Illinois and the railroads · Watch Lover

Illinois and the railroads

When one side of my family came to the United States in the 19th century, many of them established themselves in this country in the tough business of working on the railroads in Chicago, Illinois. It was hard and dangerous work, with notoriously bad safety conditions, and many railroad workers were maimed or even killed doing their work. In but one tragic example, my grandmother lost an uncle to a train yard accident when he was only 20 years old, after he was crushed between two trains.

When I was about that same age, my grandfather passed down an heirloom pocket watch to me, that had been passed down to him. The watch appears to have been made by the Illinois Watch Company, around 1916 in Springfield, Illinois. (The movement, despite bearing the name Washington Watch Co., was almost certainly made by Illinois.) It is a grade 605--not railroad grade. The most obvious reason is that the time is adjustable via the crown without needing to first remove the crystal. But the style (and accuracy) are consistent with what was used for railroad timekeeping.

As the images below show, the face is yellowed and the second hand is missing--but it still runs. It runs more accurately than any of my automatic wrist watches, in fact. I keep it on my desk on a cushioned movement holder, and the audible ticking at 14,400 bph is a comfortable and familiar sound that fills the silence. As far as the world of watches goes, pocket watches of this era are worth shockingly little money on the resale market, but of course the value in this watch to me lies in the family history behind it, and selling it would be out of the question.

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