Marks on Early Watch Cases
Many watch cases have marks on them that can tell us more about the history of the watch. I have collected a few of these here. If you have any information to add to what is here, please let me know and I will include it with a suitable acknowledgement.
Many of the cases of the watches that we are interested in are made from precious metals such as silver or gold, and if they were retailed in the UK they should by law bear assay marks showing:
- Who was responsible for sending the article to the Assay Office, either the maker or sponsor.
- The guaranteed fineness of the metal.
- The Assay Office at which the article was marked.
- The year the article was marked.
The item of principal interest to the prospective purchaser is of course the fineness of the metal, how much gold or silver is actually in the material. In the UK this is guaranteed by the Assay Office, which is why there is such a formal process of submitting, testing and marking the metal.
In the picture to the left I have marked up what one typically finds in a silver watch case back. The case maker's trademark and serial number were applied in the factory in Switzerland. Unfortunately many cases don't have a maker's trademark, just an anonymous serial number. In this case we are lucky and the case has the mark of François Borgel. Below the serial number we find the sponsor's mark. This was applied by the sponsor, the person registered in the UK with the assay office and who was authorised to send items for assay. In this case the UK importer and sponsor was Arthur George Rendell, who punched the item with his registered AGR mark before sending the item to the Assay Office for testing and hallmarking. Below the sponsor's mark we find a group of three marks applied at the Assay Office: the guaranteed purity or fineness of the silver, in this case 0.925 or 92.5% pure silver, the standard for Sterling silver, the Assay Office mark, in this case the London office stamp, and the year date letter, here "c" for 1918.
Year Date Letters
The year denoted by the date letter can be confusing because the hallmarking year did not run from January 1st. In London the hallmarkiing year commenced on May 19th, the Feast Day of Saint Dunstan, patron saint of gold and silversmiths, which is nearly half way through the calendar year! So an item marked with an "a" which Bradbury says is the date letter for 1916, could have been marked at any time from May 19th 1916 to May 18th 1917.
Imported Gold and Silver
Gold and silver items imported into the UK must also be hallmarked. The requirement for import marks to be stamped on foreign made silver was introduced in 1867. A letter "F" in an oval cartouche was stamped alongside the regular hallmarks of purity standard, the city mark, and the mark of the British importing firm, called the sponsor's mark. A typical Sterling silver case that was imported into London between 1867 and 1904 would have the usual lion passant (walking) to show the purity, a leopard's head for London, a date letter, and a sponsor's mark, with the addition of the letter F for Foreign.
The sponsor was the British person or firm, often referred to as the assay agent, submitting the item to the assay office for assay and marking. This was usually an import agent or importer, not the manufacturer of the item. The sponsor had to register his sponsor's mark, usually two or three initials in a surrounding shape, with the assay office concerned before he could submit items for assay.
In 1904 a new marking system was introduced, in which each assay office stamped its own symbol as the import mark instead of the city mark. In London, the leopard's head city mark was replaced by a radiant sun's head in a square cartouche for gold or oval cartouche for silver between 1904 and 1906, and from 1906 by an Omega symbol on a crossed background, with again a square cartouche for gold, and an oval cartouche for silver. The purity standard marks, such as the Lion Passant for Sterling silver, was replaced by a numerical denotion of purity, e.g. 0.925 for Sterling silver. So the typical Sterling silver case that we discussed above imported into London after 1906 would have an Omega symbol, supposed to be the sign of the constellation Leo, on a crossed background in an oval cartouche, a 0.925 in an oval cartouche, a date letter, and a sponsor's mark. There may also be additional marks from the country of origin such as the marks "SWISS", the bear rampant, and 0.935 (the Swiss standard for silver purity) which you can see in the case back of my grandfather's Rolex on my Rolex page.
The Glasgow Assay Office mark often appears on imported watches. Philip Priestly has a theory that this was because after Irish independence, watches were imported into Dublin, smuggled across the Irish land border and then taken to Glasgow for hall marking, all to avoid paying the import duty. If anyone can shed any more light on this we would love to know. The Glasgow mark for imported plate from 1904 to 1906 was a bishop's mitre, and after 1906 two interlocking letter Fs on their side - for "Foreign" presumably. The year date letter was changed in the Glasgow Assay Office on 1st July each year.
