Greetings All,
I recently purchased a Gubelin watch and I was wondering if Gubelin had a signed crown that they used. Or did they just use a generic crown. After searching the web, many of the watches appear to have unsigned crowns. I know after 50 plus years crowns do fall off. The first three photos are of the watch I just purchased which has a sign/symbol that I am not familiar. The next two photos are from a watch that appears to be the same watch as the one I bought and is currently on ebay. It does not have a signed crown. Thank you in advance for any help!

 

The vintage ones I have seen all had plain, unmarked crowns. Crowns were often replaced during a watches life, but I have never seen a signed crown from them in any event.

 

Here is one more that I found that appears to be the same reference. This one appears to have an unsigned crown. Although difficult to say. The hands are also different as well.

 

I agree. The crown on my watch has me intrigued.....

 

I just found this one which matches mine. Maybe it was just placed on this particular reference.....

 

That crown is a Gubelin crown. Yes, they also used plain crowns, but it depends on the period and reference, etc.

 

I was hoping you would chime in Tony! You are the Gubelin Guru! Any idea what the symbol means or stands for? Thank you!

 

I don't remember what the icon comes from, but here's another on the same model, so yours is likely original:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/GUBELIN-ST...299635?hash=item469ab58b33:g:l9AAAOSwOttcxzk4Purchases made through these links may earn this site a commission from the eBay Partner Network

 

Gubelin's trademark is the hourglass, yet I've never seen an hourglass on any of their crowns. Over the years Gubelin sold many watches by other manufacturers under their own name (Audemars Piguet comes to mind), I've never seen that odd icon before on any of their watches. I suspect it is an icon from whoever manufactured the watch for them, but it's not their trademark. In the past these sorts of oddball brandings were more common, today there area all kinds of trademark issues they must contend with.

 

While it is true that a framed hour glass is Gubelin's trademark icon, you are wrong about the subject crown. I have seen many of them over the years, and they are used exclusively on the watches that they sold under their own name. Their higher-end watches were typically double-signed, and the crowns were, when appropriate, signed by the manufacturer.

The fully in-house watches, signed only Gubelin, either had plain crowns, or the subject crowns. Gubelin finished all of their watches in-house, so none of them were fully "manufactured" for them.