[PW] Pockets, watches and fobs

[John P. Dyson]

Men who farmed or worked in construction, machine-shops and other 
physical-labor jobs customarily carried pocket watches in their work 
clothes. It was very easy to break a wrist watch in their work-related 
activities. Many of them, particularly farmers, carried Ingram watches 
that could be purchased cheaply in Kresge's or Woolworth's stores. In 
fact those were popularly called "dollar watches." They were fobbed by 
their owners in order to withdraw them easily from watch pockets and 
not have to fish for them. Companies that served or supplied the trades 
often gave watch fobs as free advertising for their products. My father 
worked at various Allis-Chalmers tractor concerns and brought home 
several watch fobs with miniature bulldozers at the dangle end. I once 
bought a dollar watch myself (for $3.98 by then) just to have something 
to hang one of those cool fobs on. Many working men had both a cheap 
watch and a dress watch for special occasions; they also had pocket 
knives for both work and dress. Many years ago, when clothing 
manufacturers began eliminating watch pockets from trousers in order to 
cut cost, there was notice and minor lamenting in the national press at 
the passing of an era.

John Dyson