Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
J.W. Benson 18ct centre seconds chronograph half hunter lever pocket watch, hallmarked London 1930
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- 1930 (hallmarked London)
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- England
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Dimensions
- Diameter 53 mm
- Auction house
- Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham
- Lot
- Sale 6, lot 259
- Credit line
- Auction lot record: lot 259, The Watch Auction, Gardiner Houlgate (20th October 2021)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Good J.W. Benson 18ct centre seconds chronograph half hunter lever pocket watch, London 1930, the movement with compensated balance and regulator, the enamel dial signed J.W. Benson, London with Roman (English)
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Record summary
Catalogued by Gardiner Houlgate (auction house), Corsham (lot Sale 6, lot 259), this is a pocket watch, made in England, dated 1930 (hallmarked London). The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Pocket Watches collection. Recorded dimensions: Diameter 53 mm. The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Lot description — Gardiner Houlgate
Good J.W. Benson 18ct centre seconds chronograph half hunter lever pocket watch, London 1930, the movement with compensated balance and regulator, the enamel dial signed J.W. Benson, London with Roman numerals, minute track with five second divisions, subsidiary constant seconds and sixty minute recording dials and blued steel centre seconds, gilt hands, chronograph push button at the twelve position, presentation inscription to the inside front case cover, case. no. 10736, case maker 'J.W.B.LD' (J.W. Benson Ltd), 121.4gm, 53mm - **J.W. Benson Ltd watch warranty no. 71410 dated 21.6.32, registered no. 10736, Dennison pouch
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The pocket watch reached technical maturity and then began to give way to the wristwatch after the First World War. Complicated watches for collectors such as Henry Graves Jr. and James Ward Packard, railroad watches, and slim Art Deco dress watches are characteristic.
Read the period in the timelineMore pocket watches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Chronographs and split-seconds watches
A chronograph is a watch with an additional seconds hand that can be started, stopped and returned to zero independently of the timekeeping. Louis Moinet built an early example in 1816 and Nicolas Rieussec a recording 'chronographe' in 1821; Adolphe Nicole's heart-shaped reset cam (patented 1862) made the modern return-to-zero possible. Split-seconds (rattrapante) chronographs add a second hand that can be stopped for intermediate times; flyback chronographs restart instantly.
Chronographs were essential tools for doctors (pulsometer scales), artillery (telemeter), engineers and sport. In wristwatches, Valjoux, Venus, Lemania and later the automatic chronographs of 1969 (Zenith El Primero, the Chronomatic Calibre 11 group and Seiko 6139) are milestones.
What to look for
- Push-pieces on the case band or a single button in the crown (monopusher).
- Subsidiary registers for minutes and hours; tachymeter, telemeter or pulsometer scales.
- Column wheel versus cam control visible in the movement.
- Calibre markings of specialist makers (Valjoux, Lemania, Venus, Landeron).
Dating clues
- Pocket chronographs with heart cam reset: after 1862.
- Wrist chronographs: from c. 1910; two-button designs from the 1930s.
- Automatic chronographs: from 1969.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
Read next:Flyback chronographChronograph
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