# Hello And Help Please!



## A303

Hello all.

I've just joined your admirable forum because I am fascinated by old/interesting watches and now have a specific reason to ask for info.

This past weekend, my elderly Mother, quite out of the blue, handed me a watch and said, 'this was your Father's, you'd better have it.'

I was a bit shocked as I thought I knew all the watches my Father owned and I'd never seen this one before. I have my Grandfather's lovely old Zodiac which has been refurbished and assumed that this was my father's only 'nice' watch.

This surprise one is marked 'J.W Benson London' and has 'Swiss Made' marked on it. The rear has no markings at all.

I've done a bit of research and found out (which I'm sure you experts will already know!) that JW Benson was one of the UK's oldest watch companies and was based in Ludgate Hill, London. My research seems to suggest that they were taken over in the 1950s (?) by another company and subsequently vanished.

The 'Swiss Made' suggests to me that this may have been a later model with a bought in movement marketed under their brand name. But with its solid strap loops and general design, it does look pretty old to me. My Father joined the RAF late in WWII aged 17 and it strikes me as the sort of gift you might give a young lad (bearing in mind that watches were expensive items then) that might have been given to a young chap possibly going to his doom(!)

I will try and post a picture below.

If anyone can give me any idea of when this watch would date from, point me in the direction of a bit more history about JW Benson, etc., I would be very grateful. I'm not interested in selling it as it's a piece of family history.

BTW, just out of interest, my family also owns a few Obrey watches as my Uncle was Emile Obrey, proprietor of the brand with a shop in central Paris, which is still run by his children.

Thanks for reading!










(Sorry, won't let me insert the pic for some reason.)

PS. My Father died in 1977 and I know for a fact this watch hasn't been wound since then. I do not remember him wearing it so it's possible it was not wound for a lot longer. I wound it at the weekend and, after cycling the hands a couple of times, it started working and has been keeping pretty good time since! That's craftsmanship!


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## bjohnson

I think the JW Benson watches of this era that I've seen have CYMA movements.

Here is your pic










Here's a mix of info I have about them.

From Shugart: "The Benson signature is found on many medium to extremely high grade gilt movements. Factory English machine-made market circa 1870-1930. "Makers to the Admiralty" and "By Warrant to H.M. the Queen" can be found signed on the movements."

J.W. Benson is a London jeweler and watch distributor that is still around today. In the old days, if you ordered enough watches from a manufacturer, they would put whatever you wanted on the dial and you see a lot of jeweler names on watches from that period.

http://www.ukbusiness.com/benson/

COMPANY:	J.W. BENSON LTD

CONTACT NAME:	D.E. Pasche

ADDRESS:	25 Bedford Road

London

WC1R 4HE

TELEPHONE:	0171 4466363

FAX: 0171 4466333

E MAIL: [email protected]

DETAILS:

Watch & Jewellery Distributors

Benson was a famous London maker in Ludgate Hill. The watches are much sought after since they are quality. Invariably the movement is engraved J.W. Benson, 62-64 Ludgate Hill, London EC4. The dial is also usually inscribed with the Benson name.

Bensons started up as a partnership between Samuel Suckley Benson and James William Benson. About 1840, they were selling watches under the name SS & JW Benson, Cornhill, London. In Jan 1855, the partnership was dissolved and from 1855 to 1891 (according to R Good) or 1897 (according to NAWCC supplement 20) the company traded as J.W. Benson and the firm moved to Ludgate Hill, after which they became a limited liability company. They held royal warrants during the 2nd half of the 19th century, starting in 1876, for Queen Victoria, the Prince of Wales, the King of Siam and the King of Denmark. About this time J W Benson also had premises Royal Exchange and Bond Street, but it seems that neither of these addresses appeared on the dials of their watches.

During 1889, J W Benson went on a buying spree, acquiring, Hunt & Roskell of London & Manchester, Silversmiths and Jewellers, and Sir John Bennett of Cheapside. In 1892, the steam-powered factory in Bell Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill was opened where Benson transferred his watch finishing operations to. . Here they produced their three main watches, 'The Field', 'The Bank' and 'The Ludgate'. The tradename 'The Field Watch' was registered in 1885. This factory continued in operation until 1914, when it was bombed out destroying 12,000 watches. Although the servicing department carried on at Ludgate Hill during the bombing, J W Benson never again made his own watches after that time. From this point on, they bought in all their watches and had their name put on them. Benson was now solely a retail jewellers, and a very good one at that.

Not a lot is recorded about the company from that time onwards, but it would seem that the original company sold the name to Garrards possibly in 1973 who rather let the name languish. By 1994 the name was part of the Mappin & Webb company (which were part of Sears Holding Ltd) and J W Benson acted as distributors for Ebel, IWC and Jaeger-LeCoultre in the UK. The J W Benson name is still used on modern watches, but the watches do not have anything to do with the old J W Benson company and by 1998 the brand name had disappeared from the Retail Jewellers year book, so indicating that the brand has lost most of it's prestige in the eyes of the current name holders, the Asprey Garrard Group. However, the J W Benson name was bought by IWC in Late 1998 and is now being marketed by Chopard GB Ltd .


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## Andy Tims

Can't help but welcome.


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## bjohnson

Here is my JW Benson.

I haven't been able to ID the movement, which I'd like to do since it's missing the winding system. Also, it may not belong in this case.

I think it is from the late 1800s or very early 1900s.





































and a photo of the JW Benson store from the internet somewhere


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## Jack G

and a photo of the JW Benson store from the internet somewhere


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## tomshep

The movement is real enough and made by Benson themselves. That is a very collectable piece and worth the time of a skilled watchmaker to re create the missing parts. It was probably a pocket watch modified to become a wristwatch. No matter. It is an early JW Benson and therefore an important piece.


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## bjohnson

tomshep said:


> The movement is real enough and made by Benson themselves. That is a very collectable piece and worth the time of a skilled watchmaker to re create the missing parts. It was probably a pocket watch modified to become a wristwatch. No matter. It is an early JW Benson and therefore an important piece.


Thanks for the info Tom. I've had it for several years and I haven't decided what to do with it yet.

I've searched for JW Benson watches numerous times during that time on the internet but have never found one that has the same movement.

They seem to be pretty much unknown here in Canada.


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## A303

Thanks for your help guys - I'll contact the company and see if they have any more info.


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