# An Assortment Of Pocket Watches I Found



## horz (Aug 24, 2008)

I found a box of old watches (which I assume belonged to my gandparents and great-grandparents) a while ago and have been meaning to have a look at them for a while. But, seeing as I am clueless when it comes to pocketwatches, I thought it'd be worth a post to see if there's any information that could be gathered on them. An idea of value would be helpful too if possible (not that I'm looking to sell them).

The pocket watches are shown below (just click any one of them and it'll take you to an album with more photos of that one).



All I know of them are the hallmarks and other various marks which I've read using various internet sources as such:

1) .925 Sterling Silver, Birmingham, 1897. The JR in a diamond is the mark of Rotherham & Sons (John Rotherham), Coventry and is seen from 1887-1908. There are also marks from (I'd guess) previous services which are somewhat hard to make out and photograph. One looks like it's dated 1/11/12.

2) A very similar styled case to 1, but a bit less worn and slightly smaller. Hallmarks indicate .925 Sterling, Birmingham 1889, and the maker is William Ehrhardt (probably), seen 1874-1889. There are the other marks which I assume is a serial number (170535?), but don't know what the M and 4 mean.

3) This one has a blank dial and no noticable markings other than the serial numbers. It is, however, the only one which runs after a little shake.

4) Ingersol Triumph. I haven't managed to get the back off as I haven't got a proper case knife and didn't want to scratch everything. I'm a bit wary of doing much with it incase the lume is radium based, so any advice on that would be a great help. It's the only one I have an idea of value for as I've noticed them on ebay before, suffice to say i think a tenner might be a bit ambitious in current condition.

5) The smallest of the lot. Marks indicate 0.935 Scottish Sterling Silver (I think) and there some (service?) marks that say: "MSVC3/20H26", 7497, "566" (crossed out) with "74" beneath it. There's another mark which just looks like three groups of three numbers but I couldn't make it out clearly. One interesting thing I noticed about the movement is that I couldn't see any pallet fork, is this just a different escapement?

So that's all I know and any information anyone has about them would be very much appreciated.

Also, what's a pocket watch service going for these days? I'd probably have one of them looked at if it's worth it.

Thanks for looking :thumbsup:


----------



## harryblakes7 (Oct 1, 2010)

Nice little collection you have there.......... am impressed with the smaller pics which you can click on!!

I can shed some light on watch no.2 maker William Ehrhardt who used to sell a lot of watches to the military, along with normal civilians and sold a wide range of watches, based in Birmingham and started in the 1856. Their watches are usually og high quality and have had a couple including a very nice 8 day highly jewelled small pocket watch.

Hopefully someone else will come along with a bit more info :yes:

Hope that helps,

Cheers,

Harry


----------



## AlanJohn (Mar 17, 2011)

What a lucky find. Can't tell you anything much about them I'm afraid, just wish I'd found them .


----------



## Shangas (Jan 27, 2008)

I can only say this much: Don't expect them to be worth a lot of money. Pocketwatches rarely are. What value they would have lies in the silver cases. But don't think that you can melt down the cases and then go out and buy cheap steel cases. Finding a new watch-case for an antique watch will probably cost a lot more than any kind of money you'll get out of the silver for the pure fact that the number of people who make pocketwatch cases today could be counted on one hand worldwide.


----------



## horz (Aug 24, 2008)

Thanks for your replies so far. Didn't realise William Ehrhardt was so well known.

Shangas, I expected as much. Although I was hoping one of them might have been a Patek in disguise :wink2:. I see no reason to try and get any money out of them, they're worth more to me for the history and family connection.

I'll have to try and find some old photos of my great grandparents, if there are any, and do a little watch-spotting some time.


----------



## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

I can't add a lot to what's already been said except that 1,2,& 5 appear to be key wound and set, 3 is crown wind and pin set, and 4 is crown wind and set. The Ingersoll is the youngest of the five. To set No.3, turn the crown as normal to wind, then press the pin to the R of the crown with your nail, and turn the crown to set the time.


----------



## horz (Aug 24, 2008)

I had another look the one with the engine turned dial as it seemed the simplest to work with. I took the balance out and everything's running fine, albeit a bit dry. It looks like the balance staff might be broken though, as it doesn't make contact with the top balance jewel. Also the screw for the bottom cap jewel for the balance is stripped, it fell out as soon as I took the dial off.

I'm still struggling to find out what kind of escapement this is, as all I can find thorough google is mainly lever and pallet pin. Could anyone possibly enlighten me as to what it is?


----------



## stevieb (Feb 12, 2010)

The escapment is called a Cylinder escapement


----------

