Pocket Watch Movement Identification

[AdamC]

Hello,

I have recently bought and serviced this lovely 100 year old 'Spikins from Dent' pocket watch. The movement seems higher quality than some watches of this era that I've serviced, having 15 jewels, and being warranted English. It is housed in a solid silver Dennison Watch Case Co. case and has a 1918 Birmingham hallmark.

Given the above info and the attached photos, would anybody be able to identify and tell me whether this is any particular brand of movement? I notice an S in a five-pointed star on the train bridge - is this a trade mark on a movement?

[wls1971]

The movement in your watch was manufactured by H.Williamson in Coventry the S in a star is a know trademark of Williamsons, it was produced in various grades starting with a 7 jewel version, so would have been bought in by Dent and supplied to Spikins jewellers who had nine retail jewellery shops in the London area, Williamson also supplied Thomas Russel and H.Samuels with movements they also founded the Buren factories in Switzerland in 1898. They fell foul of the law in 1899 by claiming their watches where English warranted when in fact they had been producing the parts in Switzerland at the Buren factories, they then expanded their factories in England to manufacture fully movements to comply with the law, they where eventually bought out by Smiths.

[AdamC]

The movement in your watch was manufactured by H.Williamson in Coventry the S in a star is a know trademark of Williamsons, so would have been bought in by Dent and supplied to Spikins jewellers. They then expanded their factories in England to manufacture full movements to comply with the law, they where eventually bought out by Smiths.

Thanks for answering my question. That makes sense now with the dial signature being ‘Spikins from Dent’, where Dent was simply the movements vendor for the jewellers. Very interesting that Smiths bought out Williamson’s, another watch company I like with their nice gilt movements. Don’t quite see the significance of the S in the star for Williamson but I’m sure there’s a reason. Nice to know I have a fully English manufactured pocket watch.


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[wls1971]

10 minutes ago, AdamC said:

Don’t quite see the significance of the S in the star for Williamson but I’m sure there’s a reason. Nice to know I have a fully English manufactured pocket watch.

No one seems to be sure what the star and S trademark signify's but it appeared around the time that Williamson started using the word "Astral" for their movements  a name later to become synonymous with Smiths who kept the trademark when they bought Williamson  "There's a pocket for every Astral and a Astral for every pocket"