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Wristwatches · Fob-watch
Steel cased cylinder fob watch with a leather wrist-band adaptor [bow missing]
- Maker / attribution
- CE (wrist-band) (Made by)
- Date
- 1905-1910 (watch)
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Place
- Switzerland, Birmingham (West Midlands) (wrist-band)
- Object type
- Fob-watch
- Materials / technique
- steel, leather
- Dimensions
- Diameter: 24.20 millimetres (dial) Diameter: 31.30 millimetres (watch-case) Length: 228 millimetres (wrist-band) Thickness: 13.90 millimetres (watch plus wrist-band) Thickness: 10.90 millimetres (watch) Width: 41 millimetres (wrist-band)
- Holding institution
- British Museum
- Accession / object no.
- 1992,0411.1
- Credit line
- British Museum, London
- Catalogue title (original)
- Steel cased cylinder fob watch with a leather wrist-band adaptor [bow missing] (English)
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Record summary
Held and catalogued by British Museum (object number 1992,0411.1), this is a fob-watch by CE (wrist-band), made in Switzerland, Birmingham (West Midlands) (wrist-band), dated 1905-1910 (watch). The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Wristwatches collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: steel, leather. Recorded dimensions: Diameter: 24.20 millimetres (dial) Diameter: 31.30 millimetres (watch-case) Length: 228 millimetres (wrist-band) Thickness: 13.90 millimetres (watch plus wrist-band) Thickness: 10.90 millimetres (watch) Width: 41 millimetres (wrist-band). The record is illustrated with 6 photographs.
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
Description — British Museum
Movement: Bar movement with going barrel. Four wheel train; cylinder escapement with steel escape wheel and steel cylinder. Spiral steel balance spring with regulator and index on the balance cock. Keyless winding and push-piece operated sliding-pinion hand setting.… Jewelled bearings for third and fourth wheels and the escapement with endstones for the balance. : DIAL: Copper dial enamelled in white around the outside and pink in the middle. Roman hours I-XII and inlaid gold dot half-hour marks within a minute circle. Inlaid gold decoration around the centre. Gold hour and minute hands. : CASE: Steel open-faced case with hinged back and inner dome, the bezel with a gold glazing ring. Brass winding button, the bow now missing. A maker's mark on the inside back. Wrist-strap: Brown leather wrist-strap adaptor, the silver buckle with hallmark, maker's mark and number. The leather is also numbered [size?] in the watch compartment.
Curator's comments — British Museum
See also 1984,0705.1 See also 1989,0407.1.
Inscriptions & marks
maker's mark; C.E in cameo [on wrist-band buckle]; hallmark; Birmingham 1910 [on wrist-band buckle]; inscription; Rd.No. 499803 [wrist-band buckle]; mark; 14 within a circle [wrist-band]; inscription; 801 74 [front-plate, dial side]; trade mark; ACIER GARANTI with an engraved deer [inside case-back]
Provenance
Donated by:, Mrs Margaret A Carey
Historical context
Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
The wristwatch displaces the pocket watch; waterproof cases, self-winding and grand complications.
The wristwatch overtook the pocket watch. Military use in the First World War, aviation, water-resistant cases (1926), automatic winding (1923–31), rectangular Art Deco designs and early chronographs and calendars defined the period.
Read the period in the timelineMore wristwatches from this periodEarlier: Industrial Revolution
Atlas type guide
Wristwatches
Bracelet watches were worn by women from the early nineteenth century — Breguet made one for Caroline Murat, Queen of Naples, in 1810–12 — but the wristwatch only became a man's instrument with military use and aviation in the early twentieth century. Between the World Wars it overtook the pocket watch; the 1920s and 1930s brought rectangular Art Deco cases, water-resistant cases and the first automatic winding systems.
After 1945 the wristwatch became a carrier of identity — dress watches, sports and dive watches, chronographs, calendars — produced by Swiss, American, Japanese, German, Soviet and Chinese industries. The quartz revolution after 1969 and the mechanical renaissance since the 1990s, including the rise of independent watchmakers, complete the story.
What to look for
- The reference number (between the lugs or inside the case back) and serial number, the starting point for dating.
- The calibre: its maker and number are often stamped under the dial or on the bridge.
- Originality of dial, hands and crown — refinished ('redial') dials are common.
- Case material marks: 18K/750, 14K/585, stainless steel, gold-filled, plated.
Dating clues
- Wire-lug cases: before c. 1925.
- Water-resistant screw-down cases: from 1926.
- Quartz movements: from 1969; sapphire crystals widespread after c. 1980.
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.
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