1857 Question

[John Pavlik]

Could one of the Am Watch Co experts please help with some questions on an 1857 Mdl? fleabay find with serial number 982513. This has stem wind and lever set 9 or 11 jewels, dial has not been removed yet. P.S. Bartlett and no let down screw. Does anyone know the last serial number of an 1857? Any other infor on this movement. Year made, grade ?? Total Stem Wind lever sets?? It is in its orginal case, very rough, but cut out for lever appears original. Case maker is
I.S.W. Co 2545.. Thanks John

[John Pavlik]

Could one of the Am Watch Co experts please help with some questions on an 1857 Mdl? fleabay find with serial number 982513. This has stem wind and lever set 9 or 11 jewels, dial has not been removed yet. P.S. Bartlett and no let down screw. Does anyone know the last serial number of an 1857? Any other infor on this movement. Year made, grade ?? Total Stem Wind lever sets?? It is in its orginal case, very rough, but cut out for lever appears original. Case maker is
I.S.W. Co 2545.. Thanks John

[mikeh]

John,

I am certainly no expert on these but I took interest in them a while back so I'll tell you what I know. According to the 'gray book', the last 57 shown is 1369000 and it was stem wound. From there back, the next entry is a Broadway at 1115000 but it doesn't specify SW or KW, but being a Broadway I suspect KW but don't ask me why. Further, the book dates your watch to roughly 1877.

I have this PS Bartlett (http://www.knology.net/~hodo/images/P1010077.JPG) SN 948209, and it has no let down screw either. It has a strange jewel arrangement, to me anyway, in that the pallet is not jewelled, but the escape and 4th wheels are, for 11 total. Since I got this one, I've been keeping my eyes peeled for ANY watch with this arragement and I haven't seen any, so I'd be interested to hear from anyone who can comment on it.

As for the cases, the location of the lever cutout in the case is a little unique, as is the cutout for the lever in the bezel. However, I believe there is another type of lever that works differently, which might affect the case. That being said, I have yet to see what I thought was an original case that was not marked Am Watch Co Waltham but again, I need to see a few hundred more of these before I catch up to some of the guys around here. Maybe some of them can comment on this as well.

There have been a couple of good threads on these that may give you some further info, but this one (http://www.nawcc.org/ubb/Forum3/HTML/001162.html) immediately comes to mind.

Regards,
Mike

P.S. Before someone jumps me, I know the watch in the picture is filthy, but I didn't see the hair, OK. One of these days I'll get around to cleaning it... or maybe not. I know the case is terrible too, but if they were all blazers, this wouldn't be any fun would it? :wink:

[This message has been edited by mikeh (edited 04-08-2002).]

[John Pavlik]

Mike,

Thanks for the information. If that watch is dirty I will not show you this one :smile:...The serial numbers are close on these two and the jeweling is the same. The jeweling appears like that on 2 Mdl 1879's that I have. One is a Bartlett nickle keywind with screw down sets and the other is a Ellery nickle keywind with the pressed jewels. Maybe this jeweling evolved over time into different models... I have never seen a case marked with these Initials before and was wondering who made it. Very "cheap" case marked 2oz and covers flimsy but very orginal to the movement.

Regards,
John