Longines Pocket Watch

[TheGreekPhysique]

Following my post of the Princeton skin diver I received some requests to post some of the other watches my father in law gave me. Here are some photos of the Longines pocket watch. Only information that I have was the pocket watch was bought by my wife’s great uncle. He would wore it to formal events. When he passed away he gave it to her great aunt who was born in 1908. The watch eventually got passed down to my wife.

 

[Dan S]

Very cool niello case.

 

[TrboDieselPwrd]

What a cool piece of family history! Love the engraving on the front. What are your plans for it?

 

[JwRosenthal]

It’s a lovely piece. I can’t tell if it’s just missing the crystal or the whole bezel as well. Second hand shouldn’t be that hard for a watchmaker to source.
It also looks like it was put into a case that was made for a lever set (wasn’t uncommon to swap dials/movements from a plain case to a fancier case) or if the lever is missing from this one.


Paging @Canuck - any insights on this one?

 

[TheGreekPhysique]

TrboDieselPwrd

What a cool piece of family history! Love the engraving on the front. What are your plans for it?

Probably will try to have it restored at some point but finding a watchmaker has been difficult for me up until now

 

[TheGreekPhysique]

According to Longines website

"Longines wins the Grand Prix at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 with a pocket watch named La Renommee, containing the 21.59 calibre chronometer. Longines wins more Grands PRix than any other brand at these events. "

 

[TheGreekPhysique]

JwRosenthal

It’s a lovely piece. I can’t tell if it’s just missing the crystal or the whole bezel as well. Second hand shouldn’t be that hard for a watchmaker to source.
It also looks like it was put into a case that was made for a lever set (wasn’t uncommon to swap dials/movements from a plain case to a fancier case) or if the lever is missing from this one.


Paging @Canuck - any insights on this one?

The crystal is missing as well as the seconds hand. I don't know about the bezel part. Not sure how it was suppose to look like originally.

 

[DaveK]

TheGreekPhysique

According to Longines website

"Longines wins the Grand Prix at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 with a pocket watch named La Renommee, containing the 21.59 calibre chronometer. Longines wins more Grands PRix than any other brand at these events. "

Thanks for sharing this. Very nice!

Longines’ heritage Dept is quite helpful, I bet they’d have more info on this watch. Free of charge I believe.

 

[Waltesefalcon]

That's a beautiful watch and a great family history! I love that niello case.

JwRosenthal

It’s a lovely piece. I can’t tell if it’s just missing the crystal or the whole bezel as well. Second hand shouldn’t be that hard for a watchmaker to source.
It also looks like it was put into a case that was made for a lever set (wasn’t uncommon to swap dials/movements from a plain case to a fancier case) or if the lever is missing from this one.


Paging @Canuck - any insights on this one?

If you look closely you can see what I believe is the step for the crystal. It's also hard to tell but it might well be a lever set. That chip on the dial is perfectly aligned to have been caused by the lever. It might just be that we can't see the lever in the photo.

 

[Canuck]

The case is 0.800 pure coin silver. It appears to me as though the bezel is there. It just happens that I am presently working on the open faced version of that same exact movement. This movement is stem-setting, not lever set.

 

[TheGreekPhysique]

Little update about the man who originally owned the watch:

Supposedly he was a crew member on board the RMS Carpathia, which, according to the internet, was a transatlantic passenger steamship, when it went on a rescue mission to save survivors of the Titanic. According to my father in law there are photos of him on board this ship. He has to do some digging around but if he finds them I will be sure to post them if people are interested.