Looking for a certain pre-WWII women's watch.

ArrowFunction · Dec 3, 2020

Good afternoon, everyone!

I was directed to this forum from Reddit, they said there are some real experts here who could help me.

TLDR: I'm looking for pre-WWII women's golden (or gold-plated) watch, that is rectangular (not square) and has a black dial with golden hands.

Long story: My grandmother is turning 90 and asked for a watch that her mother had before 1940, when the communists invaded their country and took all their stuff. I must say I'm skeptical about my ability to find one, much less a functional unit, but if possible I'd very much like to at least identify it. I don't know the year it was bought or whether it was new then, but given that Omega started in 1903, that narrows the search window to 37 years or fewer.

Any help in tentatively identifying the model would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you! =)

Foo2rama · Dec 3, 2020

ArrowFunction
Good afternoon, everyone!

I was directed to this forum from Reddit, they said there are some real experts here who could help me.

TLDR: I'm looking for pre-WWII women's golden (or gold-plated) watch, that is rectangular (not square) and has a black dial with golden hands.

Long story: My grandmother is turning 90 and asked for a watch that her mother had before 1940, when the communists invaded their country and took all their stuff. I must say I'm skeptical about my ability to find one, much less a functional unit, but if possible I'd very much like to at least identify it. I don't know the year it was bought or whether it was new then, but given that Omega started in 1903, that narrows the search window to 37 years or fewer.

Any help in tentatively identifying the model would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you! =)

Unfortunately you will never be able to identify it from your info. I’m Sorry.

They appear on eBay periodically, Etsy might not be a bad place to search either.

we would be more then happy to help you with individual pieces.

I assume the watch was originally purchased in Germany? Also are you positive it was a black dial?

ArrowFunction · Dec 3, 2020

Foo2rama
Unfortunately you will never be able to identify it from your info. I’m Sorry.

They appear on eBay periodically, Etsy might not be a bad place to search either.

we would be more then happy to help you with individual pieces.

I assume the watch was originally purchased in Germany? Also are you positive it was a black dial?

Yea, I was worried it might be an impossible task. To make it more difficult I'm not actually positive of anything, as I have to rely on childhood memories from 80 years ago. I'm not even sure where it was bought, though I would assume somewhere in the Baltic region.

I guess I'll have to try to gather more info, though, it's unlikely that I should be able to.

Anyway, thank you for your help!

Syrte · Dec 3, 2020

For sure it would be impossible to identify the exact model that your grand mother’s mother would have worn
— but it could be possible to find an equivalent, possibly from another brand.
Are you sure it was Omega?

1/ Below a beautiful Benrus that’s not for sale as far as I’m aware, it was recently purchased by the lady collector who’s wearing it in the pictures, but who knows, you might find another. (Although it’s unlikely it will have this distinctive angular shape).
Also perhaps she’d be willing to sell it knowing the story and if your grand mother likes it?

2/ Also below is a late 1940s (or early 1950s) Longines 14K watch -one of the hands is wrong and on my phone I can’t see if the dial is original. But again it goes to show that some watches can be found.

3/1930s Omega watch from Ukraine, gold plated and worn — ridiculously priced but probably negociable (I would offer 250 euros at most, still worth a try).

4/ gold plated Raymond Weil watch, no idea what creature it is, and from what period, but the style is definitely 1930s and perhaps your grand mother would like it as a reminder of the watch she remembers?

JwRosenthal · Dec 3, 2020

Going by memory can be tough unless there is a visual aid- like trying to describe a suspect to a sketch artists versus looking through a book of mug shots.

I think a good first step would be to grab lots of pictures off the web of pre-war black dialed gold ladies watches. As said above- the curiosity about the black dial specifically is that not many ladies watches of the period came with black dials- but many men’s watches did, and they were quite small at that time.

Typical prewar ladies watches looked much like this:

Whereas men’s watches looked much like the ones @Syrte posted above.
Perhaps her mother wore your great-grandfathers watch. Or perhaps it belonged to another family member and she wrote it for sentimental reasons.
If you gather a sampling of images of varying styles and show them to her (both men’s and ladies)- she can narrow it down to a type or style- which would put you closer to honing in on a specific watch. Plus this would be a fun bonding experience with your grandmother and opportunity to hear her stories about that period of her life in a natural stream-of-consciousness way.

When you get a sampling of images that reflect her memory of the watch- then post them for us and we can do round 2 of the treasure hunt and you bring those back to her and narrow down further

ArrowFunction · Dec 3, 2020

Syrte
For sure it would be impossible to identify the exact model that your grand mother’s mother would have worn — but it could be possible to find an equivalent, possibly from another brand. ...

JwRosenthal
Going by memory can be tough unless there is a visual aid- like trying to describe a suspect to a sketch artists versus looking through a book of mug shots. ...

Thank you both! I will show her the pictures and see if that can jolt her memory a bit.

Syrte · Dec 3, 2020

Here’s a few more - those are true ladies watches though.

Looking for a certain pre-WWII women's watch.

ArrowFunction

Foo2rama

ArrowFunction

Syrte

JwRosenthal

ArrowFunction

Syrte

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