Assay Process
The assay process is quite interesting. Because it is a quantitative process to determine the relative amounts of the precious metal, the gold or silver, relative to the alloying elements mixed with it, a relatively large sample of material needs to be taken, and essentially destroyed by the analysis.
Gold is assayed by cupellation or "fire assay" where an accurately weighed sample is mixed with silver and lead and placed in a small vessel called a cupel, which is made of absorbent refractory material. This is then heated in a furnace to melt all the contents. All alloying elements and impurities except for gold and silver are absorbed by the cupel. The remaining gold and silver alloy is then treated in nitric acid to remove the silver, and the weight of the pure gold remaining can be compared to that of the original sample to determine the fineness of the sample.
The purity of the gold was usually marked carats and as a fraction, although now only fractions are used. Pure gold is 24 carat so, for example, 18 carat gold items were marked "18 .75" with the .75 meaning 18/24 = 0.75 or 75% gold. The carats used in describing the purity of gold are related to the carats used for the weight of gem stones such as diamonds, but are used in a different way. This way of describing gold purity, or fineness, started with a medieval coin called a Mark, which weighed 24 carats. Pure gold was not used to make these coins because it was deemed too soft, so copper, silver or other metals were mixed with gold to produce a harder alloy. The purity of the coin was then expressed by the proportion of its 24 carat weight that was actually gold, so a 22 carat coin contained 22/24 = 91.67% gold.
Diamonds and other gemstones are actually weighed in carats, and their purity is described qualitatively in terms of colour and clarity. A gemstone carat is equal to 0.200 gram, and its subdivision, the point, is 0.01 carat. So just remember that a gold carat tells you what proportion of gold is in the metal, not how much metal you are getting. Whereas a diamond carat tells you exactly how much diamond you are getting, but not how pure it is.
To assay silver, a process of titration is used. The accurately weighed silver sample is dissolved in nitric acid to form silver nitrate. Measured quantities of sodium chloride (salt) are added, reacting with the silver nitrate to form silver chloride, and when the silver nitrate is completely turned to silver chloride, the amount of silver in the original sample can be determined from the quantity of sodium chloride used.
Silver purity is only expressed as a fraction, and then only two standards are authorised: Sterling 0.925 and Britannia 0.9584.
Obviously it would not be practical to perform these assay tests if thousands of items were submitted for assay, because it would require a noticeable amount of metal to be removed from each item, and would take far too much time. When large numbers of items are to hallmarked, a system of batch processing is used. The registered sponsor submits a items to be tested in batches with an accompanying hallnote. The items in the batch are grouped together into lots of the same metal and same purity, and can include some offcuts or scrap pieces of the same purity.
When the assay office receives a batch of items, the individual lots within the batch are first checked for homogeneity by carrying out "touch tests" on the articles. The articles are lightly rubbed onto a "touchstone" leaving a trace of material on the stone. The sampler then checks the colour and reaction to chemicals of the trace on the touchstone, to make sure that all the individual items are of the same purity. Once satisfied that the items in the batch are all the same metal and purity, one of the items in the batch has a small amount of material taken from it for assay. This is where the offcuts or scrap pieces come in; because they have been checked to make sure that they are the same fineness as the rest of the items in the batch, they can be used for the assay without causing any further damage to the finished pieces.
Watch Case Makers of England 1720-1920
If you are interested in watch cases and their makers, an invaluable reference is Philip Priestley's Book "Watch Case Makers of England...1720-1920." This book is only available from the author in Europe for £15 plus p&p: in America a friend of the author in North Carolina has some copies. This book contains the results of painstaking research into the case makers of London, Liverpool, Prescot, Chester, Coventry, Birminghman and other provincial towns, and has extensive appendices of hallmarks to enable you to identify the case maker, standard and year that your watch was assayed. At £15 it is an absolute bargain, and every serious collector of watches of the period covered should have a copy of it. You can contact Philip Priestley by email at . He has also written a book on watch case makers covering the earlier period of 1631 - 1720, and has new book on Dennison out now.
