and Why Some Are Worth Collecting | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/fake-pocket-watches.html): Fake pocket watches — the history of Swiss forgeries, how to identify a fake, names that mimic genuine makers, and why period fakes are now collectible in their own right.

## Breitling watch.html

[The Breitling Watch — Aviation Chronographs, History & Chronology | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/breitling-watch.html): The Breitling watch company — from Léon Breitling's 1884 chronograph workshop to the Navitimer, Chronomat and Cosmonaute. Full history and chronology.

## Buying pocket watches.html

[Buying Pocket Watches — A Complete Guide for Collectors | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/buying-pocket-watches.html): How to buy antique pocket watches — where to find them, how to inspect the movement, dial, case and crystal, condition grading vocabulary, and the right questions to ask before you pay.

## Cylinder pocket watch.html

[Cylinder Escapement Pocket Watches — History & Collecting Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/cylinder-pocket-watch.html): The cylinder escapement dominated quality watchmaking from 1726 to 1850. Learn how it works, which makers used it, how to identify cylinder watches, and what to look for when collecting English and Swiss cylinder pocket watches.

## Calendar watch.html

[Settings of a Calendar Watch Winding Crown | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/calendar-watch.html): How to correctly set a calendar watch — crown positions for winding, date and time setting, illustrated with Rolex Oyster Perpetual and Breitling Chronomat examples.

## Elgin pocket watch.html

[Elgin National Watch Company | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/elgin-pocket-watch.html): The history of the Elgin National Watch Company 1864–1964 — America's largest pocket watch manufacturer, with serial number guide and original watch photographs.

## Elgin pocket watch serial.html

[Elgin Pocket Watch Serial Numbers — Elgin National Watch Co | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/elgin-pocket-watch-serial.html): Date any Elgin National Watch Co movement from 1867 to 1955 with the full serial number table, and find out why the grade number stamped beside the serial is the number that decides what the watch is worth.

## Deck watch.html

[Deck Watches — Naval Precision Timekeepers | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/deck-watch.html): The deck watch was the navigator's working instrument — a pocket-watch-sized precision timekeeper used to transfer time from the ship's chronometer to the observation deck. Learn their history, makers, and how to collect them.

## Chronograph pocket watch.html

[Chronograph Pocket Watch — History, Types & Collecting Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/chronograph-pocket-watch.html): The chronograph pocket watch explained — from Rieussec's ink-mark timer to the rattrapante split-seconds. History, mechanism, types, notable makers, and what to look for when collecting.

## Fossil pocket watches.html

[Fossil Pocket Watches — Collectors Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/fossil-pocket-watches.html): Fossil pocket watches — history of the brand, Disney collectors club series, limited editions, values and what to look for when buying vintage Fossil watches.

## Birmingham hallmarks.html

[Birmingham Hallmarks and the Anchor Mark | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/birmingham-hallmarks.html): The Birmingham assay office date letters from 1773 to 1924 from Jackson's 1921 tables, with a two-way lookup, the 1773 Parliamentary campaign that created the office, and the four different alphabet conventions its cycles used.

## English silver hallmarks.html

[English Silver Hallmarks: Identify and Date Any Piece](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/english-silver-hallmarks.html): The silver-facing entry point to the eleven assay-office tables on this site — 1,822 lettered years across 86 cycles, 1559 to 1924, transcribed from Jackson's 1921 plates. Carries a lookup that answers every office at once: give it a year and it shows what all eleven were striking, give it a letter and it shows how many different years in how many towns could have produced it. Also covers the three offices that all used a castle, the changeover dates that make the assay year differ from the calendar year, the non-English standard marks (Edinburgh's thistle, Glasgow's lion rampant, Dublin's crowned harp), and the periods when a mark was struck by a maker rather than an assay office at all.

## Chester hallmarks.html

[Chester Hallmarks on Pocket Watch Cases | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/chester-hallmarks.html): All eleven of Jackson's Chester tables, 1668 to 1921, with a two-way year/letter lookup that says which kind of answer it is giving you — attested, conjectured, taken from the assay office's own plate, or not recorded at all. Includes the Liverpool casemakers whose marks fill the Chester register, the cycle that omits I and uses J rather than the other way round, and the years Jackson's tables cannot settle.

## Glasgow hallmarks.html

[Glasgow Hallmarks: The Office That Stopped | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/glasgow-hallmarks.html): Glasgow struck a date letter from 1681, gave up around 1710 and did not begin again until the Act of 1819 created a real assay office. A two-way lookup for 1681-1705 and 1819-1921, why the S and O on Glasgow plate are not date letters, and the twelve rows Jackson marked conjectured.

## Hallmarks.html

[English Hallmarks on Pocket Watch Cases | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/hallmarks.html): How to read English hallmarks on antique pocket watch cases — assay offices, date letters, standard marks and maker's marks explained.

## Hamilton pocket watch serial.html

[Hamilton Pocket Watch Serial Numbers | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/hamilton-pocket-watch-serial.html): Complete Hamilton pocket watch serial number table — look up your serial number to find the approximate year of manufacture 1893–1942.

