Inherited an Old Pocket Watch? How to Tell What You Actually Have

It usually arrives the same way. A drawer gets cleared out, and there's a watch in it — heavy, gold-coloured, a chain still attached, and a story attached to that: it was a great-grandfather's, it was a railroad watch, it's solid gold.

Sometimes all three are true. Often one of them isn't. Here's how to read what's actually in your hand before you decide whether to keep it, insure it, or part with it. We're Chapel Hills Jewelry, a family-owned jeweler on Freeport Road in the Aspinwall area of Pittsburgh, and estate pieces have been coming across our counter since 1989.

Start with the case — and read it carefully

The markings are usually stamped inside the back cover, and often on the inner dust cover as well. Pop the back open gently with a fingernail or a case knife at the lip; never pry at the crystal side.

What you find falls into three groups, and the difference between them is the single biggest thing people get wrong about inherited watches.

Solid gold

• 14K, 18K — or the European equivalents 585 and 750. Occasionally 9K or 10K on later or imported cases.
• These marks mean the case metal itself is a gold alloy throughout.

Not solid gold — but frequently mistaken for it

• "Gold Filled," "G.F.," "Rolled Gold Plate," "R.G.P.," "Guaranteed 20 Years," "Warranted 25 Years" and similar phrases.
• These describe a layer of gold bonded over a base metal. The "20 years" or "25 years" was an estimate of how long that layer was expected to survive normal wear — not a quality guarantee, and not a statement of gold content.
• This is where most family stories come apart. A gold-filled case can look identical to solid gold, wear beautifully for a century, and still contain very little gold. It's worth saying plainly: the watch may still be a lovely thing and worth keeping. It just isn't what it was described as.

Silver and base metals

• Coin silver, Sterling, 800, 900 — silver cases, common on earlier watches.
• Silveroid, nickel, "Silverine" and similar trade names — base metal with no precious content.

One quirk worth knowing

In American watches of this era, the case and the movement were usually made by different companies and sold separately. A jeweler fitted a customer's chosen movement into a chosen case. So a case stamped Keystone, Fahys or Dueber with a movement signed Elgin isn't a mismatch or a fake — that's simply how watches were sold. It also means the case marks tell you nothing about the movement, and the movement tells you nothing about the gold.

Then read the movement

Open the back (on many watches there's a second, inner cover) and you'll see the works. This is where the identity of the watch lives.

• The maker's name — American names you'll see constantly include Elgin, Waltham, Hamilton, Illinois and South Bend. Swiss and English movements turn up too.
• The serial number — stamped on the movement, not the case. This is the number that dates the watch. Published serial-number tables for the major American makers are freely available and will usually get you to a production year.
• The jewel count — "7 Jewels," "15 Jewels," "17 Jewels," "21 Jewels," "23 Jewels." These are synthetic bearing jewels at points of friction. More jewels generally indicates a higher grade of movement, though it isn't a straight line to value.
• "Adjusted," or "Adjusted to 5 Positions," "Adjusted to Temperature" — a marker of a better-finished, more carefully regulated movement.
• Railroad grade — watches built to the accuracy standards required of railroad employees. Genuinely a category, and genuinely sought after — but it's a specification the movement has to meet, not a word to assume from a family story.

How old is it? Two quick tells

Key-wind vs. stem-wind. If the watch winds with a separate key rather than by turning the crown, it is generally an earlier piece. Stem-winding became the norm as the 19th century went on.

Case style. A hunter case has a hinged metal lid covering the dial. An open face has no lid. A half-hunter has a small window in the lid so you can read the time without opening it. These are style and period indicators — and they matter for value, because a hunter case uses more metal and more hinge work.

Both of the pocket watches currently in our estate case illustrate the point: an Elgin in a 14KT yellow hunter case, and a key-wind 18K piece with a hand-engraved solid gold dial — same object, two different eras and two different stories.

Condition, and what "original" means

With antiques, originality usually matters more than tidiness.

• The dial. An original enamel dial with fine hairlines is generally preferred over a repainted one that looks flawless. Refinishing is visible to anyone who handles these, and it rarely helps.
• Does it run? Worth knowing, but a watch that has sat for fifty years and doesn't run is a normal situation, not a verdict.
• Original hands, crown, bow and crystal — replacements are common and not disqualifying, but originality counts.
• Engraving and monograms. A period presentation inscription can add to the story. Heavy wear that has rubbed through a gold-filled case to the base metal underneath is the more common finding.

Four things not to do

1. Don't polish it. Buffing a case rounds off crisp edges and, on gold-filled cases, can cut straight through the gold layer. This is the most common irreversible mistake.
2. Don't force the winding. If it stops or feels tight, stop. A mainspring is cheaper to leave alone than to break.
3. Don't clean the dial. Enamel chips and painted numerals lift.
4. Don't have the case refinished before anyone has looked at it. What reads as "restored" to a seller often reads as "value removed" to a buyer.

So what actually drives the value?

Gold content is a floor, not a ceiling. A solid 18K case has a metal value regardless of what's inside it — but the reason one antique watch is interesting and another is scrap comes down to the combination of maker, grade of movement, rarity, condition and originality. That's why two watches that look alike in a photograph can be very different propositions, and it's why anyone quoting you a number without handling the watch is guessing.

We're not going to tell you what yours is worth in an article. We will tell you what to look at, which is what this page is for.

What we can do with it

Chapel Hills buys estate jewelry and gold, and we look at inherited pieces regularly — including watches. Bring it in and we'll go through the case marks and the movement with you and tell you what we're seeing, whether or not there's a transaction at the end of it. If you're keeping the piece and want it documented for insurance, appraisals are done in house — see our appraisals page.

Two related reads if they fit your situation better: our guide to buying and selling estate and vintage jewelry in Pittsburgh, and — if what you've inherited is a wristwatch rather than a pocket watch — buying and selling pre-owned Rolex watches. You can also browse the estate collection to see the kind of pieces that come through.

Or just bring it by: 503 Freeport Road, Pittsburgh, PA 15215, or call 412-782-1757. Bring the chain and the box too — sometimes those turn out to be the interesting part.