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Certainly not a high grade highly finished movement that might attract a price like that. Especially since the case doesn’t appear to me to be karat gold. Shill bidder?
I don't think a shill. Goodwill often has bidders pay more than retail. There seem to be a lot of people who buy based on gold content. Plus, there's just some crazy bidding sometimes. Hard to say exactly why.
Any thoughts on this?
It seems like a list of features, which is why I thought it might be a salesman item.
Here's an auction item that ends in 7 hours. It's gotten pretty pricey ($2k), which is a bummer.
Question is, what is it?
I am thinking it's some kind of salesman model, based on the inside engravings and decorated movement.
Looks to be 1902ish. Reported to be 18k but not marked 18k.
Does anything stand out to you?
Edit: I was wondering if the sales reps name was engraved above "Locle". I the think the engraving next to ,"Hands" is "761", the same as the number in the case.
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My Seth Thomas saga continues with the discovery of a tiny inscription almost unnoticeable on the cuvette.
It led me on a great chase that has allowed me to determine most of the watches owners history and the strange story that found this PW turning up in NZ
Another fairly early collaboration between Hamilton and Ball was the Ball grade 999, 18-size, 23-jewel model of which there were only 100 produced. All of them in 1911. I have a picture of the only one of these that I have ever seen. I worked on one for a member of the watch repair fraternity, locally, many decades ago. It needed a balance staff, and he was unable to locate one. He asked for my help. I went to his shop where he had the watch open on his bench. I recognized it as a 18-size Hamilton from six feet away! I saw it was a Ball grade 999. I told him that any balance staff from any Hamilton grade 940, 941, 942, 943, 944, 946, or 947 was the same balance staff. He didn’t have any of these. When I asked if I could do it for him (I had the staff), he asked me to do it. I had it back to him, done, the following day. Unfortunately, this was before digital photography, and before I discovered how to take decent pictures of watches, so the picture is lousy. However, three members of the Omega board own the Hamilton grade 946, 23-jewel version of this watch. It is a Hamilton grade 946, NOT a Ball grade 999, 23-jewel version, but you’ll get the idea.