I am curious about the dial on this watch with the Northern Pacific RR "Yin Yang" logo. It was in a museum display of railroad artifacts, and was supposed to be owned by a railroad trainman. Was this dial original. I'm sorry that my photo is so poor. Above the second hand is has Hamilton Watch Co. printed on it. Was this a normal practice or is this unusual.

Bill, I spent some time looking at the NP RR routes, trying to track how this watch got to Billings. I thought that NP was actually west and south of Billings, with Billings being "Great Northern" territory.
Nice town, by the way, been visiting old friends there since about 1965, but most of them moved south now.

As for the dial itself, the replacement of the Hamilton Logo from above center to an arc above the seconds chapter suggests this is totally legitimate. You might enquire with Northern Pacific Historical people and see what they know about company-supplied RR watches.

Also closer inspection of the watch to see if the logo was painted, screen printed or a decal would help "date" when it was done and the service marks inside the back case cover may help define the period(s) of RR usage.

A very nice and interesting Dial for sure!

David, The watch was in the Mt. State historical museum in Helena, Mt. and behind glass with other articles from the railroad. I believe it said the watch was donated from someone in Glendive, Mt. which has been a NPRY division point forever.
The GNRY did have a branch line into Billings, same as the with C B & Q , so you weren't entirely wrong.
Thanks for the information and I'll see if I can find out more on this end.

The dial (to me) is a dead giveaway that this is a factory or RR Watch inspector's contract to supply NP at that time.

Thanks to the incredible compendia of RR inspectors assembled and listed by Greg Frauenbhoff, I can say that Glendive Has (had?) two RR Watch Inspectors who most recently were Burlington Northern (the BN combo put together by James J. Hill to shake off the antitrust people);
Barkema Jewelers
Kolstad Jewelers

Billings has (had)
Montague's Jewelry who also was listed with BN

Perhaps if any of these people are still in business they would have some recollection about these watches too.
Just a thought . . . .