# How to date a Smiths pocket watch



## LeeBlueBear12345

I am looking for any assistance dating a Smiths pocket watch, inherited from my great grandfather.

It is a brass looking piece, stating "Smiths Empire", in the upper of the dial with "Made in Gt Britain" around the lower edge of the dial below the second dial, with Roman numerals 1-12.

The reverse pattern resembles a series of wavy concentric circles, though I haven tried removing the back cover as yet for fear of doing any damage.

It is attached to a chain stamped "JC Graves Sheffield", with assay marks I understand to denote Birmingham (anchor), 1902/1902 seems to tally in dates with the date stamp"c", and there is a lion mark on there too. Also there appears to be the initial "B.L" stamped below this.

I seem to remember this watch and chain from my childhood being silver in colour, I guess this has just become tarnished to a brass colour over the last 40 years?

If so, how can this best be restored?

If anyone has the expertise to assist me directly, or point me in the right direction of useful source info, it would be greatly appreciated.

I do have photos, just cant seem to paste them into this message???

Many thanks in advance,

Lee


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## Julian Latham

Smiths started production of a cheap and robust design in 1947. The watch was marketed under various names e.g. Ingersoll. There is more info on this site

www.smithswatches.com/pages/smiths-guide

Basically a cheap and cheerful watch. There is a thriving market in 'character' dials where a standard (cheap) model has a forged 'special edition' (expensive) dial.

Hope that helps

Julian


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## mach 0.0013137

Smiths watches marked as "Made In Gt. Britain" were manufactured by the Anglo-Celtic Watch Co. Ltd


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## freqeist1

Julian Latham said:


> Smiths started production of a cheap and robust design in 1947. The watch was marketed under various names e.g. Ingersoll. There is more info on this site
> 
> www.smithswatches.com/pages/smiths-guide
> 
> Basically a cheap and cheerful watch. There is a thriving market in 'character' dials where a standard (cheap) model has a forged 'special edition' (expensive) dial.
> 
> Hope that helps
> 
> Julian


 Perfect answrered my question before asking, anyway I have ordered one today from ebay, it will be my first "English" pocket watch.


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## dab

These watches have a date stamp on the movement, e.g. 70 for 1970 (like my late Grandfather's). Retailed until around 1980 I believe. Movement is Cal PY.

Difficult to clean and reassemble these pin pallet movements, so best left alone if working reasonably well I would suggest. Fortunately they are quite tolerant of wear.

If you really need to clean it, try this which I found very informative and helpful:






Careful not to kink the balance hairspring ...


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## Ethan Picken

dab said:


> These watches have a date stamp on the movement, e.g. 70 for 1970 (like my late Grandfather's). Retailed until around 1980 I believe. Movement is Cal PY.


 I know this is a fairly old thread by now, and I'm kind of bumping it, but the Smiths pocket watch I've inherited from my Great Grandfather doesn't have this identifying number? I know where it should be, but instead of a number it just has the letter "y". Does anyone know what that means?

Photos:





Whoops, try again


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