Tom Huber
06-29-2002, 09:06 AM
Hi John, Those markes inside the dust cover are jeweler's marks. Each time a watch was serviced or repaired, the jeweler would engrave his mark and a code in the watch. He then kept a log of this code to be able to reference back as to what he did to the watch and when he did it. Each watchmaker had his own specific mark. Those that belong to a guild, ie the AWI in the US, have their marks registered with the guild. These registered marks have been used in the US to identify bodies. The watch is found with the body, and the police open the watch, check the mark, trace it to the watchmaker through the guild to identify the body. This was told to me by an AWI registered watchmaker. he has had two instances in his long career where he got calls from police depts to try to identify a person by the mark in the watch. Tom