An American Pocket Watch Spring Detent Escapement Chronometer Signed C. Nagel, St. Louis, Mo. by Edwin L. Fasanella (VA) I have always been fascinated by the complex escapements and exceptional timekeeping ability of marine chronometers. These mechanical marvels were the culmination of years of experimentation and collaboration of scientists and master watchmakers. The story of their development, and John Harrison s trials and tribulations trying to obtain the prize money for determining longitude at sea, make for good reading. 1 High-quality chronometers were always quite expensive and, from the time of Harrison s first practical marine chronometers of the mid 1700s to the advent of modern navigational methods, were primarily used for ocean navigation. I recently had the opportunity to obtain an early pocket chronometer with a spring detent escapement signed C. Nagel, St. Louis, Mo., No. 106 (Figure 1). This watch was listed in Ehrhardt and Meggers 2 as: Nagel, C., St Louis Mo., No. 106, blank dial, handmade chronometer, 20 size, 15 jewel, hunting, nickel, key wind, not valued. There was neither a picture of the watchcase nor the movement. There are inconsistencies in the description in Ehrhardt and the chronometer in my Figure 1. Nagel pocket chronometer. (A) Front view. (B, below left) Movement. (C, below right) Side view. COURTESY OF WILLIAM SELOVER, FL. Research Activities & News is currently accepting submissions. Contributors may send information directly to Ed Fasanella at edwinfasanella@gmail.com. www.nawcc.org NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin September October 2018 453
Figure 2. More movement details. (A, left) Dial plate. (B, center) Fusee and chain. (C, right) Helical hairspring. (D, below) Signature. COURTESY OF WILLIAM SELOVER, FL. possession. Our movement has a gilt movement and is in an open face case, not a nickel finish and hunting case as indicated in Ehrhardt. However, we are reasonably sure that our watch and the one described by Ehrhardt are one and the same. Possibly Roy Ehrhardt did not see the pocket chronometer and relied on another collector s description that was in error. With a hand made watch, the date of manufacture and maker can be very difficult to ascertain. Our assumption is that the movement was made in the second half of the nineteenth century. Was there evidence of a C. Nagel in St Louis in the second half of the nineteenth century who could have made this watch? Let us now take a closer look at the Nagel watch. The full-plate spring-detent escapement chronometer movement is of high quality and workmanship, has a chain and fusee, and a helical hairspring (Figure 2). The movement has a plain Roman numeral enamel dial with delicate Fleur-de-lis hands. The movement is of excellent quality and workmanship, but oddly enough, is cased in an unmarked brass case that appears to be made from cylindrical brass stock. The case does not appear to be a product of a professional case maker. The brass case could have been a re-case of the movement. However, it could have been made, perhaps by Nagel himself, simply to hold the movement for display. Marine chronometers and pocket chronometers made in the 1800s were typically made in Europe where there were craftsmen with the skills required to make the various specialized movement parts. A complete watch made in Europe in the 1800s was not generally made by a single watchmaker or firm. The maker of an early watch is typically an assembler. He obtains wheels from a wheel maker, balances from a balance maker, dials from a dial maker, etc. and then sends it out to a case maker to be completed. Thus, we might expect that Mr. Nagel, if he made the watch and did not simply procure it, probably obtained the parts for the movement from various sources and assembled them into a chronometer. A search of the 1860 U.S. Census 3 records on Ancestry.com found a Charles Nagel, watchmaker, living in St. Louis in 1860 (Figure 3). Could Charles Nagel be the C. Nagel who made the chronometer watch? Further research uncovered that the 1860 Kennedy St. Louis City Directory (Figure 4) 4 listed a Carl Nagel, watchmaker at 19 S(outh) 3d (Third St). However, in Figure 5, a list of watchmakers is printed in the directory with Charles Nagel at the same address as Carl. Thus, we assume Carl was actually Charles. (Possibly, Mr. Nagel was recognized by either Carl or Charles, or one version was a misprint.) We will use Charles from here on. In 1860, Charles Nagel was 44 and his birth date was given as approximately 1816 and his birth location as Prussia, which was at that time the largest and the leading state in the German Empire, with its capital in Berlin. His wife Mary was also 44, and his 16-year-old son, Hugo, was listed as an apprentice watchmaker. His son 454 September October 2018 NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin www.nawcc.org
Figure 3. 1860 U.S. Census. Nagel Family members Charles, Mary, Hugo, and Emil. Figure 4. St. Louis Missouri Directory 1860. (A, right) Directory logo. (B, below) List of Nagels, including Carl (Charles?) Nagel. Figure 5. Advertisement in St. Louis Directory Watches and Jewelry. See Charles with same address of Carl in Figure 4B. www.nawcc.org NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin September October 2018 455