## Hamilton pocket watch.html

[The Hamilton Pocket Watch Co | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/hamilton-pocket-watch.html): History of the Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster, from its 1892 founding to the end of American production in 1969. Discover how it happened.

## Hampden pocket watch serial.html

[Hampden Pocket Watch Serial Numbers | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/hampden-pocket-watch-serial.html): Complete Hampden pocket watch serial number table 1877–1927.

## Hampden pocket watch.html

[The Hampden Pocket Watch Company | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/hampden-pocket-watch.html): History of the Hampden Watch Company — from the Mozart Watch Company of 1864 to Canton Ohio, the Dueber-Hampden era, railroad grades, special models and the eventual sale to Russia.

## Harley davidson pocket watch.html

[Harley Davidson Pocket Watch — Collector's Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/harley-davidson-pocket-watch.html): The complete guide to Harley-Davidson pocket watches — Franklin Mint series, Bulova 100th Anniversary, South Bend movements, values and what to collect.

## Cheap insurance.html

[Pocket Watch Collection Insurance — Complete Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/cheap-insurance.html): How to insure your pocket watch collection properly. Covers Jewelers Mutual, Chubb/HODINKEE, home contents riders, UK specialist insurers, agreed value vs replacement cost, and documentation.

## Centennial exhibition 1876.html

[1876: The Centennial Exhibition and the American System | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/centennial-exhibition-1876.html): How Waltham's machine-made watches stunned the world at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, why the Swiss sent Jacques David to investigate, and how his secret report saved Swiss watchmaking — the moment the American system changed the trade forever.

## Pocket watch identification.html

[How to Identify & Date a Pocket Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-identification.html): The order to identify an antique pocket watch in - the movement serial number for maker and year, the grade stamped beside it for value, then the case read as a separate object, and its hallmarks if it is British. Explains why a case serial number cannot date the watch. Start here.

## History of the chronograph.html

[Who Really Invented the Chronograph? | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/history-of-the-chronograph.html): The contested origin of the chronograph — Louis Moinet's 1816 compteur de tierces, Nicolas Rieussec's 1821 inking chronograph and the horse races that named it, and Adolphe Nicole's reset-to-zero. A collector's history of the stopwatch's ancestor.

## Keyless winding history.html

[Keyless Winding: Who Owned the Crown | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/keyless-winding-history.html): Keyless winding moved the winding square from the movement to the case pendant, which forced the trade to decide whether the crown belonged to the movement maker or the case maker. America answered negative set while movements and cases were sold separately, and positive set once factories cased their own watches. Read on.

## History of the tourbillon.html

[The Tourbillon: Breguet's Whirlwind | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/history-of-the-tourbillon.html): Breguet patented the rotating escapement carriage in 1801 to cancel the positional errors of a watch carried upright. How the tourbillon works, how Bonniksen's 1892 karrusel undercut it, what the Kew observatory trials proved, and what a collector should look for.

## London hallmarks.html

[London Hallmarks and the Leopard's Head | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/london-hallmarks.html): London date letters from 1678 to 1919 from Jackson's tables, with a two-way lookup, and how the Britannia standard of 1697, the Act of 1719 and the gold standards of 1798, 1844 and 1854 each rewrote the marks.

## Marine chronometer history.html

[The Marine Chronometer After Harrison | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/marine-chronometer-history.html): How the marine chronometer became standard naval equipment after Harrison — the 1818 Superintendent of Chronometers, the thirteen Admiralty Premium Trials of 1822–1836, Airy's trial-number formula, the Greenwich issue ledgers, the three-chronometer rule, and the wireless time signal that ended the system.

## Abraham louis breguet.html

[Abraham-Louis Breguet: The Greatest Name in Watchmaking | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/abraham-louis-breguet.html): The life, inventions and legacy of Abraham-Louis Breguet (1747–1823) — the tourbillon, the Breguet overcoil, the pare-chute, the Marie-Antoinette watch No. 160, and the Breguet style collectors still prize today.

## Pocket watch history.html

[The History of the Pocket Watch — A Collector's Library | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-history.html): A growing library of detailed, illustrated articles on the history of the pocket watch — the great horologists, the key inventions, the industrial age, and the watches and collectors that shaped five centuries of timekeeping.

## Howard pocket watch serial.html

[Howard (E. Howard) Pocket Watch Serial Numbers | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/howard-pocket-watch-serial.html): The E. Howard & Co. factory record of serial blocks 1858–1904, allocated by series and watch size with overlapping dates, plus the separate Keystone year table 1902–1930.

## How to read english hallmarks.html

[How to Read English Hallmarks on a Pocket Watch Case | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/how-to-read-english-hallmarks.html): Step-by-step guide to reading English hallmarks on antique pocket watch cases — identify the silver or gold standard, assay office town, date letter, and year of manufacture.

## Howard pocket watch.html

[The Howard Pocket Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/howard-pocket-watch.html): History of the E. Howard pocket watch company of Roxbury, Boston - the clockmaker who built America's finest and costliest watches. Read our guide.

