Railroad watches were known as вЂњstandardвЂќ watches because they met the railroadвЂ™s standards of timekeeping. If one of the two conductorsвЂ™ watches was keeping bad time there was a strong likelihood of a collision.

The timekeeping accuracy of the conductorвЂ™s watch was crucial if two trains were moving in opposite directions. In order to use the track efficiently, companies needed to create time schedules identifying when each section of the track was safe to use. a watch may have met the standards of one company but not another.ДЄs the rail industry grew in the United States,В the number of active trains grew with it. This makes evaluating older watches as railroad grade a very difficult task, i.e. One rail may have had a list of accepted makes and models of timepieces while another may have only listed necessary features or timekeeping performance thresholds. Ball was commissioned by railroad officials in the 1890вЂ™s to create an overarching set of railroad watch qualifiers.Д«efore the 1890вЂ™s, and until the entire railroad industry accepted BallвЂ™s standards, different railroads had different qualifiers for watches. And, contrary to common belief, there were many regulations in place before Webb C. The specific definition of a вЂњrailroad gradeвЂќ watch evolved quite a bit over the years. A railroad grade pocket watch is simply a watch that was approved by a particular railroad organization for use by conductors on their rail.

Train pocket watch