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1929 Harwood

Geo

By Geo
in Your Watch Collection

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Geo Distinguished Member

Geo

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This watch arrived today from Switzerland and I’m absolutely delighted with it. It is better than expected, the dial is original and there are hardly any marks on the case, pretty good for an eighty six year old! Even the bezel rotates easily, maybe too easily.

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There had been no attempt made clean it up prior to the sale as the silver had a fair bit of tarnish on it. There are no badly damaged screws, and the damascening on the movement is unmarked. The advert said that was “used and in running condition” and “Needs service before wear”. The first thing I did was give it a few shakes and put it on the timegrapher, well it looked like a target that had been shot with a sawn off shotgun.

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Next thing was to demagnitise it and low and behold things got a lot better.

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I then gave the crystal a rub with 1200 wet& dry and polished it with Autosol, the case was also given a light polish, but only with a silver cloth.

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Having had it on my wrist for a few hours, I then put it back on the timegrapher and it was keeping better time, albeit with a wonky graph. It will be put away for a while until I clear my feet of other projects, then it will get a full service.

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My sincere thanks go to Colin (CDJSwiss)for introducing me to these wonderful historical pieces.

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cdjswiss WRT Addict

cdjswiss

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Congratulations, Geo, it's a beauty with the pearling, relatively rare, and the decorated dial window,  very rare - copied on all of the replica Harwoods. What are the silver marks - Swiss or UK?

 

Swiss Patent 106583:
selfwinding mechanism
filed 10-16-1923, John Harwood, Baldrine-Lonon (Ile of Man, GB) und Harry Cutts, Brighton (GB)

 

Interesting result of de-magnetisation. I must try it - never done it on a complete watch, only on a balance bridge and hairspring carefully wrapped in tissue paper.

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Geo Distinguished Member

Geo

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Good morning Colin.

The hallmarks are British, London import mark, Sterling silver mark and date letter for 1929 at the top. At the bottom is the makers mark for George Stockwell and the serial number. Below the serial number is a letter S and I have no idea what that is for.

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I should have said in my first post that I had to demagnetise the watch twice before it would run accurately.

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cdjswiss WRT Addict

cdjswiss

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Thanks, George, for this photo (good advertising for Chrono24 also!).

 

I have just put a complete watch onto my de-magnetiser (not an expensive one) and was alarmed at the 50 Hz noise that was produced, presumable by the hairspring vibrating? Could it be that apart from removing any residual magnetism this also cleans the hairspring?

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Geo Distinguished Member

Geo

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I can't see it cleaning it, unless there was a lot of steel swarf sticking to it! I feel it is a lot safer to demag the complete watch as everything is held together securely. Also everything in the watch that is steel will be demagnetised.

I would just like to mention for others that may be interested, the results that on the Harwood were achieved with demagnetising alone, I did not adjust the regulator at all.

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cdjswiss WRT Addict

cdjswiss

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I have been looking into the marks. This watch was presumably produced in collaboration with Fortis for international markets at Walter Vogt's factory in Grenchen. The case would have been made in CH as it has the London import mark and GS as importer. The S under the serial number was probably the sign of case maker Stila of La Chaux-de-Fonds.

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cdjswiss WRT Addict

cdjswiss

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Continuing the Harwood silver marks saga, Here is a photo of my silver Harwood watch back.

 

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Imported by a Glasgow sponsor in 1929. That's the easy bit. But the mark A5M is a mystery. There has been some discussion on watchuseek between David Boettcher and another person who has also seen this mark, but without clarification. There is no known Glasgow silversmith or sponsor using the mark AM.

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