A truly authentic sound…
Lincoln’s watch may have taken licking,
but it kept on ticking through the film

There’s a scene in the film “Lincoln” where the 16th president is contemplative and fingering his pocket watch that’s hanging before him.

If those viewing the film listen closely, they can hear the watch ticking. That sound is authentic.

This past summer, a sound designer on the film visited the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) in Frankfort and recorded the ticking of the watch. The visit was part of an effort to incorporate as many historically accurate sounds as possible that Lincoln would have actually heard in his lifetime.

KHS Director of Museum Collections and Exhibitions Trevor Jones was reluctant to participate at first.

“Although I very much wanted to help, I was initially skeptical. Lincoln’s watch is an iconic artifact at KHS and is irreplaceable,” Jones said. “I was concerned that winding it could cause damage and I wasn’t going to risk a signature artifact.”

Closer examination by staff and experts determined that the watch is still in perfect mechanical working order. The circa 1860 watch had not ticked in decades, and Jones was concerned that trying to wind it could damage one of the museum’s most valuable holdings. Jones consulted with curator Bill Bright, an expert in watches.

“Bill pulled the watch off display, examined it carefully and consulted with other experts,” Jones said. “He reported that the watch was mechanically in perfect working order and that he recommended a test. He wound the watch, and a perfectly regular ticking came forth.”

The next determination was where to record the watch’s ticking. Initially, there was talk of sending it by courier to Skywalker Sound in Nicasio, Calif. However, sound man Greg Smith was dispatched to Frankfort where the watch was placed in a box Smith designed and recorded in the historical society’s vault.

“I thought it would take 15 minutes,” Jones said. “But it took two or three hours.”

Jones said the watch was recorded in a variety of ways: with the cover closed and open, with the crystal open, and with the microphone in various positions to provide a variety of sounds to choose from.

After that, the hardest part was keeping the activity a secret. Historical society staffers were asked not to mention the recording until the movie opened in limited release.

The timepiece, described by the society as a “yellow gold key-wind hunting-case pocket watch” with a porcelain dial, was bought at Tiffany and Co. about 1860 and would have been a high-end, expensive piece.

“This fact makes it probable that Lincoln either purchased it or it was a gift after he became president,” Jones stated. “We do not know how often he used it, but he definitely owned it during the Civil War.”

The watch carries the inscription of its maker, “J. Jacqueson, Copenhagen.” It has a chain, and an attached fob has the gold initials “AL” in onyx.

There has been some speculation that the watch was carried by Lincoln on the night of his assassination.

“We have not been able to find any evidence to support this assertion,” Jones commented, “but the contents of Lincoln’s pockets from that night do not include a watch, so it is at least possible.”

After Lincoln's death in 1865, his son, Robert, inherited the watch and gave it to his cousin, Benjamin Hardin Helm Jr. In 1943, Helm presented the watch as a birthday gift to a leading Lincoln authority, William H. Townsend, who passed it to his daughter Mary Townsend Murphy. The Murphy family gave it to the society in 2002.

The watch and a recording of its ticking were on display in KHS’s signature exhibition, “A Kentucky Journey,” through Dec. 8.