My "Transitional" ;-)

For hundreds of years, men (and women) relied on pocket watches for keeping time, or just for the love of the intricacy.

During the period between the start of the last century until the mid 1920s, wrist watches were starting to evolve.

Some of the first wrist watches were simply converted pocket watches with lugs attached and worn with a strap. However, following the lead of makers like Omega and Rolex, a number of watchmakers created dedicated wrist watches.
Not quite pocket watch conversions, and not quite our modern integrated case/strap/bracelet combo, they were in my eyes, the transition between the two.

So, here is my latest capture. My Transitional.

The watch probably dates to around 1918 and was produced and sold by John Rowland, a Silversmith and Jeweller in Melbourne at the turn of the 19th century. The fully hallmarked silver case holds a Swiss movement with a centre seconds feature, something unusual at that time. It has had a busy life judging by the number of watchmakers marks made at servicing time. The enamel dial is in excellent condition with only a small crack at 12, however the lume (radium?) has worn off most of the numbers. The blued hands are in good condition, the minute hand having lost all lume though. The movement is a 12 ligne (at 27.6mm), the case is 34.5mm dia and 11mm high. Strap size is 12mm.

Anyway, enough rambling, on to the pictures.

After some browsing I came across David Boettcher's great website which helped me to decipher the hallmarks in the case (see pic below).

1. The sponsor mark of George Stockwell of Finsbury St London.
2. London Assay Office mark for Sterling Silver.
3. London Import mark.
4. London Assay Office Date Letter mark for 1918/1919.

So all of these tell me that the case was most probably Swiss made, imported into Britain by Stockwell some time in 1918.

From David's website:

"Before 1 June 1907 it was possible for watches to be sent direct from suppliers in Switzerland to customers in the UK, but after 1 June 1907 the requirement for watches to be hallmarked in the UK complicated things. In order for a watch case imported as part of a complete watch to be sent for assay, a person or company with a "registered mark" had to remove the movement from the case and stamp the case with his registered mark. The watch case could then be sent to the assay office, where it would be tested (assayed) and if found to be of the proper standard it would be hallmarked and returned to be reunited with its movement. Obviously this required a premises where the movements could be removed and stored while the cases were being assayed, and staff to remove the movements and replace them once the cases were hallmarked. Some of the larger Swiss companies already had permanent agents in the UK and these were able to process watches for hallmarking, but many smaller Swiss companies simply had travelling sales representatives and did not have UK based agents.

From June 1907 some of these smaller Swiss companies arranged for Assay Agents in the UK to handle the hallmarking process for them. One of these agents was George Stockwell & Co., who before 1907 were purely shipping agents and had not registered a mark to send items for assay. Stockwell's "GS" mark is the most common sponsors mark seen on imported Swiss watches from this period that still exist, and appears on many hundreds, probably thousands, of watches that come up for sale every year. Stockwell & Co. probably acted as assay agent for more imported Swiss watches than any other company."

I believe that this letter is a "t" rather than a "b", which would mean that your watch was assayed in 1914/1915.

Correct, it is a "t", therefore 1914 or early 1915.

Confusion between different assay office date letters 😟

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