http://www.abellwatchmakers.co...ilroadDispatcher.htm

Does this ring a bell with anyone? I'm not familiar with this model. It just popped up on Chris Abell's site yesterday.

Regards! Mark

I am not sure how rare the dial is but the movement is the later cheezy Waltham movement. You see this movement being mentioned as being high grade but how many high grade movements do you see with this typical 7 jewel type regulator? You see this movement on ebay all the time and it tends to fake out the unknowning since they think it is railroad grade/approved and it isn't. I think by this time Waltham quality had walked out the door and they were living on reputation. Punched gears, pressed metal dial (my guess by what I see) and a non-RR approved regulator.

Claude,
as you'll see from the serial number 29415439 this watch was made around 1937. In my early working life in Timex in Scotland,I was the Chief Tool Design Engineer from 1966-1968. Even Timex gears were gear cut, not stamped out. So I doubt very much this Waltham had punched gears.

Dave it is a movement that might have two or three adjustments and regards to punched I am using that term in regards to gears used by Elgin, Hamilton and others that still were round spoked and chamfered up into the 50's. Notice that it says that it is adj.temp only so that means at best it is adjusted to heat/cold and iso. This movement had a couple of names on the dial such as Railway Dispatcher or other related to railroad terms. These movements were cheap and cheezy. One might say they were for trolley service but by 1937 most trolley lines were gone and most trolley lines were using watches adjusted to 3 and 4 positions (6 or 7 adjustements). If you look at Waltham's history the name "Riverside" represented some of their top of the line movements not matter what the size, in regards to this, at best it was an attempt by Waltham to pawn a cheap movement off as RR quality movement. Why would you give a movement one of your top brands names, and even somehow give some indication that it was RR quality "Railway dispatcher" for movement that could not even be RR approved in 1907, even 1887 might be pushing it, let alone in 1937. It is almost like Waltham took the Swiss Fake mindset for this movement, catch the unwary with the thought they were getting a high quality 16 size 21 jewel railroad watch.