Help to identify

[Bill_NY]

Hello,
I know next to nothing about watches. Went to the local antique store this morning and picked up a pocket watch. It is a size 18, I believe, and cased in an American Waltham coin silver open face case (broken beveled crystal). There is no mark on the movement. It is a chronometer with a jump second dial and center sweep hand. It has two key wound mainsprings and a key set for the time. A push of the crown starts/stops the chronometer. Does anyone know what I bought?

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[Nachtmotte]

Hello Bill,
what a nice and rare watch!
You bought a Louis Benjamin Audemars

Best regards
Tony

[Tom McIntyre]

Hello Bill,

You have a two train independent seconds chronograph not a chronometer. The 4 position jump hand shows that it beats 4 beats per second.

One of the winding arbors winds the watch while the other one winds the independent seconds train.

It looks like a very nice dial and movement. It has, of course, been recased. It is a good recase job to get the chronograph to work correctly with the crown.

[Bill_NY]

Thanks Guys! Any thoughts on age? Early 19th century? As said, I really know little about watches but I thought it unusual. Now I will have to find a crystal and find someone I can trust to clean and oil it. I no longer have steady enough hands myself to work on watches.

[LloydB]

There's a nearly identical movement shown in Shugart,
(et al) dated C. 1880. Under 'Timers & chronographs,
p 572 in the 2005 edition... don't have a later one handy.

LloydB

[Bill_NY]

Originally Posted by LloydB

There's a nearly identical movement shown in Shugart,
(et al) dated C. 1880. Under 'Timers & chronographs,
p 572 in the 2005 edition... don't have a later one handy.

LloydB

Thanks Lloyd. Researching further I have found that movement style as early as 1844. Still looking though. My research also found that this company invented the stem wind and set feature but so far I cannot find when. If so, it would seem reasonable that this movement being keywound and set, predates that time?

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[LloydB]

There's a nearly identical movement shown in Shugart,
(et al) dated C. 1880. Under 'Timers & chronographs,
p 572 in the 2005 edition... don't have a later one handy.

LloydB[/quote]

Thanks Lloyd. Researching further I have found that movement style as early as 1844. Still looking though. My research also found that this company invented the stem wind and set feature but so far I cannot find when. If so, it would seem reasonable that this movement being keywound and set, predates that time?
[/quote]

Hmmm... reasonable but maybe not that helpful. The
change to the stemwind/stemset mechanism wasn't
accomplished overnight. Keywind watches continued
to be popular in the late 1800's, gradually becoming
obsolescent --

There were also 'transition' models that could be wound
both ways. Illinois (and other manufacturers) made
transition models in the 1870's and 1880's (Were these
designed to overcome customer resistence or questions
about whether the new-fangled stem-wind gadgets were
to be trusted? ;-) Maybe that's another thread.

Anyhow, that your movement is keywind doesn't, I think,
get you closer to a manufacturing date. But some
other feature might do that.

For example, were timing screws always used
in the balance wheels of this type? Or do they
indicate a relatively later production date?

LloydB


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