Gentlemen, question about case engravings

[A.F.W.]

I am trained as a goldsmith and am familiar with various techniques of surface decoration of metals and tools used. I have over 30 pocket watches in my collection and some have beautifully engraved cases.
On close examination with a 10 power loupe I can tell that many were done with gravers, not stamped or machine engraved.
So given that thousands were made every year, were these cases hand engraved and did they use some mass production methods to make the process faster?

[Cary Hurt]

Most early watch cases were indeed hand engraved, albeit to standardized patterns. Solid gold cases, being luxury items, were often treated to custom engraving of a highly artistic nature. Hand engraving stayed the norm until the mass mechanization of the late 19th century allowed rolled or stamped engraving to be incorporated. In the interim period, there were pantograph type machine engravers that could do multiple watches simultaneously, working from templates, and then the work would be "cleaned up" by hand.

Solid gold cases continued to be hand engraved until probably the 1930s. For more details, you might want to read Fortunat Mueller-Maerki's review (Click Here) (http://www.nawcc-mb.com/bbv2/bbBoard.cgi?a=viewthread;fid=13;gtid=240035) of a recently published book, Memoirs of a Watch Case Engraver by Fritz Baumgartner.

Regards,

Cary