## Illinois pocket watch serial.html

[Illinois Pocket Watch Serial Numbers | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/illinois-pocket-watch-serial.html): Complete Illinois pocket watch serial number table 1872–1948.

## Illinois pocket watch.html

[The Illinois Pocket Watch Company | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/illinois-pocket-watch.html): History of the Illinois Watch Company of Springfield, from the 1869 start-up to the 1927 Hamilton sale, with grades and buying advice. Read our guide.

## Index.html

[Antique Pocket Watch — Your Complete Guide to Collecting](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/index.html): Antique Pocket Watch is the definitive resource for collectors — history, serial numbers, values, repairs, eBay tips and more.

## Ingersoll watch.html

[The Ingersoll Watch & The Dollar Pocket Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/ingersoll-watch.html): The Ingersoll Dollar Watch — how Robert and Charles Ingersoll put a pocket watch in every pocket, the pin-lever movement, the Mickey Mouse watch of 1933, the British Triumph, and why these are worth collecting today.

## Iwc wristwatch.html

[The IWC Wristwatch — International Watch Company History & Models | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/iwc-wristwatch.html): The IWC wristwatch company — founded by American Florentine Ariosto Jones in 1868, makers of the Portugieser, Pilot's Watch, Ingenieur and Mark XI. Full history and models.

## History of the pocket watch.html

[History of the Pocket Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/history-of-the-pocket-watch.html): The complete history of the pocket watch — from the Nuremberg egg of the 1500s through the golden age of American watchmaking to the quartz revolution that ended an era.

## John harrison longitude problem.html

[John Harrison and the Longitude Problem | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/john-harrison-longitude-problem.html): The extraordinary story of clockmaker John Harrison and his H1–H4 marine timekeepers — illustrated with photographs of the Sinclair Harding H1 replica.

## Thomas mudge lever escapement.html

[Thomas Mudge and the Lever Escapement | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/thomas-mudge-lever-escapement.html): How Thomas Mudge, pupil of George Graham, invented the detached lever escapement around 1754 — the mechanism that would power almost every mechanical watch for two centuries — and how it works.

## John arnold thomas earnshaw.html

[Arnold & Earnshaw and the Chronometer | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/john-arnold-thomas-earnshaw.html): How John Arnold and Thomas Earnshaw perfected the spring detent escapement and turned the marine chronometer from Harrison's costly marvel into an affordable instrument.

## Jean antoine lepine.html

[Jean-Antoine Lépine & the Flat Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/jean-antoine-lepine.html): How Jean-Antoine Lépine's bridge calibre abolished the fusée and the full plate, created the slim pocket watch, and set the template for every modern movement.

## Makers.html

[Pocket Watch Makers — Complete Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/makers.html): Detailed histories and serial number tables for all major American and European pocket watch makers — Waltham, Elgin, Hamilton, Illinois, Hampden, Howard, Patek Philippe, Omega, Rolex and more.

## Mickey mouse pocket watch.html

[Mickey Mouse Pocket Watch | Collector's Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/mickey-mouse-pocket-watch.html): The complete guide to Mickey Mouse pocket watches — from Ingersoll's 1933 original to later Disney editions. History, identification, values and what to look for.

## Masonic pocket watch.html

[The Masonic Pocket Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/masonic-pocket-watch.html): Masonic pocket watches — history, symbolism, the unique Dudley Watch Company, and a complete collecting guide for these highly sought-after fraternal pieces.

## Military pocket watches.html

[Military Pocket Watches — British, American & WWI/WWII Issue Pieces | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/military-pocket-watches.html): Military pocket watches from the Boer War to WWII — how to identify genuine issue pieces, British broad arrow marks, American contract watches, Hamilton 4992B, and collecting values.

## Musical pocket watch.html

[The Musical Pocket Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/musical-pocket-watch.html): Musical pocket watches — how they work, automaton watches, the musical cylinder mechanism, famous makers and a complete collecting guide with photographs.

## New england watch company.html

[New England Watch Company — Trenton Watches & the Bridge to Ingersoll | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/new-england-watch-company.html): History of the New England Watch Company — successor to Waterbury, maker of Trenton-brand watches, and the final link in the chain from the dollar watch era to the Ingersoll takeover of 1914.

## New pocket watches.html

[New Pocket Watches — Buying Guide 2024 | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/new-pocket-watches.html): Buying a new pocket watch? This guide covers the best modern mechanical pocket watches from Tissot, Molnija and Seagull, plus what to expect at every budget.

## Newcastle hallmarks.html

[Newcastle Hallmarks: Three Castles and a Leopard | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/newcastle-hallmarks.html): Newcastle struck five and six marks where London struck four, including London's own leopard's head beside its three castles. A two-way lookup for 1721-1883, the row where the letter B was struck for nine years together, the assay master's sworn evidence of 22 March 1773, and a last cycle that stops at u because the office closed in 1884.

## Norwich hallmarks.html

[Norwich Hallmarks: When a Mark Is Not a Hallmark | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/norwich-hallmarks.html): Norwich ran a date letter for only fifty of its hundred and thirty-eight years, and Jackson writes that the marks of the intervening periods were in no sense hall marks but merely marks struck by the makers. A lookup for the three short cycles, the Say Master's oath of the Rose and Crowne, the fifty Elizabethan communion cups sharing one letter, and how to tell an assayed Norwich piece from a self-marked one.

