Waltham railroad approved pocket watch with up-down indicator circa 1924. Featuring a 23 jewel 5 adjustments Vanguard movement, serial number 24.6 million. Beautiful condition enamel “Montgomery” dial with 5 minute indications in red, with blued steel hands. An outstanding example in mint condition.

NOTE: The up down indicator refers to the secondary dial at 12 o’clock which is a power reserve indicator. The display shows the number of hours of operation remaining before the watch will stop running. It is like a battery indicator on your computer or cell phone. The power reserve indicator was a rare and desirable feature on these early railroad watches as they were manually wind, and the power reserve was actually useful to inform the wearer to wind the watch when the mainspring was running down. Today, the power reserve is more often found on self winding wristwatches, where its’ function is more of a novelty, as the self winding movement keeps itself optimally wound when worn.

NOTE: Lever set pocket watches use a lever located under the screw off bezel which slides out to release the mechanism that locks the time setting feature. This is a protective device required of all railroad grade watches so that the time cannot accidentally be changed by the crown dislodging. This safety feature was required when strict standards of quality and accuracy were instituted in 1893 after the tragic train crash outside Chicago.

An impressive piece of of our nation’s history to wear, or display on a mantle or cabinet in one of our hand crafted wood pocket watch stands. (See photo of some of our contemporary pocket watch stands available for purchase separately.)