Reply With QuoteAnybody have any ideas?
A friend of ours mentioned prior to Christmas that she had her grandfather's watch and would like to know more about it when the subject of my horological obsessions were bandied around in conversation. She finally came round to visit last Saturday and here it is:
The first obvious thing is the size - I cannot see this being anything other than a lady's watch unless there is some quaint Norwegian tradition (the friend is from there) of gentlemen wearing 34mm diameter pocket watches. Here it is pictured next to a Damas GSTP for comparison.
What I can tell from the hallmarks and other details is that it is likely to be Swiss made as it bears both the 800 mark showing it to be at least 80% silver and the Grouse mark which is peculiar to Switzerland and confirms only that it dates from between 1880 and 1933. The inner lid is marked cuivre which means copper - the level of tarnishing on the inside hardly contradicts this though it does seem to have tarnished more like silver than copper. The inside of the caseback also has a mark ADF and I can't find anything that identifies what this represents; everything suggests that the watch movement and case originated in Switzerland and that the British model of imported movements fitted with locally made cases (e.g. Dennison) does not apply here. I've looked at all of the excellent resources on David Boettcher's website to no avail.
The size of the watch has immediately cast doubt on who the watch belonged to and the likelihood now is that it belonged to her grandfather's sister. The engraving on the back is not exactly precise however we did decide that it could begin with S which would match with Sigrid.
We found this calligraphy guide and note that the letter S and P are remarkably similar (these being the two likely initials).
The movement diameter appears to be 27.59mm which doesn't reconcile exactly to a ligne measurement but appears to be nearer to 12 ligne according to this reference:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~fotoplot/tech/wmms.html
I'm not expecting to find any more information about the movement - if she has an interest in having it serviced then I'll make sure I get some dial-side photos.
In summary the questions I'm trying to answer here are as follows:
Does the first letter in the engraving on the back represent an S or a P?
Does anybody have any leads about what the ADF mark on the inside of the caseback represents?
Any other thoughts or observations?
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
Anybody have any ideas?
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
I have no expertise, but if the font is that above then it’s an S (single stroke) rather than a P (two separate strokes)
The only thing I can offer is the 800 mark is used as a purity mark for silver. The rest has me stumped.
I have nothing helpful to add unfortunately but this is a very interesting post. I hope someone comes along with some more information
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