Figure 6. St. Louis City Directory 1867, Charles Nagel has moved. COURTESY OF ANCESTRY.COM. was born in Prussia; therefore, the family emigrated to the United States after 1844. (In 1844 Mr. Nagel would be 28.) The family also had a 1-year-old son, named Emil, in 1860; Emil was born in Missouri. In the 1867 St. Louis City Directory 5, Charles Nagel (at approximately 51 years of age) had moved from 19 S 3d as he was listed as a watchmaker to the address 22 E(ast) 3d (Figure 6). Finally, in the 1880 U.S. Census, Mary Nagel was listed as a widow and head of household with son Emil, now 21. The exact date of Mr. Nagel s death was not found, but it is assumed that he died between 1867 and 1880. Note that starting in the mid-1830s, Germans flooded into St. Louis 6 (think Budweiser!). Also, note that in German, nagel means a nail. By 1850 more than half of the nearly 78,000 St. Louis residents were of German descent. Most German immigrants had some education and often arrived trained in a trade. Thus, most likely Mr. Nagel learned his watchmaking craft while in Prussia. At that time, Prussia included not only present-day Germany but part of Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium, the Czech Republic, and even Switzerland. So far, we have been unable to determine exactly from where Mr. Nagel emigrated. Also, his obituary was not found, so we do not know when he died. Many questions are to be asked. When was this watch actually made? Was it started in Prussia and later finished and engraved in St. Louis? Is C. Nagel actually the Charles Nagel we have found on Ancestry.com and other sources? Exactly where did Mr. Nagel live while in Prussia and where/when did he obtain his watchmaking skills? Perhaps one of our readers may have some answers. Watches, even in the 1800s, were assembled from parts made by specialists, not made by a single watchmaker. Because our Nagel watch is marked No. 106, does this indicate that other watches made by Nagel were sold to the public? Possibly Mr. Nagel started at No. 100, then perhaps there are a few other watches produced by Mr. Nagel. Figure 7. Nagel and Meyer loaner 18-size nickel case and store after 1937 flood. (A, above left) Nagel and Meyer Loaner back. (B, above right) Inside of case marked Ball Model. (C, opposite page) Store after flood. Author s photos. 456 September October 2018 NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin www.nawcc.org
also found an interesting 18-size loaner watch marked Nagel and Meyer, Paducah, KY, on ebay that we were able to purchase (Figure 7A and B). As many of our readers know, a loaner is a replacement watch to keep while the owner s regular watch is being repaired. The current movement in the loaner is a 21-jewel Hamilton 940 grade. But there were other screw head marks indicating it was not the original movement. From Figure 7, we see the case is a Ball model. Hence, the case may have held a Webb C. Ball movement originally. A search for Nagel and Meyer uncovered a picture of their store taken right after the 1937 flood in Paducah (Figure 7C). You never know what you are going to turn up once you start researching a given topic! References 1. Sobel, Dava. Longitude: the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time. New York: Walker, 1995. 2. Ehrhardt, Roy and William Meggers. Vintage American pocket watches, dials, and cases. Revised ed. Tampa: William Selover, 2009:386. On another tangent, because the movement is labeled St. Louis, a decision was made to search for information on possible watchmaking schools in St. Louis. One might speculate that if there was a horological school in St. Louis (or near St. Louis) in the mid-1800s, then this movement might be Mr. Nagel s project for graduation (i.e., his masterpiece). After some research, it was found that Parson s Horological Institute was noted to be the oldest watchmaking school in the United States and was founded in 1886 in La Porte, IN. That date is too late, however, because Mr. Nagel had died by 1880. 3. US 1860 Census, Courtesy of Ancestry.com. 4. 1860 Kennedy St Louis City Directory accessed January 2018 at https://www.rollanet. org/~bdoerr/1860cydir/1860cd.htm. 5. 1867 Saint Louis City Directory, US City Directories, 1822 1995, Courtesy of Ancestry. com. 6. History of Germans in St Louis, accessed January 2018, https://stlgs.org/research-2/community/ ethnic/germans. Charles Nagel was a fairly common name that turned up several times in our research. Another Charles Nagel from St. Louis was Secretary of Commerce and Labor during President William Howard Taft s Administration. He was born in 1849 in Texas and died in St. Louis in 1940 at the age of 90. His higher education was at Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Berlin. Whether he was directly related to our Charles Nagel the watchmaker is unknown. Readers are encouraged to enlighten us on these topics! While searching for Charles Nagel, we found that other Nagels had been in the jewelry business. We www.nawcc.org NAWCC Watch & Clock Bulletin September October 2018 457