Latest Project West End Watch Co Early Fully Hermetic Watch

[wls1971]

Whilst browsing Ebay last week I spotted a interesting little watch almost at the last minute, it was listed as a antique silver cased wristwatch. I already have a Marvin hermetic watch the one pictured on the left in the photos I bought this a couple of years ago off ebay as a spares and repair watch, it dates to 1926 and has Glasgow import marks apart from a service it needed nothing and I have worn it a least once a week since purchase it has a 15 jewel 3 adj movement and is currently running to about 15 seconds a day.

 

Both these watches have hermetic cases by Jean Finger who first patented the design in 1921, this design was adopted by many manufactures during the early 1920's with maker such as Rolex, I.W.C , Eberhard, Marvin and West End producing these watches up until around 1930, the Marvin I have is hallmarked 1926 and is stamped Double Bouiter and has the patent number the West End I think is slightly earlier and has Swiss silver marks and the Jean Finger stamp.

 

On first glance these watches appear to have no winders, the front Bezel screws off and reveals a second inner case that swings out from the outer case to allow winding of the watch

 

 

I have inspected the West End and it is missing the Ratchet wheel and screw and seconds hand every thing else is present and the balance swings freely, the movement is a 10.5 ligne FHF 1 which is a fairly common movement of the period so parts wont be a headache to find I have already lined up a few likely donor watches on ebay, so I should have it running pretty soon,

 

The Bezel does have a slight ding anyone with Knowledge of removing such dents any information you can give as to the best way of doing it would be very helpful otherwise I will probably leave as is.

These watches are uncommon and are a interesting footnote in the development of the waterproof watch. Although best described as all weather these watches do offer protection from the elements and water ingress I certainly wouldn't submerge them in water

[bobm12]

Interesting cases and beautiful watches! Thanks for posting and keep us in the loop for more!

 

BTW, I've never done "dent work" on the bezels of a watch, but I've seen some dowel sets and blocks that might be able to help you do the job. cousinsUK and ofrei has them I believe. I hope this works for you.

 

Cheers,

 

Bob

[Geo]

I like these a lot, thank you for sharing!

[wls1971]

 

BTW, I've never done "dent work" on the bezels of a watch, but I've seen some dowel sets and blocks that might be able to help you do the job. cousinsUK and ofrei has them I believe. I hope this works for you.

 

 

 

Yes I have been thinking of buying one of the wooden block and dowel sets, I bought a Burlington pocket watch recently that someone had tried to prise the back off rather than unscrewing and had more of less folded in half I did manage to get it back into shape just by carefully bending back using my hands it does screw on and off now but has a crease. I may purchase one and try and remove the crease. The watch though is far smaller at about 30mm across so the ding is only about 2 mm.