C H Meylan Pocket Watch. Looking for help

Scott, please post a photo of the entire movement. I maintain a database on C.H. Meylan pocket watches. With a photo of the entire movement, I will be able to identify its type under the classification system I have created for identifying Meylans.

As for restoring the watch, if it is in good running order, it should be a relatively easy project. Unless you are an expert watchmaker, you will need to hire one to service the movement and install it in the case you get for it (have the watchmaker determine what size case you need and confirm that it is a standard US size). The watchmaker can likely supply appropriate hands and a crown. However, after all this is done, the watch won't be original and the cost of the case, hands, crown, assembly, and servicing likely will exceed the value of the restored watch. If the watch isn't in good running order, the cost of restoring it may be prohibitive.

If you want a C.H. Meylan, you probably would be much better off buying one that is in good working order, in its original case, which will almost certainly be solid gold or platinum, with its original hands, etc.

 

Your watch is what is called a "private label". For a small fee (or sometimes no extra fee if a small quantity was ordered) any retail jeweler could order movements with his name and location on either the dial, the movement or both. The retailer did not have to do any finishing, the manufacturer did it all for him. Private labeling was a very common practice and both American and Swiss manufacturers participated.

 

Welcome to the board, Scott

The one thing Ethan forgot to say was that C H Meylan are considered to be a very fine watchmaker.

The cross and number you mention are a reference to the Swiss patent #31609, submitted in August 1904 by Chaarles Henri Meylan and granted in April 1905, for a "New mechanism for reassembly and negative time setting" (that's a literal translation of the original French " Nouveau mécanisme de remontage et de mise à l'heure négative"). I'm not sure exactly what that means, but whatever it is is fitted in your watch!

 

According to Dictionnaire professionnel illustré de l'horlogerie - an invaluable resource which I visit frequently so I can comprehend the (for me) incomprehensible:

“Mise à l'heure négative”

= Negative hand setting.
"This system, used in America, has the advantage of making the movement independent of the case, for the winding-stem can take up two positions m the clamp is screwed inside the pendant sleeve t.
"According to its position in the sleeve, the square of the winding-stem brings the castle-wheel into the “wind” or “set” position. The movement can be taken out of the case without removing the stem and its clamp".



(For what it is worth, C H Meylan figures in the lists of outworkers and sub-contractors working for Louis Audemars beforethe 1885 bankruptcy).

Paul
www.audemars.co.uk

 

It is, but if I understand correctly, this winding/setting arrangement allows for easier reassembly of the movement in the case.
P

 

Thanks for posting a better photo. In my CH. Meylan classification system, your movement is a Type C2, one of the commonest types.