## Omega watch.html

[The Omega Watch — History, Seamaster, Speedmaster & Chronology | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/omega-watch.html): The history of the Omega watch company, from Louis Brandt's 1848 workshop to the Speedmaster on the moon. Includes the Seamaster Professional and full Omega chronology.

## Open face pocket watch.html

[Open-Face Pocket Watch — History, Types & Collecting | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/open-face-pocket-watch.html): Everything about the open-face pocket watch — how it differs from a hunter case, why the railroad industry chose it, its design variations, and what to look for when collecting.

## Pair cased pocket watch.html

[Pair-Cased Pocket Watches — History, Hallmarks & Collecting | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pair-cased-pocket-watch.html): The pair-cased pocket watch dominated English horology from 1650 to 1800. Learn how pair cases work, how to read their hallmarks, what to look for when buying, and why they remain among the most collectable antique watches.

## Patek philippe pocket watch.html

[Patek Philippe Pocket Watch — History, References & Collecting | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/patek-philippe-pocket-watch.html): Patek Philippe pocket watches — complete guide to the company's history, landmark complications, key reference numbers, the serial number date table, and what genuine examples fetch at auction today.

## Pocket watch accessories.html

[Pocket Watch Accessories — Chains, Fobs, Cases & Care | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-accessories.html): The complete guide to pocket watch accessories — Albert chains, fobs, display cases, pouches, cleaning tools and storage. What you need, what to avoid, and where to buy.

## Pocket watch appraisal.html

[Pocket Watch Appraisal — How to Value Your Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-appraisal.html): How to get an antique pocket watch appraised — insurance vs fair market value, finding a qualified appraiser, the seven factors that determine value, and what a proper appraisal document should contain.

## Pocket watch books.html

[Pocket Watch Books — Recommended Reading | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-books.html): Recommended books for pocket watch collectors — price guides, identification guides, technical references and historical interest. With cover photographs.

## Pocket watch auction records.html

[Pocket Watch Auction Records — Notable Sales & What Makes a Watch Valuable | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-auction-records.html): The greatest pocket watch auction results in history — from the Patek Philippe Henry Graves Supercomplication to the world's most valuable American watches. What drives value at the top of the market.

## Pocket watch cleaning.html

[Cleaning a Pocket Watch — Ultrasonic, Hand Cleaning & What Not to Do | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-cleaning.html): How to clean an antique pocket watch correctly. What a watchmaker does when servicing a movement, how ultrasonic cleaning works, what you can safely clean yourself, and the mistakes that damage watches.

## Pocket watch collecting.html

[Pocket Watch Collecting | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-collecting.html): A complete guide to pocket watch collecting — history, what to buy, tips for beginners and experienced collectors alike.

## Pocket watch display case.html

[Pocket Watch Display Cases | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-display-case.html): How to display your pocket watch collection beautifully and safely — glass-top cases, lockable burr walnut boxes, mahogany chests and storage solutions, with photographs.

## Pocket watch fakes guide.html

[Fake Pocket Watches — The Complete Guide to Spotting Fakes | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-fakes-guide.html): A deep-dive guide to fake and misrepresented antique pocket watches: dial fraud, movement swaps, marriage watches, upgraded grades, fake railroad grades, and counterfeit signatures — and how to spot them all.

## Pocket watch gift.html

[Pocket Watch as a Gift — What to Buy and What to Avoid | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-gift.html): Buying a pocket watch as a gift? This practical guide covers what to look for, what to spend, what occasions suit a pocket watch, and how to get engraving right.

## Pocket watch grades.html

[Pocket Watch Grades and Jewels Explained | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-grades.html): What do pocket watch grade numbers mean? How do jewels work in a watch movement? A complete guide to understanding grades, jewel counts, adjustments, and quality markings on antique pocket watches.

## Pocket watch makers marks.html

[Pocket Watch Makers Marks — Illustrated Identification Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-makers-marks.html): An illustrated guide to pocket watch and movement makers marks — over 100 marks from Swiss, German, American, and Russian manufacturers, each with an image of the mark and notes on the maker.

## Pocket watch movement parts.html

[Pocket Watch Movement Parts — Illustrated Reference Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-movement-parts.html): An illustrated reference guide to every component in a pocket watch movement — screws, wheels, pinions, escapement parts, balance, mainspring, and more, with drawings of each part.

## Pocket watch movements.html

[Pocket Watch Movement Types — Full Plate, 3/4 Plate & More | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-movements.html): A complete guide to pocket watch movement types: full plate, three-quarter plate, half plate, bar movements, pillar plate, bridges, and cock — what they mean and how to identify them.

## Pocket watch case.html

[Pocket Watch Cases — Types, Sizes and How They Open | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-case.html): Antique pocket watch case construction — open-face, hunter, half-hunter and pair-cased; the bezel, bow, pendant and cuvette; American case sizes 0–23; how each type opens and how to open one safely; and what to look for when buying.

