Wednesday 7 August 2013

Waltham Pocket Watch Database

I was searching for a good Waltham Pocket watch database and I couldn't believe just how hard it was to find. The purpose of this type of database is to be able to allow you to identify the year a watch was manufactured. That in turn helps with determining the value.

For most pocket watch brands it is fairly easy to find these types of databases but not so with Waltham. The closest link I could find that does this is available at NAWCC Information Storage. When you go there it will ask you to enter your serial number.

The important serial number to enter is the one that you will find on the inner movement of the watch. There will probably be a serial number on the case but this should not be used.

It seems that the Waltham Company produced hand written ledgers initially and after that they used printed serial number lists which are known as the Gray book. I should advise you that it is not strictly 100% accurate for some watches but it is as good a list as I could find.

The Waltham company started making watches in 1850 and shut down in 1957 and in that period they produced some 40 million watches so you can just imagine what size the database will be. This is especially true if they are using hand written information.

So as you can see one does have to look around a lot to try and find a really comprehensive database. I will of course continue to investigate as you never quite know what you can dig up.

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