Swiss Poinçon de Maítre
Watch cases of gold, platinum or palladium made in or imported into Switzerland since 1934 carry a poinçon de maítre or responsibility mark. So far as I understand it, this mark identifies who is responsible for guaranteeing the purity of the metal used to make the case. I am not clear as to whether the Swiss have a testing system similar to that in Britain, so as usual, if you know, please drop me a line. The responnsibility mark usually belongs to the case maker, so we can find out who made the case from this. Unfortunately this system only applies to case made from gold and platinum, not to the much more common silver cases. There is more information about this on my Borgel page.
AB Arthur Baume, and B&Co. Baume & Company
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 AB is for Arthur Baume Managing Director of Baume & Co., 21 Hatton Garden, the London branch of Baume, a Swiss watch manufacturer based in the village of Les Bois, in the Jura Mountains. In 1912 Paul Tchereditchenko became a Swiss national and adopted the name Mercier, and on 27 August 1920, William Baume, grandson of the founder of Baume, and Paul Mercier founded Baume & Mercier Geneva. As well as their own watches, Baume & Company were the importer of Longines watches to the UK and all of the British Commonwealth. Otherwise unmarked Logines watches from the early 20th century often bear the mark "B & Co." for Baume & Co. next to the movement calibre number under the balance wheel. The picture left is an interesting Longines Borgel case which bears the AB and B&Co marks, as well as the FB for François Borgel. |
AGR Arthur George Rendell
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 The AGR initials, with dots in between as this "A·G·R", are for Arthur George Rendell of 40/42 Clerkenwell Road, London who are recorded as importers of Swiss watches from 1907 The large image to the left is quite interesting because it shows the AGR mark in a gold Borgel case with the Edinburgh import mark for 1925. Why Rendells, who were apparently London based, would use the Edinburgh assay office I have no idea. If you do, then please let me know. This image courtesy of Cary Hurt, Alabama. |
ALD Aaron Dennison
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Aaron Lufkin Dennison (1812-1895) had pioneered mass production watch making in the USA, but ran into financial difficulties in a turbulent financial period in 1857. In 1862 he moved to England and set up the Dennison Watch Case Co. of Birmingham. Watch cases were usually stamped "Dennison Watch Case Co" but Dennison also used the case maker mark "ALD" for Aaron Lufkin Dennison. The picture to the left shows a case marked with both ALD and Dennison Watch Case Co. It also has the anchor mark for the Birmingham assay office, the lion passant (lion walking) indicating the purity of the silver as Sterling (92.5%) and the letter "q" for 1915. Note that different assay offices used different date letters for the same year, e.g. the London date letter for 1915 is "u". You might find it strange that Birmigham, set in the middle of the country and about as far from the sea as you can get, would use an anchor for its symbol. This goes back to 1773 when silversmiths from Birmingham and Sheffield petitioned Parliament for their own assay offices so that they wouldn't have to send items to London to be marked. The petitioners held meetings in The Crown and Anchor public house off The Strand in London, and each town adopted one of these signs as its mark; Sheffield got the crown and Birmingham the anchor. |
CN Charles Nicolet
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The picture of the mark and the following information were kindly provided to me by Ashley Strachan, the information extracted from Philip Priestley's Book "Watch and Case Makers of England 1720-1920." Charles Nicholet was a watch importer first recorded with the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, London, operating as an importer of Stauffer, Son & Co. ebauches at 12 Old Jewry Chambers, and registered his hallmark as the letters "CN" 1 Mar 1877. He then registered a hallmark "C.N" in a rectangular lozenge with cut corners 10 Oct 1881 and the same 10 Oct 1885. On 23 Feb 1887, he moved to 13 Charterhouse Street, London, and on 26 Mar 1896 reverted back to "CN" but in this case within a wide-hexagonal lozenge. On 4 Nov 1904 he went back to the original "CN" hallmark, but on 3 Apr 1905 and 17 Oct 1907 changed yet again to a further format of "CN" in rectangular lozenge with cut corners . Charles Nicholet was also registered with the Chester Goldsmiths Company, 13 Dec 1906, and used his 13 Charterhouse Street, London, address. In this instance he used "CN" within a rectangular lozenge, albeit corners may appear rounded. |
FB François Borgel
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François Borgel of Geneva registered his "marque de fabrique", or makers mark, in Geneva in March 1887. He patented his famous watch case design on 28 October 1891 with the Swiss "Brevet" or Patent number 4001, and in the UK on 24th November 1891 under Patent number 20,422. The Borgel case was an early attempt to make wrist watches resistant to dust and moisture. It has a one piece case, where the movement and bezel are mounted on a threaded ring which screws into the case from the front. Manufacture of Borgel cases continued after the death of M. Borgel in 1912, initially under the direction of his daughter Louisa Beauverd-Borgel, and later by Taubert & Fils. Taubert & Fils, later Taubert Frères, was one of the finest Geneva-based case makers and specialized in water-resistant cases. They worked with many firms, including Patek Philippe and Vacheron Constantin. For further details please refer to my Borgel page. |
GS George Stockwell
George Stockwell's company Stockwell & Co were recorded in June 1907 as importers of silver (e.g. dressing table sets, watches, Georg Jensen silver) and Assay Agents at 16/18 Finsbury Street, London.