## Pocket watch case markings.html

[Pocket Watch Case Markings — What the Stamps Inside Actually Mean | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-case-markings.html): Decodes the marks stamped inside an antique pocket watch case — karat and fineness figures, the gold-filled fraction that is misread more than any other mark, the year-guarantee wording and what it really promised, the nickel alloys named after silver that contain none, and the American case makers’ own trademarks. Explains why the United States never had an assay office, so no American case can be dated from its marks the way a British one can, and carries a searchable decoder covering 34 markings in 155 spellings.

## Pocket watch parts diagram.html

[Pocket Watch Parts — Complete Illustrated Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-parts-diagram.html): A complete illustrated guide to every part of a pocket watch — two detailed diagrams showing all 55 numbered components across four assemblies, with full descriptions of how each part interacts.

## Pocket watch parts.html

[Pocket Watch Parts — A to Z | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-parts.html): Complete A–Z glossary of pocket watch parts and descriptions — from the balance wheel to the winding stem.

## Pocket watch repair.html

[Pocket Watch Repair — Tools & Techniques | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-repair.html): Complete pocket watch repair guide — every tool you need explained with photographs, from case openers and screwdrivers to loupes, oilers and hand-setting tools.

## Pocket watch serial numbers.html

[Pocket Watch Serial Numbers — Date & Identify Any Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-serial-numbers.html): How to find and use your pocket watch serial number to identify the maker, date of manufacture, grade, and jewel count. Hub page linking all five serial number tables for Waltham, Hamilton, Illinois, Hampden, and Howard.

## Pocket watch storage.html

[Pocket Watch Storage, Winding & Care | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-storage.html): How to store, wind, and care for an antique pocket watch collection. Humidity control, display options, winding schedules, and what to avoid to keep your watches running and in top condition.

## Pocket watch value.html

[Antique Pocket Watch Value | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-value.html): How to determine the value of an antique pocket watch — condition grades explained, supply and demand, and how eBay can help.

## Thomas tompion george graham.html

[Tompion & Graham: Fathers of English Watchmaking | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/thomas-tompion-george-graham.html): How Thomas Tompion and George Graham made London the centre of world watchmaking — the numbered series that began serial numbering, Graham's cylinder escapement and dead-beat clock escapement, the workshop at the Dial and Three Crowns, and what their surviving work is worth to a collector.

## Railroad pocket watch.html

[The Railroad Pocket Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/railroad-pocket-watch.html): The story of the railroad pocket watch — how the 1891 Kipton disaster and Webb C. Ball's General Railroad Timepiece Standards changed American watchmaking forever.

## Repeater pocket watch.html

[The Repeater Pocket Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/repeater-pocket-watch.html): The repeater pocket watch — history, how the mechanism works, types from quarter to minute repeater, famous makers and collecting guide, with photographs.

## Repeater wristwatch.html

[Repeater Wristwatches — The Minute Repeater in Wristwatch Form | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/repeater-wristwatch.html): The minute repeater wristwatch: how the complication works, its history from pocket watch to wrist, the technical challenges of miniaturisation, and the great makers.

## Rockford pocket watch.html

[The Rockford Watch Company | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/rockford-pocket-watch.html): History of the Rockford Watch Company — from Cornell Watch Company roots in 1874 to closure in 1915. Grades, serial numbers, railroad watches and collecting guide.

## Rolex oyster.html

[The Rolex Oyster Watch — History, Models & Chronology | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/rolex-oyster.html): The Rolex Oyster watch — Hans Wilsdorf, the waterproof case, Mercedes Gleitze and the complete Rolex chronology from 1905 to the present. Submariner, Datejust, GMT-Master and Daytona.

## Seth thomas pocket watch.html

[Seth Thomas Pocket Watch — History, Models & Values | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/seth-thomas-pocket-watch.html): The complete history of Seth Thomas pocket watches — from the Plymouth Hollow factory of 1853 to the Thomaston era, railroad grades, the Maiden Lane series, and what collectors look for today.

## Sinclair harding.html

[Sinclair Harding — Makers of Fine English Clocks | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/sinclair-harding.html): Sinclair Harding of West Yorkshire — one of Britain's finest clockmakers. History, clock collection, the H1 replica and the new SH Bray Watch. Visit clockmakers.com.

## Sitemap.html

[Site Index — Every Page on Antique Pocket Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/sitemap.html): Complete index of every page on Antique-Pocket-Watch.com — pocket watch guides, maker histories, serial number tables, hallmarks, eBay tools, repair, values and more.

## Skeleton pocket watch.html

[Skeleton Pocket Watch — History, Collecting & Values | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/skeleton-pocket-watch.html): The skeleton pocket watch — where engineering becomes art. History from Caron to Breguet, the skeletonisation process, what to look for, and current collecting values.

## Solar powered watches.html

[Solar-Powered Watches — Citizen Eco-Drive and Light-Powered Technology | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/solar-powered-watches.html): How solar-powered watches work: the history of Citizen Eco-Drive, light-to-electricity conversion, power reserve, and a guide to the main solar watch lines.

