How to Buy a Pocket Watch 101 - By Ashton-Blakey Vintage Watches

hi I'm David with Ashton Blakey thanks for joining us today we're going to go over how to buy a pocket watch 101 this is a pretty introductory video that's good for beginners that might be looking for your first pocket watch it's going to go over the basics of a little bit of history about pocket watches some of the details about different types of pocket watches so you understand the lingo as well as how to do a basic inspection on a pocket watch and what to look at you know what to look for when you're shopping and where to go and what to avoid so let's get started pocket watches date back to the 1700s and were initially used to time railway schedules these were very high precision railroad instruments and it's what really led to their rise in popularity these watches were vital tools of the trade and they needed to be relied on by the railroad engineers to maintain very precise schedules in fact the railroad standard came about because of some pretty horrific accidents that emanated from slight time differences so they had to be right on and that's what gave it the railroad designation wristwatches didn't start making an appearance actually until the 1900s and on a side note they were developed during the war so a soldier could just look at his wrist instead of take instead of taking the time to remove a watch from his pocket or open up cover to read the time obviously not something you'd want to do in the middle of battle if you haven't noticed already pocket watches are making a resurgence over the past decade since there's such beautiful well-made working pieces of art quite the opposite of today's modern era throw away plastic you know antique watches like these come from a time when craftsmanship and quality were really unsurpassed and when you're looking at it really shows you know we're also seeing them more often in men's and women's fashion and style today let's face it any man wearing a pocket watch and a chain just says class and really sets you apart now let's go look at a couple different types of pocket watches so you understand what you're looking at and understand the lingo when shopping what we've got here is a hunter case or some people call it hunting case these are some of the most popular and these simply have a dust cover that covers the watch face and the crystal so that is your standard hunter case there's also some watches that they call a Demi hunter and that would be one that has a slight opening in the front of the case and I'll show you an example right here then of course we've got the open face and that's essentially just like the watch we have here without the cover and here's a picture of one of our watches one of our open face watches the watch that we're looking at now would also be considered a Sidewinder the reason for that is because you can see the winding stem is at the three o'clock position instead of the twelve that's the only thing that differentiates this from a regular hunting case so this would be a hunting case Sidewinder most cases pocket watch is going to be in some sort of basic metal gold-filled sterling silver and of course karat gold sterling in karat gold are generally going to be marked on the inside cover of the watch and that can be you know right in this part here or if you flip it over as you can see on this one here by the way that's the dust cover right there that covers the movement you can see an indication right here that it's a 14-karat gold you're also going to be able to take a look at the serial number on this one here most of them are in the movement or stamped somewhere on the movement and then this one here you could see the serial number right here and this is what you're going to want to use especially if you're getting into expensive you know thousands of dollars on a pocket watch to really verify you know what year that watches from and you'll be able to get a little bit more history on it basically you know just want to type that into Google along with the make of the pocket watch and you'll find a lot of reputable sites that give you some information according to the serial serial number let's talk a little bit about types of movements there are a couple different types of movements in pocket Watchers that you'll find and each one has its own unique features and characteristics knowing some of the basic movements can really help you evaluate the watch forge for its age and value the type of movement you choose is really just personal to your taste one of the most common types of movements is what's called a stem wine or a stem set movement and that's what we have here where the movement and winding is set by the stem this type of movement did away with the need for a watch key which was used on very early pocket watches and again these are the most common type of movements that you're going to see these watch watches also did away with the need of what's called a double Albert waistcoat chain and these were a t-bar chain that had two parts to it one of it one side held the key and the other part was attached to the watch for these stem wine stem set watches they came up with what's called the single Albert chain which is just a single length of chain with the t-bar that's usually secured to a vest or obviously you can attach it to a belt loop and wear the watch in your pants pocket then we have key wine door key set movements and just like the name says this is a watch that requires a key to wind and set the watch and this was usually found as you could see in the picture on the back of the case rarely on the front sometimes you would need to open the movement to do this and wind it from the inside of the watch again those were mostly used on early pocket watches one of the things as well but it's good to know when you're inspecting pocket watches is that when you open the watch what you want to do is do you press the crown and then have it open what you don't want to do when you're closing the watch is just snap it closed again you wanted to press the Crim and then close it gently it shouldn't be making a large snapping noise if you're doing that you're closing it the wrong way and you could damage the watch rust and dirt are also major warning signs of a watch that might have been neglected or abused you know rust is more of a serious issue and can sometimes be first seen on the hands which you know you can easily see on the front of a watch but you also want to inspect the back as well and take a look at the movement generally speaking you want to avoid watches with any kind of rust issues particularly if you see them in the movement what you want to inspect here is the balance wheel as well as well as the hair spring at what you can see on this watch here is perfectly clean and I'd save and pristine on this watch also look at things like the screws holding down the parts and the movement if they don't match and some of them look new replaced then this could be a warning sign of other improper parts which hurts originality and value if you take a look at this one here all of the screws match each other and none of them look like they were you know from something brand new or not fitting with the style of all of the other screws that this watch.watch used a lot of these things are are just common sense really if you're looking at the watch you know if you see a part that looks out of place it probably is when you're looking at the dial you also want to examine for hairline cracks or chips around the edges these are common but also can affect value also if the dial looks too new and has no patina it could have been redone which is far from ideal another thing that you might want to ask about if you're speaking with a dealer is in regard to the service you know sometimes a dealer will tell you that the watch has been served and you might want to ask you know what kind of servicing they're referring to it because a full service really involves taking a watch completely apart cleaning every single nook and cranny of the watch every screw and putting it completely back together most of the time what these dealers are referring to is just a minor service and adjustment like putting some oil on some of the parts as opposed to the full disassembly and this can make a big difference as well you know a full service can cost anywhere from you know two three hundred dollars in up when you start shopping for a pocket watch one of the key things that you want to do is just buy from reputable sellers and establish dealers this alone can really save you big headaches down the road a well-established dealer is going to take the time to answer all your questions usually going to be very transparent about any defects on a watch or any other key facts that a buyer would really want to know and most dealers are part of established organizations such as the NA WCC and that's the National Association of watch and clock collectors there are many out there that's one of the big ones in North America naturally be extra cautious when a deal looks too good to be true and just trust your gut I hope this quick video gave you some good insights and help on how to buy a pocket watch thanks for watching

Channel: Ashton-Blakey Vintage Watches

Views: 47,190

Rating: 4.7452669 out of 5

Keywords: how to buy, pocketwatch, antique pocket watch, old pocket, vintage watches, pocket watch, how to buy a pocket watch, pocket watch history, buying an antique watch, how to buy an old watch, buying an waltham pocket watch, buying an elgin pocket watch, buying a railroad pocket watch, gold pocket watch buying, how to buy a gold pocket watch, gold pocketwatches

Id: ZfvoHi3ahTU

Length: 10min 42sec (642 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 21 2016