Open-face: This type of watch does not have a cover to protect the crystal, or glass, on the dial of the watch.Military pocket watches: Pocket watches were standard issue for militaries in some regions up through the early 1900s and were very simple.The stem and crown, or winding mechanism, will be located at the 3 position on the watch. Hunter case: This type of watch has a round metal cover attached to a spring hinge that closes to protect the crystal on the dial.

Demi-hunter case: The cover has a tiny window so you can tell the time without opening it.

This page contains INSTRUCTIONS for using the serial number look-up tables that are found on many of our watch company history pages.The watch dial, or face, and watch case are used to identify what type of pocket watch you have. The example below uses information from the American Waltham Watch Company, but that is just an example. You should consult the serial number table for the specific brand of watch movement you are trying to date by selecting a company from the menu on the left. Not all vintage watches can be dated using the serial number. Some American watch brands did not use a consistent series of serial numbers, but most of the big manufacturers did. Can't find YOUR exact serial number in our lookup tables? Most vintage Swiss pocket watches did NOT have serial numbers and can't be dated by this method. Many watch companies made hundreds of thousands of watches, and some companies made millions of watches! It would be impractical to list the individual serial numbers of EVERY watch made. that would make some really long pages! Our serial number tables list RANGES of serial numbers. So to determine when your watch was manufactured, you will need to find where your serial number fits within the range of numbers.

Let's say you have a Waltham watch with serial number 21,607,210 as shown in the photo below. Note that we're using the serial number from the watch movement, not from the watch case. Looking at the table of Waltham serial numbers (see example below), you can see that number 20,900,000 was made in 1917 and 21,800,000 was made in 1918 (marked in red in the table below). Since your serial number falls between those two numbers, you know that your watch was made in 1917 or 1918. You must use the serial number from the MOVEMENT of the watch. The working part with the wheels and gears.

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