## South bend pocket watch.html

[The South Bend Watch Company — Studebaker, Polaris & the Purple Ribbon Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/south-bend-pocket-watch.html): History of the South Bend Watch Company — the Studebaker family, the Purple Ribbon Watch, Polaris railroad grade, serial numbers and collecting guide.

## Sheffield hallmarks.html

[Sheffield Hallmarks: the Crown and the Rose | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/sheffield-hallmarks.html): The Sheffield crown, the York rose used on gold from 1904, why Sheffield plate is not Sheffield silver, and a date-letter lookup for 1824 to 1920 - the first fifty years of Sheffield letters ran in no order at all.

## Swiss watch industry.html

[The Swiss Watch Industry — Vallée de Joux to the Quartz Crisis | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/swiss-watch-industry.html): The story of the Swiss watch industry: from Calvinist Geneva and the Jura mountain workshops to the établissage system, the great luxury houses, the American challenge, and the quartz crisis that nearly ended it all.

## Timex pocket watch.html

[Timex Pocket Watch — History, Models & Values | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/timex-pocket-watch.html): Timex pocket watches — from the original Ingersoll Yankee Dollar Watch to the Indiglo Expedition. History, models, values and the story of America's most democratic watchmaker.

## Verge fusee pocket watch.html

[Verge and Fusee Pocket Watches — History & Collecting Guide | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/verge-fusee-pocket-watch.html): The verge escapement with fusee is the earliest type of pocket watch mechanism. Learn how verge-fusee watches work, how to identify them, what they are worth, and what to look for when collecting these historic pieces.

## Waltham pocket watch company.html

[The Waltham Pocket Watch Company — Scientific American, 1881 | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/waltham-pocket-watch-company.html): The Waltham Pocket Watch Company — a complete account of the factory, machinery and 3,746 operations required to make a Waltham watch. Reproduced from Scientific American, August 1881.

## Waltham pocket watch serial.html

[American Waltham Watch Co Pocket Watch Serial Numbers — The Full Table, 1852 to 1957](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/waltham-pocket-watch-serial.html): The complete Waltham movement-number table with an instant look-up, plus the three company names the factory signed its plates with — American Watch Co., American Waltham Watch Co. and Waltham Watch Co. — and the movement-versus-case confusion that causes most wrongly dated Walthams.

## Waltham pocket watch.html

[American Waltham Pocket Watch Company | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/waltham-pocket-watch.html): The complete history of the American Waltham Watch Company — from its 1850 founding to the final movement in 1957, with rare Victorian factory engravings.

## Waterbury pocket watch.html

[Waterbury Pocket Watch — The Long Wind & the Dollar Watch | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/waterbury-pocket-watch.html): History of the Waterbury Watch Company — the revolutionary long-wind movement of 1880, the Series A through N watches, the dollar watch era, and the transition to the New England Watch Company and Ingersoll.

## Watch papers.html

[Watch Papers: The Hidden Art Inside the Case | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/watch-papers.html): Watch papers — the little printed and hand-cut discs tucked inside pair-cased pocket watches. What they were for, how watchmakers turned them into advertising and repair records, the love tokens hidden among them, and why they are now an affordable collecting field of their own.

## Watch winders.html

[Watch Winders — How They Work and Whether You Need One | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/watch-winders.html): Everything you need to know about watch winders for automatic wristwatches — how they work, types of winder, turns per day, direction settings, and who really needs one.

## Wrist watches.html

[Wrist Watches — Brand Guides, History & Articles | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/wrist-watches.html): Wristwatch brand guides, history and articles — Breitling, Rolex, Omega, IWC, Cartier, Oris and more. Written for people who also love pocket watches.

## Pocket watch serial lookup.html

[Pocket Watch Serial Number Lookup — Free App | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/pocket-watch-serial-lookup.html): Free instant pocket watch serial number lookup. Enter a Waltham, Hamilton, Elgin, Illinois, Hampden or E. Howard serial number to find year, grade, and live eBay prices. Installable app — works offline.

## About.html

[About This Site | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/about.html): About Antique-Pocket-Watch.com — who writes it, why it exists, and the editorial standards behind a collector-run reference resource on antique and vintage pocket watches.

## Privacy.html

[Privacy Policy | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/privacy.html): Privacy policy for Antique-Pocket-Watch.com — how we handle your data, use of cookies, Google Analytics and Google AdSense.

## Contact.html

[Contact | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/contact.html): Contact Antique-Pocket-Watch.com — get in touch with questions, corrections, or image permission enquiries about antique and vintage pocket watches.

## Longines pocket watch.html

[The Longines Pocket Watch — History, Calibres & Collecting | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/longines-pocket-watch.html): Longines pocket watches — from the 1867 factory to the finest Swiss chronograph movements. History, key calibres, serial numbers and what to collect.

## Vacheron constantin pocket watch.html

[Vacheron Constantin Pocket Watch — The World's Oldest Watch Manufacturer | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/vacheron-constantin-pocket-watch.html): History of Vacheron Constantin pocket watches — Jean-Marc Vacheron's 1755 Geneva workshop, the great complications, enamel miniatures, and collecting.

