waltham with engraved dial

[phh]

movement is a.w.w. co. waltham, mass. 15 jewels. serial # 14612253. 16s. stem wind, stem set. case is gold in color. no indication of whether it is gold filled or gold. one mark on it could be j&s- it's hard to read, and a number- 33944. the dial is gold in color with a scene of a city in the center. the scene looks almost like a hologram or maybe a daguerrotype. it is very detailed, but very small. around the outside of the dial there appear to be tiny concentric grooves which diffract the light and create a rainbow effect. either that or it is just dicolored metal.

[phh]

movement is a.w.w. co. waltham, mass. 15 jewels. serial # 14612253. 16s. stem wind, stem set. case is gold in color. no indication of whether it is gold filled or gold. one mark on it could be j&s- it's hard to read, and a number- 33944. the dial is gold in color with a scene of a city in the center. the scene looks almost like a hologram or maybe a daguerrotype. it is very detailed, but very small. around the outside of the dial there appear to be tiny concentric grooves which diffract the light and create a rainbow effect. either that or it is just dicolored metal.

[Jon Hanson]

scan it as to see if it is a repro, a replacement, a switch or a foreign dial

[phh]

scan it how? on a scanner? i took pictures of all of these watches today. i should have them up next week. i'm still using film.

[Jon Hanson]

film ok but then we need to see the pictures

[phh]

pics should be up early next week for all the watches i asked about.

[Jon Hanson]

GREAT

[Jerry Treiman]

A fair number of Walthams turn up with these English-appearing silver dials (very similar to the silver dials on contemporary and older English keywind watches). Did Waltham put these dials on in England or was there just a large practice of converting to these dials? I see too many of them to think that it has been a modern practice.

[phh]

jerry, this dial isn't silver. not silver colored, anyway. i'm starting to think it might be made of silver because i think that what i referred to as an engraved city scene might actually be a daguerrotype and not an engraving. it has a weird kind of depth to it like a daguerrotype has. i'm pretty sure that daguerrotypes are printed on silver though, but i could be wrong. but the color is gold. is there a way to apply a gold plating to silver so thin that a daguerrotype could be seen through it?

[Jerry Treiman]

I do not know about the picture processes. Sorry about my mistake - in my haste I forgot that you said it was gold. I have also seen gold dials like this, such as THIS EXAMPLE (http://www.nawcc-info.org/Treiman/JT017Robinson_dial.jpg) from an English fusee movement.

[phh]

jerry, the one i have is actually sort of like that. has elements of the design. maybe it is sort of a modernized tribute to that type of design (modern being early 20th century or so in this context). the image on mine really looks almost like a hologram though. and the outside of the dial creates a rainbow effect, sort of like mother of pearl almost even though it is metal. i think the whole idea behind it was to catch light in interesting ways. i hope the pictures come out. it's pretty dirty. when i first looked at it i thought it was just tarnished or discolored.