Skip to content
The Encyclopedia of Horology

Watch family · Style & purpose

Purse and Travel Watches

Needs research

Small watches carried in a handbag, vanity case or dedicated travel case rather than worn on the wrist or a waistcoat chain, generally fitted with a folding stand, protective cover or a short strap or ribbon rather than a fixed wrist bracelet.

Movement & mechanism

  • Small movement, frequently a reduced pocket-watch or early wristwatch calibre, set within a protective hinged or slide-on case
  • Some examples fitted with a small folding stand allowing the watch to double as a miniature desk or travel clock

Identification

  • Small case with a loop, ribbon fitting or folding stand rather than fixed wrist lugs
  • Often sold as part of a matched vanity or travel case set
  • Decorative treatment (enamel, guilloché) typical of the accessory rather than purely utilitarian trade

Terminology

  • Purse watch — a small watch intended to be carried in a handbag rather than worn
  • Travel watch — a small watch, often with a protective case or stand, intended for portable use away from home

Known variations

  • Ribbon or fob-mounted purse watch
  • Folding-stand travel watch
  • Vanity-case-set purse watch

Pocket-watch ancestry

Purse and travel watches sit directly alongside, and in the same period as, the pocket watch: they use the same small movements and simply substitute a bag, ribbon or travel case for a waistcoat pocket and chain, illustrating that miniaturisation and portability concerns predate, and are not unique to, the wristwatch proper.

Collecting notes

Collected within the broader field of ladies' and travel accessory watches, where case, fitted box and decorative quality weigh heavily alongside the movement.

Related photographs

Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 1
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 1 — Kozuch, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 2
Prim mechanical wrist watch disassembled part 2 — Kozuch, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Mechanical wristwatch
Mechanical wristwatch — Petar Milošević, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. General literature on ladies' accessory and travel watches of the early twentieth century; systematic maker documentation is limited.

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.