Help identifying pocket watch

[bigdog]

Hello,

I recently came in to possession of a pocket watch that my mom told me belonged to her grandmother. I have been trying to find out the history and age of the watch on the Internet but still don't know to much.

The pocket watch is a wind-up ladies watch with a diameter equal to that of a typical men's round wrist watch.

The casing is gold in color but not able to tell if its gold, gold-plated or gold-filled.

There are two case coverings. The inside of the outer casing has a small stamp of a crown on the left side and a star on the right side near the middle of the casing. Toward the bottom of the inside cover of the outer casing is a serial number 285382.

On the outside of the movement cover there is a fancy letter which may be a P followed by the same serial number 285382.

Below the serial number is an inscription in fancy script lettering that reads as follows:
Ancre Ligne Droite
Spiral Breguet
15 rubis

On the inside of the movement cover, toward the bottom is the same serial number and a stamp that looks like says "Metal"

The dial face is white porcelain with Roman Numerals. The second hand is in a small dial at the six-o'clock position.

The watch works fine and is in excellent condition (at least as far as my untrained eye can tell).

Any help on the history, age, maker, collectibility, would be greatly appreciated.

[bigdog]

Hello,

I recently came in to possession of a pocket watch that my mom told me belonged to her grandmother. I have been trying to find out the history and age of the watch on the Internet but still don't know to much.

The pocket watch is a wind-up ladies watch with a diameter equal to that of a typical men's round wrist watch.

The casing is gold in color but not able to tell if its gold, gold-plated or gold-filled.

There are two case coverings. The inside of the outer casing has a small stamp of a crown on the left side and a star on the right side near the middle of the casing. Toward the bottom of the inside cover of the outer casing is a serial number 285382.

On the outside of the movement cover there is a fancy letter which may be a P followed by the same serial number 285382.

Below the serial number is an inscription in fancy script lettering that reads as follows:
Ancre Ligne Droite
Spiral Breguet
15 rubis

On the inside of the movement cover, toward the bottom is the same serial number and a stamp that looks like says "Metal"

The dial face is white porcelain with Roman Numerals. The second hand is in a small dial at the six-o'clock position.

The watch works fine and is in excellent condition (at least as far as my untrained eye can tell).

Any help on the history, age, maker, collectibility, would be greatly appreciated.

[Jerry Matthews]

Hello bigdog,

It always helps to have close-up photos of the watch movement, dial and case. But from your detailed description I can tell you that the watch was Swiss made. I can't tell you exactly who made it because there were many anonymous watch makers in Switzerland who produced semi-finished movements sold to jewellers or other intermediaries who finished and cased them for the retail market.

Ancre Ligne Droite means it is an anchor escapement, which is a technical term for the kind of escapement. 15 rubis means 15 jewels, so it is a watch of reasonable quality.

To the best of my knowledge, the crown and star are not recognised hallmarks, so I would say the case is most likely gold plating over a brass core.

As an educated guess, I would date the watch to somewhere around 1900, possibly a decade earlier or possibly up until the First World War. As to collectibility, well since it belonged to your grandmother I would think it must be of some significance to you. But if you scroll through eBay looking for similar watches you may get an idea of how much interest there is in watches of this kind.

Hopefully, there will be others on here more knowledgable than I.

Regards, Jerry

[CZHACK]

Jerry,

Sounds right except the crown has potential since the German hallmark for gold up to 1909 was a crown (same crown with a cresent moon for silver).

Photos will tell us more Bigdog.

Mike

[bigdog]

I think you may be right about the crown hallmark. I purchased a magnifying glass to closely examine the watch. On the inside of the outer case covering I discovered another stamp that read "0.583". I think this means 14 Karat gold.

Other identifiers not mentioned in earlier email. Above the Roman Numerals on the dial face are arabic numbers.

The watch hands are gold in color and seem to have fancy scroll work and a decoration of some kind in the middle of the hands with perhaps a hole in the decoration.

I also found a number on the inside of the outer case that looks like 5500t or l.

On the inside of the movement cover I also found the initials I think are "I P". I'm pretty sure of the P, the I could be a C or L.

Does this help in identifying the pocket watch?

Thanks