train wrecks have been caused by a lot of things.... but if you had to list the many causes of train collisions, would you ever guess one thing your list must show, is a watch? At least 6 trains crashes have been found to have been caused by watches.

Inaccurate watches created differences in perceived time, sometimes leading to accidents. While only a small percentage of train wrecks were due to inaccurate watches, several horrible train accidents pointed out that the nation's railroads were not all running on reliable timepieces.

A head-on train collision occurred on April 18, 1891 on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway at Kipton, 40 miles west of Cleveland, Ohio, which made headlines across the country. 

The Fast Mail train No. 14 was heading East. On the same track passenger train, No. 21 the Toledo Express, was heading West. The engineer and conductor of the westbound passenger train were given written train orders near Elyria to let the eastbound fast mail train pass them at Kipton, a small station west of Oberlin. The passenger train engineer was told that fast mail train was running on time as they left Elyria, also on time, according to the engineer's pocket watch.

 The two trains collided head-on at Kipton, the passenger train was under full brakes just about to pull into the siding, but the fast mail was at full speed, the passenger train hadn't made it into the Kipton siding on time. Both engineers, the passenger train fireman and six postal clerks were reported killed. the fast mail fireman and one other person were seriously injured. Both engines, three mail cars and one baggage car were reported completely wrecked. US Post Office also sustained great property losses.

The official report stated that not enough time was allowed for the passenger train train to get into the siding.3 Many contemporary accounts quote Webb C. Ball, Cleveland, Ohio jeweler who was appointed by the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway to investigate time keeping issues on the line following the collision, from an copyrighted interview by James B Morrow in 1910, citing the engineer's who's watch had stopped for 4 minutes, then started again as the cause of the accident, differing from the original report.

Other accidents were linked to inaccurate watches, some of which also resulted in fatalities including:

August 9, 1853 Camden & Amboy Old Bridge, New Jersey   4 killed   Engineer's watch 2.5 minutes slow

August 12, 1853 Providence & Worcester Valley Falls, Rhode Island    14 killed     Conductor's watch 2 minutes slow

August 1878 Panhandle Mingo Junction, Ohio    18 killed       Conductor's watch 20 minutes slow

November 1882 Illinois & St. Louis Belleville, Illinois     2 killed       watch 54 minutes slow

November 1893 Hocking Valley Bradner, Ohio     4 killed        Engineer's watch 17 minutes slow

A railway conductor was indicted for manslaughter in connection with the Mingo Junction accident in which it was determined his pocket watch was incorrect.

http://www.railswest.com/time/watches.html  has a LOT of info on watches and the railroad use, and it's very interesting reading. I'm not going to post more about it, as I think it would bore most people. But, I'll say that Waltham and Elgin watches were across the board, some of the best watches accepted throughout railroading.