Rone

[Myron62]

Anybody know anything about Rone watches. I inherited my fathers Rone fifteen watch which he bought in 1947.

Pictures show the face, movement and the inside of the cover.

Anyone recognise the movement?

[jdm]

15 hours ago, Myron62 said:

Anybody know anything about Rone watches.

If you type that in Google, the 2nd or 3rd hit are (other) forum topics about these.

 

15 hours ago, Myron62 said:

Anyone recognise the movement?

It's a FHF, which exact designation I can't say because they changed bridge layouts all the time and even custom marked as this one.

[AdamC]

I recognise the movement, yes, but not able to recollect the precise calibre. I’d agree that it’s likely an FHF Swiss movement. Yours is in a quality 9ct gold Dennison case, hallmarked in Edinburgh I believe. I’ve restored about four Rone watches in the past couple of years and they’re very nice vintage watches, often with attractive dials like your one. Well worth servicing and keeping in memory of your father in my opinion.

Edited December 17, 2021 by AdamC

[Myron62]

OK thanks for the info. Much appreciated

 

[Myron62]

20 hours ago, jdm said:

If you type that in Google, the 2nd or 3rd hit are (other) forum topics about these.

 

It's a FHF, which exact designation I can't say because they changed bridge layouts all the time and even custom marked as this one.

Great, i'll give that a go

[Myron62]

9 hours ago, AdamC said:

I recognise the movement, yes, but not able to recollect the precise calibre. I’d agree that it’s likely an FHF Swiss movement. Yours is in a quality 9ct gold Dennison case, hallmarked in Edinburgh I believe. I’ve restored about four Rone watches in the past couple of years and they’re very nice vintage watches, often with attractive dials like your one. Well worth servicing and keeping in memory of your father in my opinion.

Agreed, its a good looking watch. Now i know its an FHF movement, thanks.

[dab]

The Rone fifteen above is a very distinctive and attractive looking model.

I have 4 mens vintage Rone watches c1950s. These use ETA 2370 (manual wind) and ETA 2451 (auto) movements. 

Some history of the brand can be found online - extract below:

Rone watches were listed (by Pritchard) as Rone Watch Co. SA, Bole (circumflex on 'o'), Switzerland, and the same source mentions that they were listed again from 1966-1973. Rone watches were seemingly in production from the 1940s (1920s more likely based on case hallmarking) until the middle of the 1970s. A variety of models are found branded, Rone, including some in solid gold, which can have the maker's mark "RWC" or "RWCo" for Rone Watch Company. In connection with the designation, RWC, there has been some confusion with Rolex, but Rone watches are not related to Rolex in any way.

[JohnBoy]

On 12/16/2021 at 7:07 PM, Myron62 said:

Anybody know anything about Rone watches. I inherited my fathers Rone fifteen watch which he bought in 1947.

Pictures show the face, movement and the inside of the cover.

Anyone recognise the movement?

 

[JohnBoy]

I’m new to this subject, my speciality was antique clocks and more recently drifted on to pocket watches.

The movement shown is almost identical to the Waltham pocket watch. This was the biggest watch manufacturer in America at the turn of the 20th century.  

The good thing about walthams is that the main parts were all given a unique stamp /number ruling. You could then tell it was genuine 

[balaton]

Looks like an FHF 26.

Regards.

[dab]

I had a look on the ranfft site and it does not appear to match up to a FHF 26, but it may be another model in their range. I have an (apparently) identical vintage Rone Fifteen movement on order and will check it for makers’ marks once it arrives.

[dab]

My apologies, my new purchase does have 26 marked on the dial side of the movement! 

[dab]

Old Rone Fifteen movement recently re-cased and ready for another 70 years’ service!

[dab]

Seem to have caught “Rone Fever” this summer and have just re-cased a Rone Seventeen model 1200 movement. This movement was bought “working”, and as I already had a spare case of the right size, relatively little work was required initially to get a serviceable watch. However, the stem had to be extended as it had been cut off, presumably when someone removed the movement from its old case in a hurry. I will report on the exact movement model number later when I remove the dial for light cleaning (probably FHF 26 variant).

[dab]

Confirmed as an FHF 26, as in the Fifteen, but the 17 jewelled version of course.

Unfortunately supplies of reasonably priced 33mm NOS cases seem to have dried-up at the moment, so prohibiting further Rone movement re-casing projects.