Tony, it says here, about 1/3 of the way down: "Seth Thomas blocked out roughly 1300 numbers in all jewel counts for the Maiden Lane. 160 numbers were devoted to the 24-jewel variant, evenly split between two-tone and nickel, making it the second rarest of the Maiden Lanes."
And I have read elsewhere that of the 17,21,24 and 25 jewel Maiden Lanes the 25 was most common.
Posts: 2093 | Location: British Columbia in Canada | Registered: March 02, 2011
Phil's second watch is a Ball's Standard, Railroad Watch Company 17-Jewel Railroad Grade timepiece. Follow that link to see and read more about this interesting variant. (We try to discourage the use of a combined number/letter designation code on these early watches because it is non-specific, causing unnecessary redundancy and confusion.) All Railroad Grade Ball-Hamiltons were marketed by The Ball Watch Company as "999" with a clear and specifically titled description.
Interestingly Ball along with a group of investors (all of whom lost money) set up a second short-lived and ill-conceived marketing operation, of the two Railroad Watch Company offerings only this 17-jewel model was truly a "Railroad Watch" and was accepted in Railroad Time Service. The lesser 16-Jewel would evolve into the "Commercial Standard" of a few years later.
Phil's 20672 is very close to our 20577 so comparing the two watches should be worthwhile.
Hope this helps,
Lindell
Posts: 10553 | Location: Northeastern Ohio in the USA | Registered: November 19, 2002
Beautiful!
