It was a railroad accident that pushed the watch industry into creating more precise timepieces. Today railroad quality pocket watches are coveted by collectors.

On April 19, 1891, the Fast Mail train known as No. 4 was coming west on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railroad in Kipton, Ohio. The Fast Mail was going full-speed, with the fireman pouring the coals to the engine firebox. At Elyria, 25 miles from Cleveland, the engineer and conductor of the Accomodation were given orders to let the Fast Mail train pass them at Kipton.

Instead the trains crashed head-long into each other. “The Engineers of both trains were killed, and the dead bodies of nine clerks were taken from the kindling wood and broken iron of the postal cars,” according to an historical account by Ball Watch Co., www.ballwatch.com

At a subsequent inquest into the accident, the conductor of the Accomodation, which was high-balling east, admitted “from the time the train left Elyia until it collided with the Fast Mail in Kipton, he did not take his watch out of his pocket. He said that he supposed the Engineer would look out for Fast Mail No. 4.”

However, that engineer would be fatally mislead by a faulty watch. It was later determined the engineer’s watch had stopped for four minutes and then began running again. The Engineer thought he had time to spare – seven minutes – to reach his meeting point. He didn’t. He had three minutes. He did not survive the miscalculation.

The conductor, it is noted, may have prevented the accident had he looked at his watch. But, he didn’t.

Lake Shore Railroad hired Webster C. Ball, a watchmaker, who mandated fortnightly checks on the watches worn by all railroad workers. Ball set strict standards, forbidding variations of more than 30 seconds among the watches. The inspections were done only by company-approved watchmakers.

By 1883, the railroad industry had agreed, at least among themselves, to divide the nation into four time zones. In 1891, Ball was given the task to standardize railway times and schedules. By the early 1900s, Ball was the general timekeeper for more than 125,000 miles of track in the United States and Canada.

Ball meant business. He demanded higher quality watches. Although most employees had to provide their own watches, Ball only wanted quality timepieces used in the railway business.

To accomplish more standardization, a series of 12 requirements for all timepieces used by railway employees was developed. Immediately cognizant of a market for more precise timekeepers, watchmakers such as E. Howard, Waltham, Elgin, Hamilton, Hampden and others – began improving their technology to meet those higher standards.

Ball’s specifications, still used as a guideline today, were simple: “Be open faced, size 18 or 16, have a minimum of 17 jewels, adjusted to at least five positions, keep time accurately to within a gain or loss of only 30 seconds a week, adjusted to temperatures of 34 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, have a double roller, steel escape wheel, lever set, micro metric regulator, winding stem at 12 o’clock, grade on back plate, used plain Arabic numbers printed bold and black on a white dial, and have bold black hands.”

“Because this system was adopted the American watch manufacturers produced a superior railroad watch, the traveling public was assured of increased safety and indeed the number of railroad accidents occurring as a result of faulty timepieces was minimized,” according to The Complete Price Guide to Watches (TinderBox Press, 2010).

By 1893, most of the railroad companies – many of whom “were vague … or had no standards” – quickly fell in line with Ball’s newly formed guidelines. Until then, “there were more than 500 American Railroad Companies and each one used similar but different rules and specifications,” according to The Complete Price Guide to Watches.

The public soon followed suit. Perhaps they believed the Ball Watch Company: “In general, it became accepted that when the average person asks a railroad man the time, he is assured a correct answer.”

Ironically, the Ball Watch Company didn’t make watches. In 1893, the savvy Ball had contracted with watch companies such as E. Howard, Waltham, Elgin, Hamilton, Hampden and others, to provide him with watch movements that met his strict standards. He then, inserted these movements into high quality cases that bore the name Ball Watch Company on the outside. He claimed he would never put his name on a watch case filled with substandard parts.

Thus, began the Golden Era of the Pocket Watch. “It’s where engineering met art,” says Timepiece Specialist Roland Rynkiewicz, at John Moran Auction in Monrovia, Calif.

“A pocket watch was a luxury item … something to flash around back then, as well as today. It could cost as much as $300, which was a fortune back then (nearly equivalent to $10,000 today, according to www.officialdata.org).” Today that watch, a circa 1910 E. Howard & Co. watch, is expected to bring $3,000-$5,000 at auction.

Although the provenance of this watch is unknown; it not hard to imagine the watch – with its gold nugget-adorned case and heavy chain with nugget links – on the wrist of a lucky gold miner … or shady card player. “Who knows,?” Rynkiewicz asks. “It has probably been sold or traded dozens of times.”

The “all studded-out” watch will be among several Railroad Grade pocket watches to be sold at the Dec. 11 Rare & Important Timepieces from a Private Collection at John Moran Auctioneers.

“The 126 watches in this collection have been carefully curated,” Rynkiewicz said. “The collector knew what he was doing. I believe he set a benchmark of quality in what he wanted to collect. I know that he bought some in the 1970s and pretty much through to the 1990s.

“He picked quality while building his collection. These aren’t random buys. He was very knowledgeable of his collection.”

An early Howard -made watch for “Ball & Co. Brother of Locomotive Engineers,” dating to 1894 (very shortly after the adoption of Ball’s railroad watch standards, is expected to sell for $2,000-$4,000.

“This auction brings together the history of the gold rush and how the railroad pulled the country together,” Rynkiewicz says. “It was a momentous time in America. The hand-picked quality, engineering and a sense of history about this collection is very apparent.”

In a tale of two cities, Moran’s will have a circa 1912 E. Howard Watch Co., Boston, pocket watch, with its original mahogany fitted wooden box, original outer card box, an extra mainspring and certificate. This new old-stock gem is expected to sell at auction for $5,000-$7,000.

From San Francisco comes an early J.W. Tucker watch, featuring handmade works and a heavy gold chain link fob set with gold-in-quartz stones. Dated from 1850, the pocket watch is estimated at $3,000-$4,000.

A circa 1888 American Waltham Watch Co. railroad pocket watch, with a white porcelain dial with painted picture of a locomotive with a coal wagon (Dominion). Signed A.W.W. Waltham and Dominion Railways, estimated to sell for $1,000-$1,500 on Dec. 11 at John Moran’s Auction in Monrovia, Calif.

The sale will not be restricted to pocket watches; several high-end wristwatches will be also be sold.

Contact: (626) 793-1833

www.johnmoran.com