After the terrible accident of April 18, 1891, during which two trains entered the frontal collision, due to the failure of the pocket watch of one of the drivers, the government has Open a commission responsible for establishing the characteristics that the official pocket watches should have used by drivers, controllers and station chiefs.
A series of rules have been approved, which should In the future to be mandatory for railway pocket watches:
- a) dials white with Arabic figures large and clear. needle seconds at 6 am
- b) box with screw caps for safety and to protect it from dust
- c) Set the time by unscrewing the Upper cover and removing a bracelet, avoiding any possibility of manipulation of crown .
- d) Pocket watch with balanced and temperature compensated steering wheel, with micro -meter regulator and set to at least 5 positions.
- e) Maximum tolerated error, thirty seconds in a week.
It goes without saying that in these watches, American manufacturers have set up their best equipment, the most advanced and precise, which were perhaps the best in the world. Later, an infinity of pocket watches were made with trains in the dial and case, that we call watches railway for no other apparent reason than aesthetics.
Illustration: Gusset watches railway made by Elgin, Illinois and Hamilton, between 1890 and 1910.
In 1986, the city of Elgin donated land next to the railway to the National Watch company to install a large Horlogère factory .
The national company Watch Company Elgin is created and in 1967, it puts on the market its first lines of gusset watches .
In 1900, it has more than 400 employees and manufactured more than 1000 gusset watches per day. When Jacob Bunn, president of the Illinois Wach Company of Springfield, died in 1926, the factory was bankrupt and was bought by Hamilton Watch , who continues to manufacture Several types of gusset watches with the brand of Illinois for a few years.
These gusset watches had to be purchased by railway staff with their own money, because the companies did not split this sum.
You can find gusset watches at the railway drawing among our collections Vintage and Steampunk