Watch with Silver Pair Case and Fob Chains
date: label: Date made
content: 1750 - 1799
label: date made
content: ca 1750
notes: label: Description
content: Lieutenant James Todd of Boston, a colonial militia soldier, reportedly took this watch from a British soldier at the Battle of Lexington in 1775.
label: Description
content: The English-made watch has two silver cases, designed to rest one inside the other.
label: Description
content: By the middle of the eighteenth century, men from a range of professions owned watches. A man wore his watch in his fob, a pocket with a horizontal opening just below the waist of his breeches. Connected to the watch, but hanging outside the pocket, might be a tassel or short fob chains to hold a watch winding key, a seal or other trinkets, which were collectively also called fobs. When long waistcoats came into fashion, a man carried his watch in his waistcoat pocket, with the chains still visible outside.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
label: See more items in
content: Measuring & Mapping
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CS.005704A
label: catalog number
content: 005704A
label: accession number
content: 1890.23380
label: catalog number
content: 5704
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Watch
label: Object Name
content: silver watch, fob chain, seal, pendant
label: Other Terms
content: Watch; Jewelry; Accessories Worn on the Body; Male
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 2 1/8 in x 2 7/8 in x 1 in; 5.4102 cm x 7.3152 cm x 2.54 cm