Pocket Watches and Waistcoats

**spr0k3t** · 21st March 25, 01:27 PM

I'm curious on this one. I have a few pocket watches I like to trade out when I'm wearing a waistcoat and wanted to know if others do the same. I don't use them to keep time. It's more for just the show piece more than anything. I have an Omega, and two Elgin watches. I find they add a good bit of flair to the finished outfit. I don't see them very much with my fellow kilters though. Would love to know your thoughts on this.

**COScotsman** · 21st March 25, 01:37 PM

I usually wear a pocket watch with a waistcoat. Since I don't use a wristwatch mine completes the look and is practical.

**Jock Scot** · 21st March 25, 02:32 PM

I regularly carry a pocket watch.......it keeps very good time.....and chain when wearing a tweed waistcoat and sometimes without the waistcoat with the T bar of the chain threaded through the button hole in the lapel of my tweed jacket and the watch resting in the breast pocket.

I don’t( can’t) post pictures here these days, but there are pictures of me wearing my pocket watch lurking around on this website somewhere.

**ShaunMaxwell** · 21st March 25, 02:35 PM

I’ll often wear one with smart daywear… mostly because it’s the only opportunity I have to wear mine!

Cheers,

SM

**Janner52** · 21st March 25, 02:45 PM

I also wear a pocket watch with a waistcoat when wearing the kilt, both with tweed and with a Prince Charlie.

**MacKenzie** · 21st March 25, 04:19 PM

I had a very nice pocket watch. I took it to a jeweler for repair. Next thing I know the shop is gone... and so was my watch.

**Macman** · 21st March 25, 06:41 PM

I'd say I wear mine about half the time when I'm wearing a jacket and waistcoat. I really like the look, but sometimes I'd rather wear a wristwatch.

**figheadair** · 21st March 25, 11:31 PM

I’ve had an old fob watch I inherited sitting in the draw for a number of years. It did work but stopped so I took it to the local watch dealer in Blairgowrie to see what they could do. There was an old gent there who was one of the last in the country that still services them.

He did a fine job and in doing so, I learnt a little more about it. Dated 1870, it was made in Auchterarder and so is local and a rarity to boot. It had a chunky non-silver chain on it but he had a lovely old one that he was prepared to sell me. Not quite as old, it is 1896 and every link and the bar are stamped with the Birmingham assay mark. I’m very pleased with the upgrade and look forward to an opportunity to wear it.

Alas, the gentleman recently retired and the shop has closed, so I got in just in time.

Pocket Watch - 1870a.jpg

**spr0k3t** · 22nd March 25, 09:04 PM

Here's my favorite one of the bunch (Elgin). The serial number dates it back to mid 1870s. I only wear this one during black/white tie events. The other Elgin is in a silver case and requires polishing almost every time I take it out to wear. The Omega isn't nearly as ornate as the Elgin pic attached. They all work quite well thanks to a local shop not far from me.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/e8FwdrEEY6Kpewy56

**Pleater** · 22nd March 25, 09:17 PM

I have a pocket watch, an Ingersol, I bought it myself, some time in the late 1960s I think - it has a second hand and I used to use it to calculate speed through the water when sailing. I tripped over and lost the lanyard and keeper overboard, but held onto the watch and the boat.
It still keeps good time, but I need to adjust the regulator between summer and winter as the temperature affects it.

I do have part of a gold watch chain, but it is only long enough to make a bracelet - the ends were sold off inch by inch, or ounce by ounce when times were hard back in the days when there were shops which bought and sold gold and silver items on the High Street. In one of them the chain had a clasp and keeper chain fitted and I added a few oddments I collected as a child to make a charm bracelet.

I have seen photos of my father and his father wearing matching watches, chains and an amethyst jewel - a fob, I think it was called on the end of the chain not attached to the watch. There was a bar to put through a buttonhole and a matching clip or pin, with another amethyst to go on a tie and a small glass tube between two amethysts to go on the lapel to keep a buttonhole flower fresh. I suspect that they were for the funeral of someone a couple more generations back - there was a bit of land and money in that side of the family but grandad lost the lot.

Anne the Pleater