Stuff lost in Time

One of my second cousins is the custodian of all things related to my mother's family. My mother's family lived in southeast Texas since it was part of Mexico and since then never had a fire and never threw anything away. As the result my cousin inherited a house and garage filled with at least 150 years worth of cool stuff. Among the stuff was a shadowbox containing about 20 pocket watches, mostly Walthams. I figure these had been in the shadow box for at least 60 years, possibly as much as 80.

Well I latched on to three of the watches. I had them cleaned, lubricated and put in running conditioned by the local jeweler. Two are pretty generic. One is a Waltham Crescent St. 21 jewel, lever set, double roller, adjusted to 5 positions. In other words railroad grade, made in 1910-1911. The second is an expensive looking inexpensive Elgin hunter case, beautiful little watch, 7 jewels made in 1897. The third is the interesting one. It is marked Walter Starcke on the face, Walter Starcke, Junction Kansas on the movement, the case was made by the Illinois Watch Company. It's a 17 Jewel lever set. I could find no article on Walter Starcke watches...but I did find some stuff on Walter Starcke. The 1904 "Polk's Kansas State Gazeteer Business Directory" shows Walter Starcke as a jeweler and optician in Junction Kansas. A Junction newspaper article shows him going to a convention in Chicago in 1920.

Did Mr. Starcke make the watch movements himself, or they were generic watches made by another company? His name on the movement makes me think it's probably the former.

I often wonder how many business in that period came and went with little record remaining today.

Most likely it's like J.C. Higgins sporting gear -- bearing the seller (Sears) mark, but made by someone who supplied watches to the trade.

My great-grandfather, born in 1836 in Newfoundland, entered the shipbuilding trade at 16. He knew that prosperous men -- men who other people respected -- wore watches and he was determined to own one. In those days, watches were wound with keys, which were attached to the watch with a chain. The stem was used only for setting the watch.

But at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851, the year before he set out on his own, one of the knock-your-socks-off exhibits was a STEM-WINDING watch. Queen Victoria bought the first one. So he raised his sights and determined to wear a stem-winding watch.

And for the rest of his life, you could tell he was really mad when he'd say, "I'll knock the stem-winding piss out of ye, me bye!"

I suspect you are right.

By the way. The fob was, as I understand, a replacement for the key when stem winding watches replaced key watches.

Hmm Junction City Kansas is by Fort Riley? Not sure about Junction, Kansas.

Very neat story.

Yup, Junction City. You are correct.

I found a brief history of the Starcke company.

http://gearyhistory.blogspot.com/201...ing-in-jc.html

Great story.

I inherited the watch my Dad's Dad's Mom gave him as a High School Graduation present. He went on to college to become a teacher and when graduated from college was "invited" to join the Army during WWI. He became a flight instructor in San Antonio. In the Jenny cockpit there was a place to put a watch in order to keep track of elapsed time. There was no fuel gauge. The watch had a lot of flight time. It needed cleaning, along with a couple of other watches, but the prospect of several hundred dollars spent for iffy cleaning - my Dad got it cleaned, but upon close inspection, there was a lot of remaining 'dirt' in the movement. I tinkered with other watches, built up an inventory of tools, and began cleaning watches. Grandpa's was a Waltham, but I have more experience with Elgins, and have also built several RR quality watches from parts bought at auctions and on e-bay.

Your Crescent Street has a really nice movement; I've cleaned a couple of them. As with all fine watches of the day, there is nobody today who can build anything like it from scratch. My 2 favorites are my Hamilton 922B Railway Express and also an Elgin BW Raymond Model 15 Grade 478, both built from scrapped movements, with cases rescued from the gold reclaimers.

All Railroad Grade watches required lever set, and at least 21 jewel movements, but not all lever set 21 jewel movements were RR grade.

There's nothing more soothing then listening to a fine RR watch with a stethoscope...

If you want more information about your exact watch, go to: www.pocketwatchdatabase.com and enter your watches serial number.

Thanks for the informative post. You built up a hobby or interest. I have my dads old Longines(sp) RR approved. Seems it's not all that valuable to anyone but me. To this day I want a watch with numbers and "radioactive" paint.

gold reclaimers.- The same people who will destroy a $5,000 monument for $15 worth of brass. Maybe not exactly the same .

I have a very nice Hamilton pocket watch which keeps excellent time. The back is marked with AN5742-1, FSSC NO.-88-W-590, MFR'S PART NO. 37297. Hamilton watch co. It is also a stop watch, It is my understanding these were used with a oxtent for flight navigation. Model 23, 19 jewels adjusted to 3 positions.