Reply With QuoteHere's a The Watch Bloke blogpost on servicing an A Schild 554 in a similarly-shaped 1939 watch: https://thewatchbloke.co.uk/2015/01/09/a-schild-554/
1939 watch:
Mine:
Someone posted an old Zenith and asked for comments. I noted that the 9ct gold case was english, made by Dennison, and attached a similar inside the caseback photo, saying here's my silver one from 1922.
Which prompted this helpful observation:
Here are a couple of listings of Birmingham hallmarks to illustrate:Originally Posted by jl smout
Indeed.
Which is fine, but does make me wonder: in 1947, would this have been a *desperately* old-fashioned watch?
I've always thought of these fixed-lug cushion cases as following on from the First World War.
Ranfft on the WUS vintage forum five years ago IDed the movement as a Schild 554, which was, he said, extremely common between the wars. The dial is porcelain, which again made it seem naturally 20s / 30s to me.
Presumably a 1947 movement will have been more robust than a 1922 one, which perhaps explains how come it survived being on my wrist throughout my university years, which involved a lot of temporary clumsiness?
Here's a The Watch Bloke blogpost on servicing an A Schild 554 in a similarly-shaped 1939 watch: https://thewatchbloke.co.uk/2015/01/09/a-schild-554/
1939 watch:
Mine:
Last edited by Der Amf; 16th March 2020 at 20:24.
There are some Helvetias from the 40s with that case style I think.
Will do some digging.
What a stunning watch Amf!
Where are your pics to be found?
Here is an example of a Helvetia with that same case design (on eBay at the moment). I can’t see the serial number to date it but I think ‘40s.
At first I thought it interesting that the dial design had moved forward while the case design had remained similar. But then I realised there's no reason why dial design and case design should move in the same direction and the same speed.
I suppose one thing that makes me so surprised by the re-dating of my watch is that between 1922 and 1947 is WWII, and we kind of think of the war as having utterly put away the era that came before it. (Well, I tend to, at any rate)
Not an expert but the way Dennison is written in the case suggests the later date. If it was 1922 it would more likely say Dennison watch co.
Oh yes, I'm not at all doubting the correction - I think previously people had misread the hallmark because everyone was distracted by the seemingly prewar looks.
Just to confuse things further, this is a silver cased watch, fixed bars, made by Helvetia although marked Roirol, and apparently hallmarked in Edinburgh in 1927...
There are similar watches in this post on the excellent Helvetia History site, although the post is actually about Depollier waterproof watches.
https://www.helvetiahistory.co.uk/po...ier-watch-corp
Last edited by alfat33; 20th March 2020 at 07:51.
I wonder if the watch is a marriage of parts?
I also wonder if the depression in the 30's played some part in the slowing down of design and style pointers giving designs a much longer life?
It's still a nice watch , older watches have so much more style about them for me.
I've always supposed that the watch dates from the era when companies just put together hands, dials, movements, and cases as they fancied - hence the lack of branding on either dial or movement - and so this watch was, as it were, a marriage from the very beginning. No reason, I suppose that these piles of parts weren't still hanging around post war, and I also can imagine an older generation being perfectly happy to buy the results.
(Lot of guessing in that paragraph!)
Lovely watch.
I think the hands are wrong, should be solid hands instead of squelettes.
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