Pocket Watch Dials

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Other than the movement itself, no part on a watch had as much variety as the dial. From kiln-fired porcelain to celluloid to textured metal, they came in an astounding array of styles, fonts and colors. 

Learn the basics of dial construction and the types of materials involved, see the experimental and innovative layouts, and enjoy a section devoted to fancy dials and private labels with logos.

There's a section on Hands further down the page.

Henry Montgomery was the Inspector of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway from 1896 to 1923, patenting a design that he called the Safety Dial. It had several distinctive features, including marginal minute numbers that were all upright (not radial like other dials), red five minute subs that were slightly larger than the other minute markers, and a '6' in the seconds bit that was somewhat smaller than the other hour numbers.

The 24-hour dials were an import requirement for Canadian railways, which adopted this standard in the mid 1880s. The 13 to 24-hour Arabic markers were generally inside of the 12-hour ring, and the variations were extraordinary. Roman/Arabic dials were common and could also be found in Montgomery styles. 

Elgin, Rockford, and Waltham were the only American companies that made pocket watch wind-indicators in larger numbers. When the watch is fully wound the indicator hand is starting at zero, marking the passing of the hours as the mainspring unspools. 

Note that the Rockford dial in the photo has the word "Wind" where the 24-hour marker is placed as a reminder to its owner.

17-year-old English-born Josiah Moorehouse came to America in 1854, eventually becoming employed as a dial painter by Nashua, Waltham, and E Howard while inventing his own distinctive style.

Daniel O'Hara first worked for Waltham making watch cases, pairing with Edwin Weatherbee around 1890 in what would become the O'Hara Dial Co, makers of colored and decorative watch dials.

Legitimate examples of both styles are highly prized by collectors. 

Celluloid was more widely used in the film industry, though it was used for dials by a few watch companies. Invented in the 1860s, celluloid was one of the very first thermoplastics, which was a polymer based on camphor, a natural form of wax harvested from domestic evergreen trees.

Melamine was an early laminate made with formaldehyde, arising from war-time material shortages during World War II and used in place of enamel. Melamine dials have a flat, dull appearance and surface cracks that will only worsen as they age and deteriorate.

Aftermarket dials are legitimate post-WW II items that were meant to replace damaged originals, made by Swiss firms like LaRose with plastics on metal backing plates. The tip-offs are 5-minute markings that are too cherry-red, and sinks with incorrect diameters and indistinct edges.

American watch dials had wire pegs soldered to the back of the dial to anchor it to the movement, using either taper pins or set screws. The larger sizes had two, three, and sometimes even four feet, and their location was not standard, varying by model and size.

A few companies mounted the dial with screws passing through the movement, threading them into pockets on the back of the dial.

Watch dials were first held in place by brass taper pins before the practice of using set screws to secure the feet. They were a poor design choice, with the pins forever getting lost and occasionally falling into the movement and getting wedged in the gear train. The holes in the dial feet would become enlarged, making removal and installation difficult, leading to cracks and other damage.

Smaller-size watches generally had snap-on dials to save room on the pillar plate, although a few larger models used them too. Since the only way to remove them was to pry them off, cracked and broken examples are all too common.