## Jaeger lecoultre pocket watch.html

[Jaeger-LeCoultre Pocket Watch — The Watchmakers' Watchmaker | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/jaeger-lecoultre-pocket-watch.html): History of Jaeger-LeCoultre pocket watches — Antoine LeCoultre's 1833 Le Sentier workshop, the millionometre, and the great 19th-century complications.

## Zenith pocket watch.html

[Zenith Pocket Watch — Le Locle & the Observatory Champion | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/zenith-pocket-watch.html): History of Zenith pocket watches — Georges Favre-Jacot's 1865 Le Locle factory, the observatory chronometer victories, the Elite calibres, and collecting.

## Audemars piguet pocket watch.html

[Audemars Piguet Pocket Watch — Le Brassus & the Family Manufacture | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/audemars-piguet-pocket-watch.html): History of Audemars Piguet pocket watches — the 1875 Le Brassus workshop, the grand complications of the Vallée de Joux era, and collecting AP today.

## Iwc pocket watch.html

[IWC Pocket Watch — Schaffhausen & the American Engineer | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/iwc-pocket-watch.html): History of IWC pocket watches — F. A. Jones's 1868 Schaffhausen factory, the Lépine and Savonnette grades, the Pallweber digital, and collecting.

## Omega pocket watch.html

[Omega Pocket Watch — Biel, the Omega Calibre & Railroad Service | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/omega-pocket-watch.html): History of Omega pocket watches — Louis Brandt's 1848 La Chaux-de-Fonds workshop, the 1894 Labrador calibre, railroad and military grades, and collecting.

## Cartier wristwatch.html

[Cartier Wristwatch — History, Santos, Tank & Collecting | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/cartier-wristwatch.html): Cartier watch history — from the Cartier jewellery house of 1847 to the Santos, Tank and Pasha, the jeweller who invented the modern wristwatch.

## Oris wristwatch.html

[Oris Watches — History, Big Crown & Divers | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/oris-wristwatch.html): Oris watch history — the independent Swiss maker from Holstein since 1904. Big Crown Pointer Date, Divers Sixty-Five, Aquis and vintage collecting guide.

## Ebay pocket watch.html

[Buying & Selling Pocket Watches on eBay | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/ebay-pocket-watch.html): Buying and selling antique pocket watches on eBay — finding bargains, avoiding scams, getting the best price, plus two free PDF guides from Terry Gibbs.

## Ebay scams.html

[eBay Pocket Watch Scams & How to Avoid Them | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/ebay-scams.html): The most common eBay pocket watch scams — gold traps, movement swaps, fake grades, shill bidding and more. Protect yourself before you bid.


## York hallmarks.html

[York Hallmarks: The Mark That Changed Twice | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/york-hallmarks.html): York's town mark is on record twelve years before the Act of 1423 that authorised it, changed from a half leopard's head to a half crowned rose in 1632 with no record of the change, and became the city arms in 1700. A two-way lookup over eleven cycles from 1559 to 1856, the fifty-nine years when the office was shut and York plate went to Newcastle, and why the same mark was described three different ways by three Victorian authorities who were all correct.

## Exeter hallmarks.html

[Exeter Hallmarks: The Office That Served a Region | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/exeter-hallmarks.html): Exeter is not named in the Act of 1423 and had no assay office until 1701, yet its goldsmiths had marked plate for a century and a half, and the surviving work sits in parish churches across Devon, Cornwall and Somerset rather than in the city. A two-way lookup over the nine cycles from 1701 to 1882, the 154 years that cannot be dated at all, the assay master who told Parliament he had never read the Act he worked under, and the sixty years when Exeter used London's letters a year late.

## Jewelled bearings history.html

[Why Watches Have Jewels: The Patent Fight of 1704 | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/jewelled-bearings-history.html): The jewelled bearing entered watchmaking as English patent no. 371, granted on 1 May 1704 to the mathematician Nicolas Fatio de Duillier and the Soho watchmakers Peter and Jacob Debaufre for a method of piercing rubies with a diamond point. Their attempt to widen it by Act of Parliament into a monopoly over the use of any stone in any clock or watch was defeated in January 1705 when the Clockmakers' Company exhibited an older watch by Ignatius Huggerford that already contained one, and the Company then bought that watch for two pounds ten shillings and kept it as evidence. What gave England its long lead in jewelling afterwards was not the patent, which expired in 1718, but the difficulty of the craft; and the jewel count printed on a movement stopped being a signal of money spent once synthetic rubies became a commodity around the turn of the twentieth century.

