# Securing pocket watches: keep case, chain and rate certificate apart

> Secure pocket watches: store case, dial and rate certificate apart, avoid moisture, no casket in the hall.
> Quelle: https://tresorrari.de/artikel/taschenuhren-sammlung-sichern · Stand: 2026-10-01 · Tresorrari Redaktion

A pocket watch is small, old and often worth more through the name on the movement than through the gold of the case. It sits well in a hand and just as well in a jacket pocket on the way out of the house. In the overview [Security for collectors](/artikel/sicherheit-fuer-sammler) it belongs with the pieces a cabinet can take.

## How it leaves the house

Pocket watches rarely appear in police reports under their own word. They fall under watches, and watches are frequent in the radar. Anyone who photographs a display case in the living room with the lids open and tags the room gives the location away at the same time. Chains and chatelaines beside them are small lots of their own, which vanish in the same drawer.

## What time does to it

Enamel chips with changes in temperature. Steel shows rust on the stem when the box sits damp. A cabinet that is too dry makes the leather lining and the old glue brittle. You store the watch wound or run down the way the watchmaker says for this movement, and you do not pack an acid-bearing foam insert under it.

## Where to put it

Several watches in a shallow drawer, each with its number on a slip underneath, the slip as a copy in the document cabinet. The cabinet is anchored as soon as the weight lies under the limit from which it can be carried away without a fixing. You name the sum to the insurer as a list, not as a round household-contents lump sum.

## The papers

Rate certificate, repair history and the name of the previous owner make the price when there is a signature. These sheets do not lie in the watch box. A photo of the movement with the cover open, taken once and sharp, does not later replace a certificate, but it helps you recognize the piece.


## Häufige Fragen

### Do pocket watches lie better flat?

The case does, so enamel and glass do not stand on an edge. The movement itself follows the watchmaker's instruction, not a general rule for every caliber.

### Does the chain belong with it?

Yes, when it belongs to the piece. On the list it stands as its own line, otherwise it is missing in the claim even though it lay in the same box.

### Is a casket in a cabinet compartment enough?

Only if the compartment is a certified safe and the papers lie elsewhere. A wooden box in the wardrobe is a drawer.