Ball Railroad-Grade Pocket Watch

Appraised on: August 7, 2010

Appraised in: Des Moines, Iowa

Appraised by: Craig Evan Small

Category: Clocks & Watches

Episode Info: Junk in the Trunk (#1519)

Originally Aired: November 7, 2011

IMAGE: 1 of 1  

Appraisal Video: (0:51)

GUEST: I brought my dad's pocket watch from when he worked on the railroad. He purchased it in 1946, and at that time he paid $100 for it. And that was a lot of money back then, so they took payments out of his paycheck to pay for the watch.

APPRAISER: And he worked on the railroad for...

GUEST: 40 years.

APPRAISER: 40 years. Ball was one of the early companies that pushed for what's called railroad-grade watches, and they have a lever set. There was a lot of train accidents in the turn of the century, and the lever set enabled the watches to be set only by opening up the crystal and pushing down on a button on there and then closing it back up. And all the people that worked on the railroad had to have a certain quality of watch.

GUEST: Right.

APPRAISER: And this is a really high-quality railroad-grade. This is a 21-jewel Ball, six position watch. A watch like this, in today's market, probably retails for about $1,000 to $1,500 dollars.

GUEST: Wow, nice.