My father in law has just acquired a Rotary watch which in turn belonged to his father in law.
The watch holds some sentimental value to him so we are making arrangements to have it serviced but in the mean time we are interested in trying to work out how old it might be.
Hopefully someone here can help, here’s some pics inside the caseback
And the movement
Many thanks in advance
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Hard to say from your pictures but the movement looks like a Felsa 692 which were in common throughout the late 40's through 1950's
Dennison was the watch case maker and the not a hallmark expert but the anchor K might indicate 1959
A picture of the dial would help
Last edited by JoT; 27th August 2018 at 20:06.
The .375 means it’s 9ct gold (37.5% gold content /purity). The anchor on its side means it was hallmarked from Birmingham Assay office (where they officially verify the metal). The K identifies the year it was hallmarked and according to the assayoffice it looks like the stamp for 1984 for the Birmingham office
Casebacks get replaced from time to time so of course the case back could be later than the rest of the watch but hopefully that helps with one bit of the jigsaw.
Theassayoffice.co.uk has a helpful wizard for such things. Quite useful.
Rusty the K was also used in the 1950's which is consistent with the Felsa movement
I got it to 1966, Birmingham. The case watch manufactured by ALD watch company (Aaron Lufkin Dennison ). Having read about these cases on varies sites there are no records held on the serial numbers. You more or less have to date it on the assey markings.
The style of the K does indeed look like 1959 but the shape of the background is a square with corners cut off which suggests 1989. But yes the shape of the K looks more like the 1959 font
No way is it 1984!
The movement hasn’t got an adjustable beat arm, that looks v. 1950s to me. The case can be dated from the hallmark, I have a hallmark book somewhere and if I dig it out I could check. Late 50s/early 60s is my guess, mid 60s at a push.
At a glance I don’t recognise the movement. There will be a makers mark and number somewhere, possibly under the balance cock.
Watches like this are usually easy to service wnd sort out.......provided you don’t expect COSC performance. However, movements that went into gold cases were always good quality if not top quality. Different days, different era, no digital clocks to measure against when watches like this were sold!
Paul
Looks like a Felsa 692 I thinkOriginally Posted by walkerwek1958
I know it’s not 1984 but the hallmark was the caseback and the K with that surround is 1984. I also further posted pic of the 1959 hallmark which is the correct font K but wrong surround
Thank you for the helpful and informative replies everyone ^^^^
I’ll send a link to this thread to my father in law and I’ll get a picture of the dial in better light tomorrow.
Thanks again, enjoy what’s left of your bank holiday Monday 👍
If you look at the hall marks in any Dennison gold case I think you will find that they all have that uniform surround (the same as the the other stamps) on the date letter stamp....
As seen in this 1955 Rolex
Last edited by John_D; 27th August 2018 at 22:52.
Yup the same. Maybe the assay site has that wrongIf you look at the hall marks in any Dennison gold case I think you will find that they all have that uniform surround (the same as the the other stamps) on the date letter stamp....
As seen in this 1955 Rolex
The assay site has got it right, more likely Dennisons punch sets are all universal, with just the fonts being correct. Another example here, my wife's late mother's watch from 1934, also has the 'wrong' date letter surround.
Aren't the stamps applied by the assay office rather than the maker?
I'll admit I have no idea of how it's done just that's what I assumed happened.
That’s what I thought. In this case the Birmingham (anchor) assay office would stamp it? Or perhaps they grant permission. To the maker to stamp it. Interesting to know
Watch cases are so thin that they would surely require refinishing after being stamped so I assume the stamping is applied before the final case finishing, so would have suspected that the stamping was done at Dennisons?
That would make sense
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