Craig Duling directs Heritage Management Services, Inc., and provides leadership in all aspects of the San Francisco firm as CEO. A longtime collector of antique pocket watches, Craig Duling maintains HeritagePocketWatch.com. One topic covered is American-crafted mechanical watches, which were archetypal of the railroad era. With hunter-cased and open-faced varieties of timepieces manufactured, railroad-grade pocket watches were by definition open faced, as they needed to be read quickly and without obstruction. Both types featured clear crystal faces that protected the watch from impact and scratches. At the back would be an opening mechanism that allowed viewing of the movement. Before the mid-1920s, watch movements in American-made timepieces were not cased at the factory, but constructed by watchmakers whose services were rendered through local jewelers. This enabled almost infinite variations in quality and durability of movements within watches with the same exterior. Now highly prized, American mechanical watches are largely a thing of the past, as less-expensive overseas manufacture and quartz imports, in tandem with digital technologies, have led to a major decline in manufacturing viability in the United States. A former engineer, Craig Duling heads Heritage Management Services as chief executive officer. In addition, Craig Duling is an antiquarian horologist who owns HeritagePocketWatch.com, where he shares his expertise on antique pocket watches. One of the most important events in the history of watch development was the proliferation of the railroad system in the United States. While working for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway, Henry S. Montgomery came up with a unique watch face design to meet the needs of railway professionals. He received a patent in 1920 for his personal design, which varied from other marginal minute designs at the time in three distinct ways. First, the numbers on the dial appeared vertical instead of being slanted or arched, a convention that we still see in many watches today. Second, Montgomery enlarged the five-minute numbers and typically had them appear in red instead of the standard black. Again, this convention can still be seen in some clocks today. Third, the sixth hour received a clear mark on the watch face. Before Montgomery, most pocket watches did not have a clear mark for this hour because of a subdial for the second hand. Montgomery placed the six within this subdial. Lastly, around the outer edge of the dial the seconds were numbered 1 through 60. For instance, this enabled one to know when it was exactly 13-minutes after 2 o'clock because the minute hand would point not only at a marker but also at the number 13. As the chairman of the board for Heritage Management Services, Craig Duling provides strategic direction for the property and business management enterprise. Prior to founding Heritage in 1988, he was an engineer for Lockheed Missiles and Space Company. In addition to his passion for collecting vintage and antique timepieces, Craig Duling enjoys playing golf. Each year Golf Digest puts together a list of the top 100 courses in the United States, as well as a shortlist of the top courses in each state. Below are its three highest-ranked courses in California. 1. Cypress Point Club - A 6,524-yard, par-72 course originally designed by Alister Mackenzie and Robert Hunter in 1928, Cypress Point is also ranked by Golf Digest as the third best course in the United States. Former United States Golf Association President Sandy Tatum once dubbed it the Sistine Chapel of golf. 2. Pebble Beach Golf Links - Ranked seventh on the publication's list of the top courses in America, Pebble Beach was designed in 1919 by Jack Neville and Douglas Grant. It has hosted five U.S. Opens and will host its sixth in 2019. 3. Los Angeles Country Club (North) - A long par-71 course at 7,236 yards, the north course at Los Angeles Country Club was designed in 1921 by George C. Thomas Jr., and most recently redesigned in 2010 by Gil Hanse, Jim Wagner, and Geoff Shackelford. It's slated to host the 2023 U.S. Open. A lifelong collector of antique pocket watches, Craig Duling has run the Heritagepocketwatch.com website since 2014. Craig Duling is also a seasoned outdoorsman who has rafted on a number of rivers, including the Colorado River. Spanning 1,450 miles, the Colorado River stretches throughout seven different U.S. states as well as northwestern Mexico. The head of the river begins in the Rocky Mountain National Park, which sits at an elevation of around 9,000 feet. As it moves toward the Grand Canyon in Arizona, the Colorado loses more than half of its elevation. For most of its length, the river flows at a depth of around 20 feet, but there are regions that are as shallow as 6 feet or as deep as 90 feet. Many also know the Colorado for its mix of both slow-moving portions and rapids. As part of the entire Colorado River basin, the Colorado drains a space of more than 240,000 square miles. The far reach of the river has made it easy for communities to use it as a source of irrigation for over 1,000 years. Today, agricultural entities draw from the Colorado to water more than 5 million acres of farmland. In addition, nearly 20 million individuals use the river as a water source. Craig Duling has served for nearly three decades as president and CEO of Heritage Management Services. In addition to leading the property management organization based out of San Francisco, California, Craig Duling channels his lifelong passion for antique pocket watches into the administration of an educational website, heritagepocketwatch.com.
Whether found, purchased, or inherited, an antique pocket watch can be a highly regarded collectible item. In order to assess its monetary value, a collector must first determine a number of details about the pocket watch in question. After establishing basic information such as the brand, model, and movement type of the watch, owners should establish the timepiece’s age. A pocket watch’s serial number can be useful for determining this, as lower serial numbers suggests earlier production dates. However, age does not necessitate value, since many former companies such as Waltham and Elgin mass-produced relatively inexpensive pocket watches while in business. The composition of a pocket watch also plays heavily into its value. Gold or damaskeened finishes, polished screws, and high jewel counts indicate a higher quality piece. Collectors should take care to determine whether gold watches are merely gold plated or comprised of solid gold. A pocket watch’s value also relies on its condition. Unaltered watches with their original parts will be worth more than those that have undergone repairs, and pocket watches that are still in working order will generally warrant a higher appraisal than those that have stopped ticking. Additionally, blemishes such as scratches or dents can lower the value of a pocket watch, and these cosmetic faults often suggest internal issues as well. Craig Duling's fascination with timepieces goes back at least to his college days, when he built a digital clock from scratch for his senior year physics lab class. Currently the head of Heritage Management Services, a business management firm in San Francisco, Craig Duling is also a significant collector of rare antique pocket watches.
Pocket watches are often associated with images of 19th-century railroad conductors consulting them as steam trains left the station. This close attention to correct time was essential. In the 19th century, most trains traveled in both directions on single sets of tracks. Sidings were placed at regular intervals to allow trains to pass safely. Printed timetables showed the arrival and departure of trains, as well as when they were waiting in sidings. This system depended on accurate watches. The problem with this became evident in 1891 when two trains in Ohio had a head-on collision, killing nine people. Investigation disclosed that the engineer's watch on the passenger train had stopped and restarted, making it four minutes slow. This tragedy prompted railroad officials to set up standards for pocket watches. These specifications mandated that watches share a common design, as well as being reliable, easy to read, and impervious to extremes of temperature. |
AuthorBefore accepting his current position, Craig Duling served as an engineer with Lockheed Missiles and Space Company in Sunnyvale, California. Archives
September 2017
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