Dave Bush   34 Blossom St.  Portsmouth NH 03801  USA    (603) 436-9721 Email me at Dave@NHwatchsite.com   Member since 1981 of National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors #73286

Many excellent books have been written about watches - I will make no attempt to write one myself, but here are some quick answers to some common questions
 

    In 1891 there was a big train wreck that was found to have been caused by a poorly running pocket watch.  A commission was formed to make recommendations for standards for watches used on the railroads.  The railroad companies were still able to have whatever standards they wanted, or none at all, but today collectors often look at the recommended standards proposed by this commission as a guide to whether or not a watch is "railroad grade" or not.  For better or worse, these were the recommended features suggested:
1. Must be 16 or 18 size
2. Have a minimum of 17 jewels
3. Be adjusted to 5 positions
4. Keep time plus or minus 30 seconds a week
5. Be adjusted to temperature 40 to 95 degrees F.
6. Must have a double roller
7. Must be lever set
8. Winding stem must be at 12:00
9. Must have a plain Arabic numbered dial with heavy hands

     A number of companies made many different types and models of railroad grade watches, some of which were better watches than others.  Some models were very popular and very well made, and as a result many were produced and sold.  Today it is the low production models that avid collectors are after - many of which were commercial failures for the watch companies at the time they were made.
    If you are looking for a railroad grade watch to actually use you might consider looking at these popular models for a couple of reasons - firstly the fact that they were popular and sold well in their day indicates they were well regarded and had earned good reputations as good watches to own.  Secondly, should you need service or parts you will have an easier time with these models as the parts will be more readily available, and the watches more easily repairable.  Among the most popular railroad watches were:

Elgin 16 size B.W.Raymond
Hamilton 18 size model 940
Hamilton 16 size model 992
Illinois Bunn Special
Waltham 16 size Crescent St.
Waltham 16 size model 645
 

However, if you must open the back, first see which type of case you have:

For a hinged back:  to open the back, you probably noticed the little lip, which is just to the right of the pendant as you look at the back.  You need to push something straight in behind that little lip- that is, into the seam where the cover meets the center body of the case, pushing towards the center of the watch.  I try to use the nail of my right thumb, while holding the watch in the palm of my left hand, but some covers fit tighter than others, and with some watches you need a tool of some sort- they actually have watch opening tools that look sort of like a small knife but they are not sharp, the edge of the blade is just rounded.  A letter opener might work or if you must you can use a jackknife but you need to be really careful not to slip and mark the watch.  I think the main thing is the need to push straight in and not slide or make a cutting motion with the opener - this pushing into the seam will pop the back away from the center body of the case, and then you can rock the blade to the side and the cover will snap open.  The inner cover opens the same way, but usually there is not a lip at the edge, just a crevice has been cut to slide your fingernail or watch opener under.

For a screw back case: the back screws on in a clockwise direction, and off in a counter clockwise direction.  Always be very careful when putting the cover back on to catch the threads properly - if you force it on improperly you can damage the threads, and it will then always be difficult or impossible to get it on properly again.

For a swing out type case: these can be tricky, and I have seen many of them where someone has broken off the stem trying to open them.  I can tell you how I open them, but caution you that they are best left to a watchmaker to open.  What I do is first of all pull the stem all the way up, and hold it up as far as I can.  Then I hinge the movement up, being careful not to bend or break the hands, neither which do you want pointing down toward the 6:00.  The movement should easily come up a little, but then the stem will hold it back, so you need to hold the stem up as far as it will go, rotate it back and forth, and gently pry the movement up, using just enough force, but not too much so that it breaks the stem off.  What you have is a square steel stem sticking into the movement. Some come out really easily, and some don't.  The trick is to use just enough force while rotating the stem and holding the crown up, but not too much force that you break the stem.  I think that unless you have done some of them it is difficult to know how much force to use.  Then sometimes they can be difficult to get back together.
 

