# "Fine Silver" Pocket Watch



## romy

Dear all,

quite recently I bought a silver pocketwatch which is presumed to be made in England by F.Reed & Son in Cambridge (according to the inscription within the casing) around 1900. I bought the object because I personnaly thought it to be quite a nice artefact but now I find that the thing has made me quite curious and I would very much like to know more about it. A quicke google search didn't provide me with any leads on the watch's maker nor its silver marking. I hope that someone on this forum can help me to learn more about my watch. Therefore I added three pictures, respectively of the watch's front, of its back and one of its silver marking inside the casing.

I will be very gratefull with any reply.

With kind regards,

Romy


----------



## mel

Romy,

If it was silver and English, it would be marked as such and usually Hallmarked with a date letter and local Assay Office symbol. Since this is labelled as "Fine Silver", it may well be a foreign (i.e made elsewhere than the UK) case and movement which was labelled by or for the retailer shop that sold it, F Reed and Son in Cambridge. :yes:

All you can do is research the name and Cambridge local records to see if and when they were in existence and try from there. HTH a bit!

Someone else may come along with more definite information, maybe Reed's is still there, who knows? 

EDIT :_ Meant to add, it could be possibly be "Cambridge" Massachusetts in the USA ? You'd need to research that as well, and there's other towns called Cambridge in New Zealand and other parts of the wolrd as well.


----------



## Shangas

By the 1900s, American watches were almost exclusively keyless, which this one obviously isn't. In England, key-operated pocketwatches lasted much longer (for reasons I never understood). So I think it's a higher likelihood that this is Cambridge England, as opposed to Cambridge America.


----------



## mel

Thankyou Shangas, I bow to your knowledge as usual :notworthy:

Happy Birthday Shangas BTW, another day older? :lol:

Romy, as I suggested - Shangas is one of our *Knowledgable* guys on PW's particularly, His word is good in my book!


----------



## a6cjn

Welcome to the forum Romy, it's a nice friendly place

It would help if you could make your pics a little bigger and include some of the movement and inscription

My impression is that it is a small ladies watch and I suspect that 'F.Reed & Son' were the retailers and not the makers and I would expect it to have a Swiss movement

'Fine Silver' has a 98/99% silver content which makes it softer than or Sterling or Britannia and was not often (if at all) used by English makers

Is it running?

Chris


----------



## Shangas

mel said:


> Thankyou Shangas, I bow to your knowledge as usual :notworthy:
> 
> Happy Birthday Shangas BTW, another day older? :lol:
> 
> Romy, as I suggested - Shangas is one of our *Knowledgable* guys on PW's particularly, His word is good in my book!


Oh gosh, Mel! I didn't expect that kind of treatment! But thank you. I'm glad I could help.

Although there's no reference for size-scaling, the lack of a seconds hand would suggest that it's a ladies' pendant watch. Men's watches are always larger.

EDIT: Yes, I am another day older. I'm also now officially 24.


----------



## romy

Dear all,

thank you for all your replies! And Shangas; happy birthday from me as well!

Down below I have added the requested pictures. Some additional information on the watch: It has a diameter of 40 mm and it bears the serial number 17554 twice (once on the inside of the outercasing and once on the cover of the movement). I tried to find any markings on the movement and the only inscriptions I could find depicted the words "fast" & "slow" (on the last picture a little left to the middle of the top near the little needle, unfortunately I was unable to capture it on the picture). The watch is indeed still running.

I hope the new pictures and the added information will help in gaining some more facts on the watch. Once again, thank you for all your efforts so far!


----------



## a6cjn

Thank you for the extra pics

Yep, I would say that it is a ladies silver case watch with a Swiss movement, made around 1895 and retailed by A Reed & Son.

As Mel suggested, p'raps a search of retailers in the Cambridge area at the turn of the century might give you some info' about them.

Nice to know it's a runner

Chris


----------



## Roger the Dodger

Very interesting to see that the crystal cover is hinged at 8 o'clock, but the back cover and curvette are hinged at the more normal 6 o'clock position...I've not seen that before. I agree with Chris and Shangas...at 40mm it's probably a ladies watch...my wife's is 35mm. I wonder who 'HB' was (initials engraved in the cartouche on the back)


----------



## romy

Thank you once again! I'm realy glad that it isn't made in taiwan in 2009!

I took a closer look at the inscription and thought it might say T.Reed & Son in Stead of F.Reed & son and I did indeed find a an antiques shop going by that name in Saffron walden near Cambridge UK. Furthermore, on this website: My link Thomas Reed and his son are listed as clock and watchmakers in Cambridge UK.

Next to this I am still wondering about the silver mark. As it is not a common British Hallmark, could it be that the casing is silverplated instead of true "fine silver" (although I wasn't able to identify it as a silver plate mark neither)?

I wondered about the HB initials in the cartouche as well...... Nice to see that it truly belonged to someone. It enrichens the watch with mystery (at least it does for me)

Thank you for all your efforts so far!!!


----------



## dobra

Some first rate detective work going on here, makes it very interesting. Any royalty here? Is the crown symbol British or foreign? Just a thought!

Mike


----------



## AlanJohn

Well I have an English Lever key wind silver watch which is 1910, so they were still making them at that time.

I think the British were slow to move to keyless, in comparison with the American market. They quickly switch over to keyless.


----------