## Nuremberg egg first watches.html

[The Nuremberg Egg: Myth and Reality | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/nuremberg-egg-first-watches.html): Almost every element of the Nuremberg egg story is a real thing moved to the wrong place. The name is a corruption of Ueurlein, little clocks, as Eierlein, little eggs, a slip that reached print in Johann Fischart's 1571 German Rabelais; the oval cases the phrase describes became fashionable around 1580, nearly forty years after Peter Henlein died in 1542. The drum-shaped watch signed Petrus Hele me fecit Norimberga 1510, acquired by the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in 1897 and long treated as proof that Henlein invented the pocket watch, carries a signature that a museum guide of 1930 already called a later forgery, and 3D computer tomography in 2013 and 2014 showed a movement whose parts never belonged together and which is largely a nineteenth-century construction. The only contemporary evidence is Johannes Cochlaeus's praise of 1511, which says Hele made spring-driven clocks that ran forty hours carried at the breast or in a purse, and claims no invention; the mainspring itself predates him by a century. The earliest surviving dated watch is the spherical Melanchthon watch of 1530 in the Walters Art Museum, which ran twelve to sixteen hours on a wind and told the time to the nearest half hour.

## Form watches.html

[Form Watches: Skulls and Curiosities | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/form-watches.html): Between about 1550 and the 1670s the fashionable watch was made in the form of something else - a skull that opened at the jaw, a Latin cross worn at the girdle, a book, a cockle shell, a tulip, a dog or a lamb - because a verge watch with one hand, no minute divisions and no balance spring could not be sold on its accuracy; the Metropolitan Museum of Art records that neither the jewellery watches nor the timekeeping watches of the period were accurate. The case was goldsmith, lapidary and enameller work rather than the watchmaker's, and Paris watchmakers only took the right to make their own gold and silver cases from the goldsmiths in 1627; painted enamel is credited to Jean Toutin of Chateaudun, 1578-1644, and the trade ran between Blois, Geneva, Augsburg and London along Huguenot lines. The fashion ended when the balance spring of 1675 made the watch a serious timekeeper and the dial had to carry minutes. Three of the most famous skull watches are catalogued by their own museums as far later than their legends: the Mary Queen of Scots watch at the Science Museum is dated 1780-1850 and is one of three first recorded in 1822; the Metropolitan Museum skull 17.190.1575 has a case of about 1810-20 around a movement of about 1650; and the Walters skull 58.18 is inscribed Memento Mori, I. C. Thorne 1885.

## Balance spring invention.html

[The Balance Spring of 1675 | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/balance-spring-invention.html): In 1675 a spiral spring was applied to the arbor of the balance and the watch became a timekeeper, moving from roughly a quarter of an hour a day out to minutes a day out. Christiaan Huygens published the invention in the Journal des Scavans in 1675 and it was reprinted in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions; Robert Hooke answered in the postscript to A Description of Helioscopes in 1676, claiming the idea from 1660, describing the patent clause over which he refused to sell it and concealed the rest, citing his 1664 Cutlerian Lectures at Gresham College where he explained above twenty several ways of applying a spring to a balance, and complaining that Huygens might have mentioned the first inventer. Hooke also printed the anagram ceiiinosssttuu for the true theory of elasticity, which is ut tensio sic vis, Hooke's law - the physics behind the spring and not a coded claim to the watch. The visible consequence is the minute hand: a watch of about 1630-40 carries one hand and hours only, while a Thomas Tompion pair-case of 1682-83 carries two hands and a ring divided and numbered to sixty, which makes the minute track a dating tool in both directions.

## English watchmaking history.html

[The Rise and Fall of English Watchmaking | Antique Pocket Watch](https://www.antique-pocket-watch.com/english-watchmaking-history.html): In 1796 some 191,678 watches were stamped at Goldsmiths' Hall, a figure the Victoria County History says has never been equalled and warns may include inferior watches carrying forged makers' names; by 1842 the annual average passing the Hall was about 14,000 gold and 85,000 silver, so the English trade had roughly halved before an American machine-made watch existed. The article argues that the English outwork system - Prescot rough movements finished at Liverpool, Coventry, Birmingham and Clerkenwell, across thirty-four principal crafts by Pearson's 1817-18 count and 102 separate operations by another - divided labour more finely than any factory while owning no building, no machinery and no firm large enough to buy a machine shop, which is why Pierre Frederic Ingold's British Watch Company of 1843 at 75 Dean Street was defeated by the trade rather than by the technology. It sets the Swiss etablisseur and the American factory against it, quoting Marx's 1867 footnote that La Chaux-de-Fond may be looked upon as a huge watch manufactory, and records the import duty falling from 25 per cent to 10 per cent in 1842 and to nothing in 1860. England did build machine factories: William Ehrhardt of Birmingham at 500 watches a week in 1880, Rotherham of Coventry sending its works manager to America for machinery that same year and reaching 100 a day by 1899, and the Lancashire Watch Company registered on 5 December 1888, in production at Albany Road, Prescot from 1890 and recorded at 500 watches a day in 1894, against Waltham's 2,500 a day around 1900. Coventry employed 4,100 people in watchmaking in 1891, of whom 534 were women, while Waltham employed 1,400 women and 500 men. The Lancashire Watch Company failed in 1910 with an estimated 70 per cent of its output going to the mail-order house J. G. Graves; the coda is the Anglo-Celtic Watch Company at Ystradgynlais, which made over thirty million watches between 1946 and 1980. The collecting section separates hand-finished English fusee watches from the under-collected English machine-made grades signed with a town rather than a person's name.