Pocket Watches: Traditional or Modern?

FSCJedi

FSCJedi

Joined
Oct 19, 2002
Messages
711
I have a few questions on these magnificent additions to human civilization.

What I mean by by my title is, do you all in general prefer the watches you have to wind to keep powered, or the ones that have a battery and require no winding? Which generally have more accurate time-keeping? Can you get them with more jewels than 17 (like the cheap Wal-mart watches)? If you prefer wound watches, about how many times a day do you rewind your watch (or do you just do it whenever you check the time, like I tend to do)?

That's all I can think of for now. If any of your answers spur more questions, I'll be sure to post. :) Thanks in advance!
 
I like the mechanical watches better, pocket or wrist. That said, all I have now are electronic watches. I just bought my first pocket watch off ebay and its a quartz movement. I would have preferred wind-up, but before I wrap up a significant amount of $ I need to see how I will take to carrying a pocket watch. I am also going to get my old wind-up wrist fixed. I guess I am tired of the plastic watches. I also favor blued steel guns over the tupperware blasters.
Bob
 
Mechanical pocketwatches by far are nicer. Vintage pocketwatches are the only way to go. They just don't make pocketwatches like they used to. Find a nice Waltham, Elgin, Hamilton, etc. off Ebay. It's not going to heep better time than a quartz watch. Quartz pocket watches are junk. Don't worry too much about the number of jewels. A nice vintage pocketwatch has enough jewels to do the job. Seventeen is plenty. Only wind a watch once a day. At the same time every day if possible.
 
17 jewels is more or less the standard for mechanical watches, as it increases wear resistance in all those points of the movement where it really is required.

More jewels do not hurt, of course, but there is not much use either, and the movement will still need servicing occasionally. And since the jewels are made of synthetic ruby worth five cents apiece the jewel number alone cannot account that much for the price of the watch.

But if you really want a lot of jewels, you can try to get an old Waltham 100-jewel watch like shown in this TimeZone article . :)

Kristofer
 
I can't imagine the need for a modern pocket watch. Mechanical is certainly the way to go. In addition to the great American brands, check eBay for some Swiss ones to. My favorite (esp for wristwatches) is IWC.

Agree with the comment about not getting hung up on jewel count. "jewels" are sythetic rubies which act as bearings and cost about $0.02/each. No mfg of a "nice" watch would skimp on them to save money.
 
Jewels are used at critical places where metal to metal wear would be unacceptable. They are like a friction bearing... They work great because for all intents and purposes, they never wear out. Somewhere around 17 to 23 jewels are all that are needed on a properly constructed pocketwatch. Some unscrupulous manufacturers actually lined the inner case with additional jewels just to boast more jewels, however, they were not used for anything.
 
Any one have any experience with those Russian Molinja mechanical pocket watches? I don't care for the looks of most of them, but am curious as to how they preform.
Bob
 
Originally posted by rdg
Any one have any experience with those Russian Molinja mechanical pocket watches? I don't care for the looks of most of them, but am curious as to how they preform.
Bob
Click to expand...

Basically, you get what you pay for. The Russian watches found on ebay are so-so. I would rather find a nice vintage Elgin, Hamilton or Waltham.
 
Thanks Bob, I just want to see if I will really use a pocket watch before I spent a goodly sum on one. I did buy an inexpensive quartz one that is on the way, but I like mechanical better. Thus my question. Thank you for your response.
Bob
 
Variety is the spice of life,

I have three wind-up pocket watches. Right now I´m wearing a manual wind Poljot wristwatch. I have three mechanical automatics, Citizen, Orient and Mido, I have several quartz watches including a Citizen Eco-drive which uses ambient light to recharge it´s battery.

It´s hard to choose a favorite, but I tend to wear mechanicals most, though I often use a quartz watch to set them back on time.

As for Russian watches I like my Poljot, good and not expensive, there´s plenty of information around, you can try a search in this forum or look around the web.

I also have a Fantom pocket watch that I thought was Russian but did a search on the Web recently and only found a Fantom wrist watch and it mentioned it was Swiss. There are no markings on the watch as to it´s origin.
 
Glad to see that some people out there still carry one. I've started only winding once about the same time each day and mine has started keeping better time. Go figure! haha. :) Thanks!

P.S. Quick question. I am guessing that "Mechanical" means the ones you have to wind, and "Quartz" means it has an internal battery that will need replacing eventually, correct?
 
Originally posted by FSCJedi
P.S. Quick question. I am guessing that "Mechanical" means the ones you have to wind, and "Quartz" means it has an internal battery that will need replacing eventually, correct?
Click to expand...

My view is that it has to do with how it manages to keep time (that is, running at a steady rate), if it uses a spring, a pendulum or some other mechanical means it´s mechanical, if it uses something electrical, atomic or something not related to classical Newtonian physics it is not mechanical. Quartz is a crystal that vibrates when electricity is applied to it, the vibrations are used to keep the time, there are other non mechanical watches, such as the old Bulovas which used electricity to make a tunning fork vibrate, these were more precise than mechanicals, though not as precise as quartz.
 
I like pocket watches and have a pretty large (albeit not impressive) collection of them. Most of mine are modern and more often than not I have a quartz with me but I really do prefer the manual or automatic wind watches. There's just something about them that's nice. Generally, my manual watches don't keep as good time as the quartz but I reset them everyday so it's fine with me, I don't need the exact time, all the time and (as my wife will attest to) I am chronically late whether I have an accurate watch with me or not ;)

Rob
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top