[masraum]

Originally Posted by SCadaddle

The interesting history of the old pocket watches is typically found on the inside of the rear case, where watchmakers would usually scribe into the case any repairs or cleaning, the date, and their initials.

The one that I have pictured above has a bunch of those markings. THey are all either a number and initials or a number and date or a number, date and initials for the most part. It's interesting to see the dates and the various types of engraving, but other than that, it none of them tell me what was done that I can decipher.

The number of "Jewels" refers to the jeweled bearings that house the gears, typically ruby or sapphire. The quality of the watch is generally noted by the number of "jewels", when you get to 21 you've got a pretty nice watch.

Mostly (that I've seen) ruby (of course ruby and sapphire are both just different colors of corundum, red for ruby and any other color for sapphire). For instance, in the photo below, I believe you can see at least 4 or 5 of the 15 ruby jewels.