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Pocket Watches / Pendant Watches / Belt Watches

pocket watch
noun

A pocket watch is a personal timepiece that is carried in a pocket and has no strap or bracelet connected.  The display is traditionally analog. Pocket watches generally have a chain that is secured to a belt loop (the chain or ornaments on it being known as fobs), as well as a hinged cover to protect the face of the watch.  Such covers are not always present.  Also common are fasteners designed to be put through a buttonhole and worn in a jacket or waistcoat pocket, this sort being frequently associated with and named after train conductors.

Invented by Peter Henlein in 1510, Pocket Watches are commonly regarded as being one of two types: Lépine or Savonnette.  In a strict technical sense, the Lépine is a watch whose winding stem is in the same axis as the seconds-marking subdial (found on the timepiece face).  The Savonnette has a winding stem perpendicular to the orientation of the seconds subdial.

A Lépine (pictured left) is traditionally an open-faced watch with a large, scratch resistant crystal covering the face.  The separate subdial that marks the passage of seconds is traditionally placed closest to the six o'clock position.  This means a traditional Lépine winding stem is set at the twelve o'clock position.  When read, a Lépine is held with the winding stem straight up

A Savonnette is commonly found in a “Hunter” or “Consular Case”, with a protective lid hinged over the face.  A consular case is further differentiated by the fact the back case is also hinged so that the watch movement can be easily separated from both halves of its protective cover.  The Savonnette’s winding stem is placed most commonly at the three o'clock position (pictured below, right).  A Savonnette is read by turning the watch 90° with the stem pointing to the right.

With regards to the orientation of movements (Lépine or Savonnette) and the cases they are inserted into (open-faced or Hunter), modern manufacturers of pocket watches, especially those watches with quartz movements, are not bound by tradition  Today, it is possible to find watches with a Lépine orientation in a closed-faced Hunter case, and vice versa.

The first watch was created in the 16th century, when the spring driven clock was invented.  These watches were, at first, quite big and bulky and were worn around the neck.  This was, of course, the beginning of the Pendant Watch (pictured top) and the Belt, or Clip-On, Watch.  Today, pendant watches and Belt Watches are quite smaller and serve a dual purpose of both accessorizing and timekeeping.  It was not for another century that it became common to wear a timepiece in a pocket.

The rise of railroading in the United States, during the last half of the 19th century, led to the widespread use of railroad pocket watches.  With the likelihood of train wrecks, other accidents and the demand for passenger satisfaction, all railroad workers were required to use and wear pocket watches.

The first steps toward standardized, railroad-grade watches were taken in 1887, when the American Railway Association held a meeting to define basic requirements for railway timepieces.  However, it took a disaster to bring about widespread acceptance of stringent standards.  A famous train wreck in Kipton, Ohio, on April 19, 1891, occurred because one of the engineer’s watches had stopped for 4 minutes.  This led to the 1893 adoption of stringent standards for pocket watches used in railroading.  Among them was the Hamilton Watch Co.  Hamilton was approached by the railroading industry to help put a stop to the recent rash of locomotive crashes.  The Hamilton Broadway Limited was dubbed the "Watch of Railroad Accuracy".  These railroad-grade pocket watches, as they became colloquially known, had to meet the General Railroad Timepiece Standards used by almost all railroads.

These standards read, in part: "...open faced, size 16 or 18, have a minimum of 17 jewels, adjusted to at least five positions, keep time accurately to within 30 seconds a week, adjusted to temps of 34 to 100 degrees F, have a double roller, steel escape wheel, lever set, regulator, winding stem at 12 o'clock, and have bold black Arabic numerals on a white dial, with black hands."

In the 1940’s, with the adoption of the diesel-electric locomotive, additional standards were required.  These stated that the new timepieces manufactured for railway use, could not be affected by electromagnetic fields.

Having been superseded by wrist watches, pocket watches are not as common in modern times.  Up until the turn of the 20th century, the pocket watch was predominant and the wrist watch was considered feminine and unmanly.  Then, around the time of World War I, men's pocket watches began to be superseded by wrist watches.  Officers, in the field, began to appreciate that a watch worn on the wrist was more easily accessible than one kept in a pocket.  However, pocket watches continued to be widely used in railroading, even as their popularity declined elsewhere.

In the United States, a gift of a gold-cased pocket or wrist watch is a traditional present given to an employee, upon his or her retirement.  In that capacity, the "gold watch" has come to be a cultural symbol used to allude to retirement, obsolescence, and/or old age.

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