I wanted a very prototypical American pocket watch for my collection, and found this Waltham. It’s nothing fancy - 15 jewels, not railroad grade, but it works well and serves me as a reminder of a time when the best watches in the world were made in the USA. The porcelain dial unfortuntely has several hairline cracks (not unusual for porcelain), but otherwise it’s a very clean example.

AN 5740 military pocket watches were issued to aircraft (primarily bomber) navigators in all service branches during WWII and into the early post war period. Watches meeting the specification were manufactured by Elgin, Waltham, and Hamilton. Unusually for a pocket watch, they have a central second hand and a hacking mechanism, as well as a 24 hour dial. They were typically mounted in special cases, meant to protect the watch from the effects of vibration, temperature and altitude, and were generally set to Greewich Mean Time (hence the G.C.T. on the dial). This Hamilton example, despite its age, still tells time very accurately.

Representing the last gasp of American watchmaking, we have this elegant Lord Elgin automatic. Elgin certainly pulled out all the stops for this one - the 760 movement has a highly innovative and unusual integrated automatic mechanism resulting in a very thin automatic watch, even by today’s standards, and the balance is free-sprung, eliminating the need for regulator pins. Unfortunately, all of this innovation makes servicing these movements a bit of a headache - they are not particularly watchmaker-friendly. The automatic winding mechanism is also a bit delicate and most of the moving parts are fully engaged during manual winding, so you definitely want to minimize manual winding of these movements.

I pretty much fell in love with the silver, tapestry-style dial of this Bulova the moment I say it. Pictures don’t really do it justice, but this is really a great looking watch, and in fantastic condition as well. The USA-manufactured 30 jewel Bulova automatic movement is also in excellent condition.

I was taken in by the sector-style dial of this 1960 Bulova, with multiple thin gold rings creating a halo that joins the dial indices. The Bulova movement is also a nice automatic design that was in great shape and runs well following a service. Unfortunately this watch is also a great example of why watchmakers tend to use stainless steel casebacks, as the plated brass back has eroded to the point where it is being held together with epoxy…