Pocket Watches · Pocket watch
Swiss Ally Sloper Prize Watch, c. 1900
- Maker / attribution
- Unrecorded in source
- Date
- c. 1900
- Historical period
- Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking (1900 – 1945)
- Country of origin
- Switzerland
- Object type
- Pocket watch
- Dealer
- WatchMuseum.org shop
- Stock no.
- Product 6347
- Credit line
- Dealer listing, WatchMuseum.org shop (product 6347)
- Catalogue title (original)
- Swiss Ally Sloper Prize Watch (English)
View the source record (dealer listing) ↗ (opens another website in a new tab)Suggest a correction
Record summary
Catalogued by WatchMuseum.org shop (stock number Product 6347), this is a pocket watch, made in Switzerland, dated c. 1900. The Atlas places it in the Golden Age of Mechanical Watchmaking period (1900 – 1945) of its Pocket Watches collection. The record is illustrated with 4 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
Dealer description — WatchMuseum.org shop
The SWISS ALLY SLOPER PRIZE WATCH – Circa 1900 is a remarkable timepiece that captures the essence of late 19th-century craftsmanship and cultural history. This is a Swiss cylinder open face character prize watch from the late 19th Century. It has a keyless gilt bar movement with a going barrel. The watch features a plain cock with a polished steel regulator and a plain three arm gilt balance with a blue steel spiral hairspring. The cylinder is made of polished steel, and there is a steel escape wheel. The dial is white enamel with Roman numerals, a subsidiary seconds dial, and blue steel hands. The plain nickel open face case is engraved with the cartoon character Ally Sloper above the initials “A. Sloper. F.O.M.” (Friend of Man). The cuvette is engraved with “Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday.” These watches were given as prizes by the British comics magazine, Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday, which was published weekly from 1884 to 1916 by “The Sloperies” in London. Signed Swiss Date of Manufacture: Circa 1900 Diameter: 48 mm Condition: Good
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
Pocket watches
The pocket watch was the dominant personal timekeeper from the late seventeenth century until the First World War. Its development tracks the history of the escapement: verge watches with fusees until the late eighteenth century; Thomas Mudge's lever escapement (c. 1755) and the cylinder escapement popularised by George Graham and later by Swiss makers; and the Swiss and English lever watches of the nineteenth century. Lépine's bar-bridge calibre and keyless winding made watches thinner and easier to use.
Industrialisation transformed the trade: American factories such as Waltham (from 1850) and Elgin produced interchangeable parts by machine, and Swiss makers responded with their own mechanisation after the 1876 Philadelphia Exhibition. By 1900 a reliable watch was affordable to millions; the finest makers continued to produce complications and precision watches.
What to look for
- The escapement: verge (crown wheel), cylinder, duplex, English or Swiss lever.
- Key winding (a square arbor in dial or back) or keyless crown winding.
- Signatures and serial numbers on the movement, dial and inside case back.
- Hallmarks, case maker's marks and gold or silver standards stamped in the case.
- Dial material: enamel, silver, gold, later printed metal.
Dating clues
- Verge watches dominate before c. 1800; cylinder watches c. 1770–1900; lever watches after c. 1820.
- Keyless winding: increasingly common after c. 1860.
- Manufacturer serial number lists exist for Waltham, Elgin, Longines, Omega, Patek Philippe and others.
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:Verge escapementDetached lever escapementFuseeIdentification Centre
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