Solid gold - everyone is familiar with the karat stampings - 14K, 18K etc. but what do they mean?  Basically there are 24 possible units - 24 karat is pure gold, but gold in its solid state is too soft to make things like jewelry or watches out of - they would wear and not be practical, so other metals are added to give the metal strength.  Thus 14K means 14 parts pure gold and 10 parts alloy(14 plus 10 equals 24), 18 karat is 18 parts pure gold and 6 parts alloy(18 plus 6 equals 24), 10 karat is 10 parts pure gold and 14 parts alloy, and so on.  So "solid" gold is actually not all gold but a mixture of gold and something else.  It is however a solid mixture all the way through, there is no plating that will wear off, no underlying base metal, it can wear completely away and it will have the same color and gold content throughout.
    Note that the added metals can affect the color, and sometimes different colored gold is used as an added decoration as in the "multicolor" watches.  Gold can be colored to be silver, green, rose or pink color, yellow etc.

Gold filled - This is basically a plate, but a very heavy plate, that is actually made by taking two thick and heavy sheets of solid gold, generally either 10 or 14K, and putting a sheet of brass in between them, and then rolling them in a giant press so they make a thin sheet of "sandwich" type metal, that is then used like solid gold to make a watch case.
     The earliest gold filled cases were often not marked, or were stamped with a trademark of some sort, so that today it can be difficult to determine exactly what they are made of, and they often had a very thick layer of gold on the outside, sometimes with no gold at all on the inside.  Starting in about the 1870's or 1880's cases were often marked with a year designation, like "guaranteed 25 years".  This was the amount of time you could expect to wear a watch before the gold wore off and the brass beneath began to show through.  Any watch with a year marking is gold filled.  Eventually, I believe in the 1920's, the US Congress passed a law requiring gold filled items to be marked with the Karat gold content, after which time cases came to be marked as items are marked today, like "14K gold filled".  This was done because the year designations really didn't tell you what you were getting, only giving a vague representation of quality.  Although generally 20 year and lower year quality was 10K gold filled and 25 year was 14K gold filled, there was no standard, and items marked with a year designation will vary in quality and gold content.
I have some photos of old watch papers that provide interesting information about gold filled - click here to see them
 

Sterling silver - Sterling silver is an alloy metal of .925 parts pure silver with the remaining .075 parts some other metal which strengthens the finished product so it will stand up to wear better - this is the same idea as what is done with Karat gold, so that the resulting sterling silver metal is solid, not a plate

Coin silver - Coin silver is similar to sterling silver, except it is 90 percent pure silver, and 10 percent something else.  This evidently was the formula also used to make coins

Silveroid, silverine, silverore, nickel silver, alaska silver, etc. - These are alloys made primarily of nickel.  Watch cases made of nickel will polish to a brilliant shine just like gold or silver, but will wear much longer.  These cases are very practical for long term use, and were very popular a hundred years ago.
 

Today most watches over 300 years old are in museums, and anything over about 200 years old doesn't turn up very often.  As far as wearing and timekeeping is concerned, most handmade watches are really just collectables, any repairs to this type of watch require highly skilled craftsmen.  For many American watches made in the era of mass production, parts are still available, repairs can be made for a more or less reasonable cost, and timekeeping will usually be reasonable, often within a few minutes a day.  These watches, made mostly by Elgin, Hamilton, Hampden, Howard, Rockford, Seth Thomas, South Bend and Waltham are generally suitable for regular use.
 

     While cleaning my office, I came across this little book put out by the Hamilton Watch Company in 1924.  Looking through it I noticed that it answered a lot of the questions that people ask me about watches and their care, so I thought it would be a good idea to share it.  I have scanned it into the computer - you can see that the cover has deteriorated, but the text is still quite readable.  It has several sections - I really like the watch care suggestions, especially the tip about not sleeping with your watch under your pillow!  Click the book to see.
 

     The watches are in these categories to make your search easier