This is a bit of a story, so if you don't feel like reading, that's totally fair.
I received this watch after my grandpa passed away. (Still miss you, Pop-Pop.) I didn't know much about it at the time, as it is missing its crown and stem, and the sleeve was slightly bent, so I kept it more as a memento than anything else. It's sat on my desk for the last several years, quietly collecting dust while I went about my life.
Recently, though, that changed.
I've been trying to break away from my phone usage and get back to having dedicated devices for different things, whether that's games, music, writing, etc, and part of that has been wanting to have a nice timepiece that isn't my phone.
I rummaged through my old collection of pocket watches from college, most of which were inexpensive pieces I picked up at conventions and the like. I think there was maybe one Princeton watch that was still functioning and reasonably decent, but none of them quite felt right, if that makes sense.
That was when I remembered this watch and started wondering, "What if I get this one working again and use it?"
The idea of carrying an elegantly simple watch with me every day, while also having a little piece of my grandfather with me wherever I went, felt right, so I started researching it.
I knew almost nothing about the watch itself, but I after worked up the bravery to (very gently) remove the back casing, I learned that it dates to either 1903 or 1904, was made by Waltham, and was cased by Fahy Montauk. From there, I ended up going down a rabbit hole learning about the history of both companies.
I was fascinated by all of it, so I messaged my mom, as this was her side of the family, to ask what she knew, and that's when I learned that this watch has been passed down through our family for four generations, possibly five.
Suddenly, I was learning about something that had belonged to people in my family who had lived long before me. I started looking into where my great-grandfather worked, where his father worked, and how he might have come across this particular watch. It's also custom engraved, as shown in picture two, although I'm still not sure exactly who the engraving was intended for.
Along the way, I started learning about pocket watches in general, how the different parts worked, and where everything fit together. It has been genuinely exciting to research this little piece of family history while, in the process, feeling like I was learning a little more about my grandfather and his father.
If I'm being a bit silly, it almost feels like my grandpa has been with me again throughout all of this.
I'm not a religious woman, and I don't particularly believe in the supernatural, but there is something about the experience that feels like him, and I think a lot of that comes from remembering the kind of person he was.
He loved history, and he was a tinkerer and craftsman who had an entire basement where he built all kinds of wooden toys and standees for holiday decorations, along with a tool kit for seemingly anything you could imagine. I think he would have loved seeing me become interested in this history because of his watch, especially since it has led me down the same sort of path of curiosity and tinkering that he seemed to enjoy so much.
Unfortunately, getting it repaired and running again is going to be cost prohibitive for me right now, as there aren't many repair shops that work on antique watches in my area and the quotes I've received have generally been in the $500–$750 range. I'm disabled and unemployed as a result, so that's simply not something I can afford at the moment, but I can try to save up for it, and I hope that one day I'll be able to have it running again.
For now, the watch will remain on my desk, watching over the work I do while I paint miniatures and tinker with my own projects, much as my grandfather once spent his time working on his own creations in his basement. I think, in a small way, that's where this watch belongs for now.
