What's the pecking order for railroad-grade watches? It seems like the most expensive watches on ebay and this site are Ball, followed by Hamilton, Illinois, Elgin, and Waltham. The Waltham watches are usually the cheapest. What about the other manufacturers, Hampden, South Bend, Howard, etc? Where do they fit in? All the manufacturers that produced railroad-grade watches had to meet the minimum standard, and some exceeded it. Is the current market price of a watch based on the number of units originally produced, or the quality in relation to its' competitors?

That is a complex question, I think. I'm no expert by a long shot, but I've got some ideas. The accuracy of the watches improved with time, of course, as the technology advanced. But the quality of the watch wasn't measured by the accuracy alone. The materials used played a big part in how quality was measured because the watch was considered an item of jewelry as well as a time piece. The amount of time required in fine tuning the instrument also was considered where the price was concerned. And the manner of construction was important. The Howard Company, for instence, used more hand finishing, or so I've been told. One watch maker oversaw each individual watch's construction from start to finish (in the original Howard company, that is). Thus their watches were generally more expensive. It's like comparing a Jaguar to a Sting Ray, as far as construction goes, I guess. Prices today factor in scarcity and historic considerations as well. Ball watches are very collectable partly because Web C. Ball was such an important figure in the development of railroad timekeeping, and because the Ball name came to be the quintesential measure of railroad standards.
I've always thought Illinois made the highest quality railroad watches because they went the extra distance to perfect their watches. While many other companies adjusted watches to 5 positions, Illinois adjusted theirs to 6. Others used a gold center wheel; Illinois made theirs with an all gold train.
Hamilton, on the other hand, used the ingenious ploy of constructing watches that were repair-friendly to appeal to the watch repairmen, who also happened to be the people who most often sold the watches. This was brilliant marketing, as well as making perfect sense. Which was better? It is a complicated question.

Here is a question that I've asked myself many times: When one watch company, Illinois for example, made two different grade watches-the Sangamo Special, and the Bunn Special-with the exact same specifications (even advertised on the same page of the catalog) why would one be priced so much higher than the other. What seems even more puzzling is, what would induce anyone to buy the more expensive watch when they are virtually the same.

Complex indeed!

I would have said Hampden into the 1890's.

The riverside 19j Waltham was as good a timekeeper for the money as any of its competitors.

But when you consider the standards they all had to meet to be approved by the RR's, it might just come down to a question of taste,style and/or price.

happy hunting,

A good question indeed. I see at least four answers;

1. What do the "money collectors" want now? That has as much to do with "mintiness" and popularity as with quality. The very serviceable Hamilton 992's were a plentiful watch with many iterations of design but remained pretty much the same "train". But they are very "collectible" because there are so many unused ones floating around that their price is often twice as high as many equal or better RR watches of more rare status. But many such collections with the "mint" watches have not really had to stand the "test of time" as the watches many of us collect.

2. For the best manufactured watch, Bill Kapp points out a certain brand for a certain period. I would agree with that too. The 18s Hampden "Railway" series evolved from some hi-quality early 1880 Springfield movements designed by the same person as the later (Lancasters and) Hamiltons. Then the emergence of the Model 1892 Waltham that was soon upstaged by Elgin Model 8 both took the lead. Soon after that came the 16's. Sadly due to the unfortunate switch by Illinois from the Getty to the more "conventional" movement designs, Elgin and Waltham took the lead with the Motor-barrelled Waltham 645 in the fore until the fantastic 19 Jewel BWR Elgin that became a classic. Illinois really make their mark when they produced their 48 and 60 hour Jeweled Motor Barrel models in the 20's which led to their absorption by Hamilton.

3. The quality of field service to these watches made a huge difference in their long term value as actual usable RR watches. The service base that was established by Mr Ball and some of the railroads was the actualy "best" RR timekeeper from a quality assurance basis.

4. The Canadian RR watches which included some extraordinary Swiss models too were (in my opinion) the best of all three in this reply. Canadian Railroaders preferred the more robust and equally as accurate 17 Jewel models and also allowed pendant setting watchs. These Canadian RR watches survive today as some of the best serviced and highest quality timepieces in my (and I expect others) collections.

Obviously it was South Bend with the Polaris.

This is a debate that even the railroaders themselves carried on in years past. They were as diehard fans of certain 'brands' as folks today who argue Ford vs. Chevy.

My family (N&W railroaders until my Dad left in 1953)were hard core Elgin men.

Regards! Mark

Yes Mark, that brief summation is probably as close to the real answer an you can get with such a succinct response.

My response about the Polaris was jokingly made as I am very partial to South Bend. But being a watchmaker, in my experience, I would say Hamilton just because of the 992B. The level of interchangeability that I've experienced with these watches is, to me, pretty amazing. As a watchmaker another reason I say they're the best is the availability of parts. There is no problem finding any part for a 992B that I've ever run across. Also it's just a fact that the 992B is a more modern watch so it is going to have the advantage of having an elinvar hairspring and a stainless steel mainspring, thus having that advantage over earlier watches. It's also just a fact that the machines used to make parts improved dramatically in their precision and accuracy, especially because of WWII. And Hamilton used that technology to improve the quality and precision of the parts they made.

I think the only way to reasonably discuss what "the best" was is in a way I would find interesting is to divide up the watches into time periods and to generally delimit those periods by the major advances in watch making technology.

Still, unless it's discussed on a technical basis of manufacture and records from the appropriate times I think the question has no answer. The big three that were around after WWII all made excellent railroad watches. I don't know of any factual data from the time period (let's say 1946-1970) that indicates one watch was better than the other. If there is such data I would be very interested in reading it.

Haha, but the need for there to be a "best" will always drive this discussion forward.