AMERICAN WALTHAM POCKET WATCHES

Rummaging through a box of old knick-knacks I came upon a pocket watch. Pocket watches seem to have gone out with the Lindy and the speakeasy. It’s a shame, isn’t it? There is a certain dignity invoked when one is asked for the time and fashioning a response first begins with a knowing, slightly superior glance followed by a gentle tug of a chain, not unlike the gimp scene from Pulp Fiction. Nowadays, the knowledge of time is so freely available. We look at our wrist, monitor, microwave or some mobile device thingy. It is much more convenient, yet it sure feels as if something has been lost. (As an aside, for reasons unclear, I always think when a man carries a pocket watch he probably speaks with a refined British accent. But then again I think jell-o was intended to be served from a small bowl, not a belly button, so my cultural awareness is suspect at best.)

This particular pocket watch no longer works. I can say this with absolute certainty because I turned the stem knob and it snorted at me as if I were some kind of rube. Oh, the irony of someone so young being called a rube by something so old! (Be kind and just go with it, please.) This from a piece of jewelry manufactured, at the very latest, in 1957. I know this because the American Waltham Watch Company folded in 1957. I ask: would a rube use these kind of Sherlock-like, googlesque powers of deduction? I think not, old chap!

The name John Brennan is clearly inscribed on the face, but I’m fairly certain it wasn’t my watch. Perhaps it was gifted in anticipation of my eventual arrival, but that’s unlikely. My family wasn’t known for its planning skills. That leaves two ownership possibilities: my brother’s father or my aunt’s husband. I guess there may’ve been another John Brennan floating around in those days, but for the sake of keeping an already complicated tale simple, let’s go with those two.

You see my mother and her sister both married men named John Brennan. Unrelated John Brennans at that. Imagine the odds! But since all of the principals have moved on (and I don’t mean to Florida) the original ownership of this particular pocket watch is a mystery which will forever remain a mystery. Unless ghosts are real. In that case if one of those John Brennans suddenly appears before me in the middle of the night I imagine the question of the watch won’t immediately pop to mind. More likely it will be preceded by me dashing from the room, out the door and down the street screaming like a wild banshee. Preferably, fully clothed. Ghosts may be scary, but an image of an unclothed me is positively terrifying.

I've babbled on long enough. Doesn't matter who owned this watch. It’s pretty neat. And I’m glad I stumbled upon it.

August 3, 2010

This Waltham watch was produced by the American Watch Company in Waltham, Mass. The company produced watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time fuses and other precision instruments between 1850 and 1957.

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