One of 400 made.

Harold,

Wow! I hope you own it! That is as exotic and nice as I've ever seen in an 1883 model. I hope the case and dial are as nice as the movement.

DougS.

Doug, here's a shot of the dial,a private label Canadian, wonder why it isn't a 24 hr dial? The case is a gold-filled Fortune A.W.C.CO. average condition. At one time I had two examples kept the better one and sold the other. Ironically the other had a 24 hr. dial and was also in a "Fortune" case.
Harold

Harold,

Many watches could possibly have been railroad grade, but not railroad approved. That being, it lacked some feature considered mandatory for railroad use. In addition, the railroad watch standards that prevailed circa 1910 (your watch) were open to interpretation by individual railroads. For example, at about that time, Canadian Pacific were accepting stem set, single roller 1883 Walthams! I have also been told that 12-hour dials were accepted east of Fort William/Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), Ontario, in the era of your watch. Railroad watch standards were in a constant state of flux over the years, and railroads could adopt all of the prevailing standards at any one time, or pick and choose what was acceptable to them. Your watch might have been purchased by a business man who rode the train a lot, and wanted a watch of railroad performance. He could choose any dial he liked. I especially like Canadian private label watches. I recently acquired an unusual 1883, 16 jewel, tu-tone model, private label for Jos. Pequegnat of Guelph, Ontario. 12-hour dial!

Regards,
Doug S.

Thats a beautiful watch. However, there is one thing that the movement doesn't have that concerns me about its acceptibility for railroad service, either in the U.S. or Canada. The movement is NOT marked "adjusted" anywhere on the plates. By 1910 not only did most railroads require adjustment to 5 positions, it also had to be engraved on the movement as well. When I ran the S/N through the Waltham serial number lookup, it appeared to be "A" grade, or adjusted, rather than the higher "P" grade, showing additional adjustment to positions.
Waltham wasn't the only manufacturer to make high jewel movements while omitting most or all of the adjustments. Illinois made a beautiful 16 size, L/S movement with 23 functional jewels that was completely unadjusted, not even to temperature.
I agree with Doug, in eastern Canada the 24 hr dials were not required. I have seen a number of private labeled 24 hr dials with U. S. jewelers names on them (and located no-where near the Canadian border) as well as Canadian examples without the 24 hr numerals.
Well, off to the National in Charlotte in the morning, I hope to see a bunch of Chapter 185 members there. I'll be back to the board in mid July.

Ed Ueberall
NAWCC 49688
IHC Member 34
The Escapement

Beautiful watch Harold. Gee, do you think mine had the same engraver?



IHC Member 25
IHC Life Member (L6)