Calling all Pocket Watch Buffs

I imagine your day was "Hmmm, interesting"....."yes, nice one"......."Oh that's unusual"...."Ah, sorry, not worth much"........."HOLY COW!".

While I was examining the LeRoy watch, a television camera was there, aimed at me and the watch. After the girl left, the camera was still there. The operator asked me if I would consent to an interview. I was fitted with a microphone, and the interview took about 5 minutes. I made it to the evening news!

Day 2 of our local appraisal clinic at our local historical park. For the most part, the usual plonk 🥱. But I try to add a dimension to their stuff so that they walk away with some intrinsic value added to this treasure. My last appraisal for the day is pictured here.the internal cover indicates the name of a maker or retailer in Edinburgh, Scotland. I had my copy of the Baillie treatise on early watch and clock makers, and this watch was likely made circa 1765. The case was not marked with a hallmark, date letter, standard mark, or maker’s mark. I felt this was odd for this watch. It occurred to me that the cases (it was as pair case model) might have been made of Pinchbeck alloy which was compounded in the 18th century as a substitute for gold. No gold in the alloy.

This watch is a verge with fusee, and interestingly, it is a repeater. It has a single bell, so is it a five-minutes, a half-quarter, a quarter, or an hour repeater. I didn’t test the repeater as I didn’t want the risk.

The back cover of the outer case was produced by repousse which involved imbedding the case back (out side down) in pitch (tar). The tar was allowed to harden, then the artist would use punches and hammers to produce a reverse image of the desired scene in the metal of the case back. It must have taken huge imagination to have a vision of the scene you were trying to depict, while working on the back side.



This watch is much like the one I reported on, yesterday. This one RUNS!

I recently saw an Antiques Roadshow episode where the lack of hallmarks was discussed and it was explained to an owner that there were various reasons for missing hallmarks. Add to that, hallmarking wasn't compulsory until the 1920s or 1950s (depending on the source).

There is only one way to tell, but from the look and quality of this piece, I'd bet on gold.

I’ve told the owners what I think, and I told them a streak test was likely the only way to know. Of course, they were concerned about defacing the case. So it is up to them. It is my understanding that, by some precious metal marking laws, even a GOLD item can’t be called gold unless it is stamped with standard mark, and trade mark of the maker. I hadn’t heard about these marks not being obligatory. The watch had been called 18-karat, previously. So I indicated there was a possibility it might be Pinchbeck. It is up to them.

With the pair cased repeater (above) which had no stampings to indicate age or metal content, because I was unsure without a streak test to prove karatage, I declined trying to put a dollar value on it. I find when I do these appraisal clinics, these owners are far more interested in finding out about the item than they are about opinions on value. The owner told me that the watch had belonged to a prominent person whose name I didn’t recognize, and he didn’t elaborate.

Shown on the Omega Board elsewhere, recently, but nice to look at again. My Waltham CPR, 1883 model, 17-jewels, single roller, stem set, 24-hour double sunk vitreous enamel dial, Arabic and Roman numerals, spade style blued steel hands. Acquired in a barter deal from a brother collector who had two of them.

I’m no help on the calibre designations you have included, but the case is coin silver, decorated with some rose gold plating called gallone.

It may be a combination of both, the balance cock doesn't have the same finish as the other bridges, so I'd say it's a replacement from another watch.

What's the dimension of the movement plate (if you can access it).

You’d almost swear the watch left the maker’s bench, yesterday! Perfect! I assume it has a fusee? So wonderful that it didn’t end up in the hands of a scrapper!