Wearing your pocket watch – Part 2.

As promised, this time out, we will look at options for ladies who wish to carry a pocket watch in a more traditional manner. In Victorian times, you had basically two options, the lady’s long slide chain, or a watch pin. Let’s look at the lady’s long slide first. The lady’s long slide was originally developed in Germany, for women field workers. The suspended watch would fit in a apron pocket such that when they bent over the watch would not fall to ground and be damaged, thus saving an expensive repair. One end of the chain has a watch swivel, and there is a decorative slide in the middle. The slide alliowed for adjustment of the chain to different lengths. These chains could also be used for a necklace by attaching a pendant to the swivel.

In Victorian england these chains were usually worn with the watch either suspended from it, or tucked into a breast pocket. The watches worn were generally of a smaller size (2 to 6/0 size, which is from an inch and a quarter, to just under an inch), and were usually in a hunter style case.

If the chain was not to your liking, you could always use a watch pin. These were small decorative pins, with a brooch pin clasp, and a snap loop for attaching a watch. The watch could be attached directly as shown, although it was also common to use a small drop chain to allow for greater ease of opening the watch and viewing the time. Again, these were usually worn with smaller hunter style watches.

There you have it, ladies, a period-perfect watch chain, that’s unusual, but correct, and an option for something that could be a little more personal in style. Unfortunately, vintage long slide chains are not common, and are usually priced accordingly. Next time out, we’ll look at the more common single Albert chain, and some oddities, such as drop fobs, button chains, fabric clips, and Victorian style belt clips.