# Help Required With A Valjoux Stopwatch



## village (Apr 17, 2009)

Right...i bought this on a whim years ago from the Bay of Fleas.

I had the grand idea of using it to time race horses ( i was reading a book on it at the time..). Obviously i didn't.

Anyway-i was having a sort out and i thought i'd give it a good look over.










Its a nice clean face with two sub-dials. The top one is a 30 minute dial split into 3 minute sections. Thebottom dial is a 60 second dial which continues to run even when the stopwatch isn't being utilised.

The main dial has smaller markings so you can measure really accurately.

Top button starts and stops the stopwatch,the 11 o'clock button is used for the split second operation.










It's a nice size- about 50mm across and 15mm thick.

The back of the watch has

3 GPO

ABE 68

35201

engraved on it.



















With some research this looks to be a watch issued to GPO telecomms engineers for the accurate measurement and timing of the electro-mechanical call timing equipment (ie the stuff that timed the STD phone calls)

Interestingly,when i was looking inside with a loupe i saw a mark hidden under the balance wheel with a 24 next to it...with a bit of research (phew!) i tracked this down to be the mark for Valjoux! So a Valjoux 24 calibre...a 19 ligne movement with split second capability which was introduced in the 30's/40's.



















It winds and works perfectly-i can see some watchmakers marks which look to be dated '75,'81 & '85

Now....does anyone have any more info? ie did they used to use one of these or similar? How much do we think its worth? (Sorry to be vulgar but i am interested) etc etc etc


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## a6cjn (Oct 29, 2009)

Can't really add anymore info' but I thought this on Evil Bay might be of interest to you

Chris


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## mel (Dec 6, 2006)

ISTR (a guess) this would have been issued to PO guys in Aberdeen (ABE) and in 1968 - but I'm going by memory, the guy who would know, my mate Sandy, passed away a couple of years ago. When I worked with him, he still had one he had been issued with in Glasgow and it had GLA on the back. :yes:

He explained it was used to time the Strowger units - for the old dial phones - where the pulsed signals from your phone in turn tripped a pulsed unit at the exchange and then out to the other subscriber. We still had a few of these in the leccy board when I first joined, they sat in the switch rooms and clattered away all day. Explanations of the Strowger system via wiki or google, it was the mainstay of the entire world's telephone system before electronics took over :yes:

If you've ever seen an older juke box where you could watch it selecting the 45 vinyl discs, a Strowger unit worked on something like the same principle, but on a smaller scale physically, but much larger combinations of numbers. fftopic2:


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## village (Apr 17, 2009)

Thanks very much for the info :thumbsup:


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