Internet Horology Club 185
Advertisement: Ball Order of Railroad Telegraphers Standard Watch 1905

This topic can be found at:
https://ihc185.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2121060351/m/4153931087

September 28, 2013, 11:54
Lorne Wasylishen
Advertisement: Ball Order of Railroad Telegraphers Standard Watch 1905
I was searching a newspaper archives site and was surprised that this popped up as every other result was from a newspaper.

It was in a copy of The Railroad Telegrapher May 1, 1905.

Here is a thread with some discussion regarding this particular watch:

Order of Railroad Telegraphers 16s Ball-Waltham?


September 28, 2013, 15:25
Edward L. Parsons, Jr.
Good going Lorne, a nice bit of "doing your homework."

Well, we know from this advertisement that Mr. Ball intended to market a Brotherhood-marked version of his Official Standard watches to the O of R T, but since these workers had standard clocks in their workplaces, they didn't need and weren't required to have a standard watch to perform their duties. This has been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by the research of Larry Buchan and others (follow link above).

Taking all these things into account, it is extremely doubtful that any ORT-marked complete examples were ever assembled and sold, yet the search goes on. However, since some brass ORT plugs have shown up, most likely out of the liquidation of the Ball jewelry store, I would have to see a correct ORT-marked dial to go with the plug before I got very excited.


Best Regards,

Ed