Due to the critical role that high grade mechanical pocket watches played in standards adopted to improve railroad safety during the 19th century; locomotives and railroad related themes make up a popular motif found on many pocket watches of all grades from around the turn of the 20th century.  This article will focus on the use of the locomotive motif on pocket watches manufactured by Seth Thomas. Roy Ehrhardt notes in his “Railroad Watches – Identification and Price Guide – 1995” that these are referred to as “Railroad-Marked Watches”.
 

Pocket watch production by Seth Thomas was limited to the thirty years between 1885 and 1915.  Seth Thomas produced a limited number of pocket watches that could be considered “railroad grade”; but produced others that bore the image and/or name of a locomotive painted on the dial and/or engraved on the top plate of the watch movement, visible by opening the back cover of the watch case.  Some of the watch cases also bore engravings with a locomotive motif; but watch cases and watch movements were two separate items and were purchased separately, often matched and put together by a local jeweler or “jobber” for the customer.  This article will be focused on the pocket watch movements and dials produced by Seth Thomas that bear a locomotive motif.  These should not be confused with the high grade pocket watches that kept passengers and crews safe while traveling on the rails across America, and they certainly do not bear the valor associated with those railroad grade pocket watches or the workers who were required to obtain and maintain them at their own expense. That is why I will refer to the watches presented in this article as having Locomotive Motif instead of as Railroad-Marked Watches.