# Jw Benson â€“ The Empire



## wotsch (Jan 5, 2011)

During the Christmas break, my mother showed me an old pocket watch that's been passed through the family. As I don't know much about pocket watches, I did a little research online to find out something about the watch. Much of the information I found turns out to be on this forum (as expected), so I'm hopeful that the forum can also help fill the gaps in my findings.

To start with: a photo.

[IMG alt="6621020683_d950940026_z.j...kr.com/7021/6621020683_d950940026_z.jpg[/IMG]

JWBenson02small by wotsch, on Flickr

It's a half-hunter gold watch case, and I've seen plenty of similar gold- and silver-cased examples online â€" for example: here and here.

There's no engraving on the case back nor on the inner case back:

[IMG alt="6621020995_9d8e331652_z.j...kr.com/7011/6621020995_9d8e331652_z.jpg[/IMG]

JWBenson03small by wotsch, on Flickr

[IMG alt="6621026671_836f6c055f_z.j...kr.com/7019/6621026671_836f6c055f_z.jpg[/IMG]

JWBenson07small by wotsch, on Flickr

Opening the front of the watch, we find an enamelled dial with roman numerals, signed â€œJ. W. Benson Londonâ€

[IMG alt="6621022083_a2bc903d62_z.j...kr.com/7157/6621022083_a2bc903d62_z.jpg[/IMG]

JWBenson04small by wotsch, on Flickr

Seems to be nothing particularly unusual here as I've seen plenty of examples of this dial on the net.

I found some good information about J. W. Benson here, which I found via this post on the forum. This information is repeated in various places (e.g. here), so I'm not sure which is the original source and which sources have just copy-pasted the text without reference to the original.

(continued next post...)


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## wotsch (Jan 5, 2011)

(continued from previous post)

All parts of the case are hallmarked, which makes it quite easy to date.

[IMG alt="6621022319_6a69a912be_z.j...kr.com/7165/6621022319_6a69a912be_z.jpg[/IMG]

JWBenson05small by wotsch, on Flickr

The marks are:



'F' with 'J.W.B.Ld' â€" obviously the J.W. Benson company stamp


A '9', '.375' â€" so it's a 9ct gold case


A Leopard face â€" which means the case was assayed in London (sources: here and here).


The number '809' which I assume is a case number.


I couldn't make out whther the date mark is an 'i' or an 'L', so I sent an email to the London Assay office who confirmed that the stamp is an old-english 'L' â€" dating the case to 1926. Also, they told me that the 'F' stamp means the case is 'Foreign' â€" i.e. imported. Here's a close-up of the marks:

[IMG alt="6735127949_b505d120b5_z.j...kr.com/7156/6735127949_b505d120b5_z.jpg[/IMG]

JWBenson06a_small by wotsch, on Flickr

Opening up the watch, we find a Benson movement:

[IMG alt="6621031745_67d19cefd3_z.j...kr.com/7008/6621031745_67d19cefd3_z.jpg[/IMG]

JWBenson09small by wotsch, on Flickr

My research didn't really help me with the movement. According to the sources linked above, the most well-known Benson movements are â€œThe Fieldâ€, â€œThe Ludgateâ€ and â€œThe Bankâ€. The only result that I could find for a J W Benson movement called â€œThe Empireâ€ is this example, auctioned in September last year, which seems identical to my family's watch. No information on the movement is given there.

What I don't understand is that, according to the sources linked above, Benson didn't make any watch movements after the factory was bombed out in 1914, using imported Swiss movements instead. However, this example and the one other I found are both Benson-made movements in cases dated 1926. Would Benson have cased up decades-old movements in new cases during the 20s?

Can anyone shed light on this or give me more information on â€œThe Empireâ€ movement.

Thanks in advance,

-wotsch


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## wotsch (Jan 5, 2011)

Oops. There seems to be a problem with some of the links in the first post above and I can't edit it any more. Here's the last paragraph again, with working links:

I found some good information about J. W. Benson here, which I found via this post on the forum. This information is repeated in various places (e.g. here), so I'm not sure which is the original source and which sources have just copy-pasted the text without reference to the original.

-wotsch


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## jkb89 (Jan 6, 2012)

Hi Wotsch, not sure if this is of any help at all, but a couple of threads I've found:

http://ihc185.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/2291010082/m/674108441










Probably no use, but have a look!


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## JJones (Jan 23, 2013)

With regard to the F in the hallmark. My hallmark identification books all indicate that a foreign piece would have a different town mark. Bradbury (1964) states thet the F was omitted by an act in 1904. The town mark in this watch is the usual London mark, while the mark for foreign goods would be a sort of Omega. I am wondering why this would have a mark for foreign, if that is what it is, and not have the town mark for imports.

Any ideas, anyone?


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## wotsch (Jan 5, 2011)

Wow, thanks for contributing to my thread exactly a year after the previous contribution! 

As I mentioned above, the London Assay office themselves told me that the 'F' stamp means the case is 'Foreign' when I emailed them about the year stamp. However, after your post I've done some further reading and it seems that you may be right that 'F' = 'Foreign' is a red herring. Looking again, the 'F' is stamped above the JW Benson maker's mark and not near the assay-office marks, so maybe it has some other factory-specific meaning unrelated to the hallmarks.

I'm still on the lookout for information on "The Empire" movement and haven't come across anything, so if anyone has some information, then please let me know.

-wotsch


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