08-27-2020 04:32 PM
My aunt sent this to me to sell. Her watch person is calling is 935 silver Swiss from the mid 1800's. It is gorgeous and I'm willing to believe it's 935 but I'm not sure I buy the age.
I can't get the back open to take a look and there's no name on it that's visible. It does run and keep decent time as long as it's kept wound. Is there a particular style associated with this type of watch? I saw it referred to as Queen Ann somewhere.
Does the age sound right, and is there a name for a watch like this?
08-27-2020 04:46 PM
Without any markings on the face or case and without seeing the back open there really is no way of ascertaining anything, much less age. It could have been made yesterday. Someone might confirm the style though.
08-27-2020 04:53 PM
I looped the ring and it's got what are probably European or British stamps on it. Gonna have to research, but dang they're the smallest stamps I've ever seen. There's definitely age to the case, but how much I don't know.
08-27-2020 05:10 PM - edited 08-27-2020 05:12 PM
Doesn't the back swing out from the top? A very sharp pen knife might get in the crack and (gently) pop it. Anyways, if no one here has any insight it wouldn't hurt to take it to your local jeweler.
08-27-2020 05:16 PM
... tried to edit but Lithium isn't playing nice today. I forgot (duh) everything around here including the jewelers are closed. My watch guy is pretty old and he probably just retired. Who knows...
08-27-2020 06:13 PM
Okay, so the watch guy was right. I managed to pry the back case open. It is Swiss, the date hallmark is 1881. The only part I can't make out is the makers hallmark, it's shield shaped but the details are impossible to make out. There are other numerical marks on it, I have no idea what they mean either.
08-27-2020 09:54 PM
That's for the silversmith that made the case, which is important, but can you see the movement? If you can find any info from that then you could run a search for similar watches and maybe get some details (and a vague price range) from other listings. You might find some details about case markings as well if you see any similar. Also you might try posting in the jewelry or collectables boards about the hallmarks.
08-28-2020 04:34 PM
Well that didn't help one bit, LOL. It's a 3 jewel and that's all I get. There's no makers mark on the movement. There's Fast and Slow for adjusting and that's all the writing I see. It's a rather uninspiring looking movement.
08-30-2020 03:49 AM
Honestly, to me it looks like a generic movement in a nice silver case. It's odd that the watch movement doesn't have a name, serial number, patent numbers, country, etc. At the least, without a serno, it looks like a generic replacement movement, possibly replacing an original that was too worn or expensive to fix. It's also uncommon for the dial to have no name or logo. But maybe someone revived a nice watch that was valuable to someone? I don't think it's 19th cent. but mechanical watches do need some TLC pretty often. It's a very pretty pocket watch 🍷
09-01-2020 07:01 PM
There are watches with the same fancy face and that exact same movement, so for whatever reason I think the movement is original to the case. There were so many watch makers active in that period in Switzerland so who knows.
The case is dated by the stamps to 1887 so it's being listed as 1880's with pictures of the movement. The gentleman it belonged to was well off and traveled extensively in Europe in the later part of the the 1800's and into the early 1900's so it may have been purchased in Switzerland originally.