# Help with Tavannes pocket / La Captive



## michalmox (Oct 24, 2017)

Will anyone help with these tavannes? 
I would like to know something more about their history, can we still call them pocket? 
Some data and serial number in the photo.

movement diameter: 23mm
dial size: 21,5mmx21,5mm
closed case: 30mmx45mmx10mm

Thanks Michael


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## gimli (Mar 24, 2016)

I think this is a table/desk clock. Perhaps called a traveling clock.

Movement seems high quality (not high as in Rolex, but above average) and the period should be 1940s maybe late 1930s.

It uses a normal watch movement. Have you checked under the balance and hairspring ? Sometimes that is where the movement model is written.


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## michalmox (Oct 24, 2017)

I think the table clock is bigger.
Rather think (according to the loop to hang) to the "La captive" type?


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## MyrridinEmrys (Sep 27, 2017)

It's probably what was termed a 'purse watch.' They also made a 'belt buckle' version for golfer's belts which was inspired by a custom order made for Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David Windsor (later King Edward VIII) in 1926.


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## michalmox (Oct 24, 2017)

Thanks, I found a serial number inside the case - 56 0121852
Will someone help dating?


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## MyrridinEmrys (Sep 27, 2017)

michalmox said:


> Thanks, I found a serial number inside the case - 56 0121852
> Will someone help dating?


 I recall reading sometime ago that pre 1940 records were all destroyed in a fire. But some history here: http://chronoswatchmagazine.com/historic-tavannes/


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## Always"watching" (Sep 21, 2013)

Your purse watch is a really nice item and I would date it to about the mid 1930s.

I know that I should really write a topic about Tavannes, not only because the Tavannes watch company has an interesting history but also because the early history of the company is bound up with the concurrent history of Cyma - a partnership was formed between the Schwob Brothers (of the Cyma concern) and Henri-Frédéric Sandoz, founder and head of the Tavannes company, in 1903 (in which year a new Tavanne Watch Company factory was built). Indeed, these two names are in themselves important in the collecting of old wristwatches and the development of the Swiss watch industry, and watches can be found from the earlier phase of the Schwob/Sandoz partnership bearing the joint brand name, "Cyma Tavannes."

MyrridinEmrys is quite correct that the Tavannes company archives were destroyed in 1940, and it is notable that by 1938, the company was the fourth largest producer of watches in Switzerland. I am tempted at this point to start writing a topic here and now about Tavannes, but I think that this will have to wait - I must go and cook some supper... What I will say is that both Tavannes and Cyma are well worth Googling, because they are well represented in historical blurb on the internet.


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## antony (Dec 28, 2007)

I think it's fabulous, very nice piece.


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