In the last couple of months I have run across several pocket watches that were dripping a green oil by dripping I mean it really did drip out of them, these watches all came from different places. does anyone know what this is and why anyone would put so much of this oil in them ?.

Benny there are some oils with a green tint. I don't know that they are pocket watch oils however. Another thought is that as copper or brass oxidizes it can turn green and perhaps the oil you refer to has been colored from oxidation. That might happen from contact with a corroded dial or brass watch parts. Just a thought.

Benny, a good plan if they are dripping now is to clean and service them before that green oil solidifies. I guarantee it will.

Thanks Richard & David for your view on this topic, I have been cleaning and servicing these watches and in some places it was starting to solidify. I was really wondering if this problem has been seen very often by others and why someone would use so much oil. Based on the different areas that these watches came from they were not oiled by the same person.

The green oils I have cleaned out of watches vary from "wet" to "gummy" to "solid as a rock". These early (sometimes green) oils were prone to lower vapor pressure so they could dry up easily and/or to "set up" like concrete.

Historically early oils were organic-based and had very strange behaviors due to their natural chemistry. Exposure to open air determined how fast they deteriorated.

The "super-wet" synthetic oils we use today have high vapor pressure meaning they do not "dry out".