About VintageWatchSite
I developed this site where people can visit and share information about pocket watches and wristwatches. Watchmaking is becoming a lost art, yet it carries valuable lessons from our past that deserve to be remembered and preserved. If you are reading this, you are welcome to leave your comments. If you want to show off your time pieces on this site, let me know. I am not selling or buying anything. If you want to post your watch on this site to share and show off, you can use the Movement Upload button to submit your watches or clocks. I will review them. No other information will be collected and cannot be shared to any other source. Only your watches or clocks images will be visible to others who visit this site. This site is not meant to be used to try to sell or buy. I do not allow that. If you are a watch or clock enthusiast, you are welcome to share your prized possessions like i do. I would love to see them. The history and importance of pocket watches and the numerous people it took to make them can be a valuable tool in teaching our young students in schools about what it took to deliver one small but valuable product to the world and how it brought people from all walks of life to function as one to accomplish that goal. Just like how WW2 brought us together as one people, one nation. Or the Space race to land the first man on the moon. Or when we came together as one when 9/11 happened. So did the pocket watch brought people together with the goal of preventing horrible train wrecks!!! You hold that pocket watch in your hand and admire it but do you admire the valuable history behind it? How many other products was built to last a hundred years and still work??? I urge anyone who reads this to approach your schools and get them to use the pocket watch as a tool to educate our young people about what it took and takes to come together as one and make the world a better place for all.
The history of the pocket watch reveals how Americans came together to create accurate timepieces that helped save lives and prevent terrible train wrecks. As railroads expanded across the country, accurate timekeeping became absolutely essential. Railroad companies needed reliable watches to coordinate train schedules and avoid disasters, and the pocket watch manufacturers rose to the challenge.
Companies such as Elgin, Hamilton, Illinois, Waltham, Hampden, South Bend, Rockford, and many others produced magnificent watches that became symbols of American ingenuity and craftsmanship. Some of these remarkable timepieces are still running today, more than one hundred years after they were built.
Most people look at a pocket watch or wristwatch and never think much about it. However, a watch is much more than a machine that tells time. It is a piece of history and a testament to what people can accomplish when they work together toward a common goal.
Schools should teach the history of the pocket watch and the people who made it possible. Behind every watch were mathematicians, metallurgists, architects, designers, scientists, engineers, machinists, and countless skilled craftsmen. Every component required knowledge, precision, and dedication from individuals working together to achieve excellence.
What makes these achievements even more impressive is that many of these watches were made before widespread electricity and long before modern electronics existed. Using steam-powered machinery and carefully developed manufacturing processes, watchmakers created incredibly accurate mechanisms that approached perfection.
The watch industry brought together people from many different professions who shared the same goals, strong work ethics, and commitment to quality. It demonstrated what could be accomplished when innovation, craftsmanship, and determination were combined. Sadly, these traits are not seen in our young people today.
Some historians have even suggested that the organizational methods used in watch factories helped influence later manufacturing systems. Whether that influence reached Henry Ford's assembly line or not, the watch industry remains one of the greatest examples of American industrial achievement.
Pocket watches and wristwatches are not merely collectibles or antiques. They are educational tools that can teach lessons about science, engineering, manufacturing, transportation, business, craftsmanship, teamwork, and American history.
Students could learn a tremendous amount from these remarkable timepieces if their stories were taught in schools. Through the history of the pocket watch, future generations can gain an appreciation for the people, industries, innovations, and values that helped build the modern world.
About the home made clocks, the white oak tambour clock was built from a part of a table that was damaged in our house fire in 2017. It contains numerous small pieces that were cut at different angles to give it the humpback shape. It is solid 3/4" white oak. The front and back were cut by hand in my garage. The front brass dial ring is a left-over piece from the 1890s. It has an 8 day Hermle triple chime movement in it and keeps near perfect time. I have a love of old pocket watches and clocks but what I love the most is the history and the people who made them using only steam power and produced such stunning pieces that still work after a hundred years. Absolutely AMAZING!!!!