One day in 1886 or 7 a certain O. L. Backenstose of Pontiac Michigan decided to order a Pocket Watch (clock?) from some place out east. Probably encouraged by a good traveliing salesman or an ad in the Jewelers Guide. O.L.B. had probably already bought and sold some of their larger clocks, and decided to try these too, especially now that the Railroad was coming to town.

The Clock Maker sent him at least one of these in 1887 and they were kind enough to even put his name on the movement.

Last year it showed up on eBay and I "won" it for $37.00 because nobody else thought it is worth anything (I guess )

I think that O.L.B. may have liked this 15 Jewel piece enough to just keep it. Or at least if O.L.B. sold it, it was sold to someone who was careful not to drop it. That said, to get it right, I removed enough coal dust, ossified fish brain oil, and tobacco tar to fire up a train, kill a cat and cause 100 cancer prone test rats to die early. But the "full" (3/4??) plate movement looked fine and went together very easily (for a pocket clock), especially consideing that EVERYTHING has to go in all at once, kinda like a clockworks thing.

Now I am very happy that I got what is (to me) a very fine specimen of good watch design that differed from all the rest, works very very well and was "all-american". BUT, I am very ashamed that some people "in the know" seem to lack any appreciation of what these unique designs represent. This is worth (to me) many times what I got it for, and will stay with me to be respected for what it really is. Heck the 4 ounce coin silver case is worth more than I paid for the whole thing.

Finally, the Lever setting mechanism (for an 1885 patent) is a masterpiece of design. I will fondly remember this when fighting the 25 parts+ lever setting mechanisms dreamed up by some of the "big guys" of that period.

David

Thanks god there are watches like this:

dirty, fine to work on, great when finished and almost overseen by the collectors.

Good work and fine description. Thanks for showing.

Maybe the watch belonged to this guy:
(newspaper NOV 8 1907).
Then the coal dust might be printers-ink

Regards Gerald

Looks like you could be right Gerald, O.L. was Oliver L. Backenstose, in the 1930 Pontiac census he is listed as a proprietor of a retail stationary store. IN 1920 as proprietor of a Book Store, he was born about 1845 in New York & was married to Laura

David,
A very nice looking watch that appears to have had little use.

Hey David,Very nice Seth Thomas. It is a shame that watches made by a clock maker are so under appreciated these days. But that makes it good for us collectors that do appreciate them. I have several Seth Thomas similar to that one,and carry one every once in a while. They seem to be good dependable time keepers. I'm gonna just hold onto mine for a good while. Maybe someday the market will wake up.

Here's one of my favorite Seth Thomas watches, a nickel 17 jwl marked "adjusted" Model 2. These model 2's are extremely easy to work on....