The following information was very kindly provided to me by Eleni Bide from the Library of the Goldsmiths' Company: John Culme's "The Directory of Gold & Silversmiths, Jewellers & Allied Traders 1838-1914" (Woodbridge, Antique Collector's Club, 1987, 2v) illustrates the mark of George Stockwell, described as an "importer of foreign watches". Culme also provides some details of Stockwell's firm, Stockwell & Co Ltd, who were listed in Birmingham in 1912 as "agents to Messageries Nationales Express and Messageries Anglo-Suisse, continental, foreign and general shipping agents, special tariff for small consignments abroad."
Stockwell did not manufacture watches or cases, and would have imported from a number of different Swiss manufacturers. Philip Priestley remarked to me that "George Stockwell was probably the major reason the English trade was killed off by Swiss imports. He had dozens of entries [in the assay office registers], meaning that [his firm marked so many items that] his punches wore out."
The picture below left shows Stockwell's mark on a watch with a London import mark (the inverted Omega on a crossed oval cartouche (the oval signifying silver as opposed to a rectangular cartouche for gold) a .925 mark showing the purity as "Sterling") and 1915 "u" date stamp. The picture below right shows Stockwell's mark on a watch with a Birmingham import mark (the triangle in an oval cartouche, with again the oval cartouche signifying silver) and a 1918 "t" date stamp.
You can see that the block sticking up at the top of the GS cartouche varies considerably in width, from the narrow one on the London mark to the much wider one on the Birmingham mark. The difference between the London and Birmingham marks is of no significance in the light of the number of punches used by Stockwell's firm.
R&S Rotherham & Sons Ltd
The firm of Rotherham & Sons, based at 27 Spon Street, Coventry, Warwickshire, UK, could trace its origins back to 1747 to a firm started by Samuel Vale. Richard Kevitt Rotherham joined the firm as an apprentice, and was listed as a partner in Vale and Rotherham in 1790. The firm was listed as Rotherham & Sons from 1850. They made entire watches: movements and cases. In 1858 Charles Dickens visited the factory and was presented with a watch to mark the occasion. By the 1880s Rotherhams were operating on a very large scale by British standards, with over 500 employees active in the production of both movements and cases. In 1932 they became agents for Buren, and later Ulysee Nardin. The company was incorporated into Cornercroft Engineering in 1973.
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Rotherhams obviously imported watches as well as making them, because the two images to the left show Rotherham and Sons assay office registered R&S marks, the top one in a rectangular cartouche with cut corners, the lower one in a diamond or rhomboid shaped cartouche. Although based in Coventry, some time before 1890 the company also opened offices at 1 Holborn Circus, London, and their watches were also signed Rotherhams, London. This was later to become their head office. Priestly lists the rectangular mark as being registered at Birmingham in 1841 and in London between 1907 and 1919, and the second diamond shape mark as being registered in Birmingham between 1912 and 1917. The Birmingham assay office would be the nearest office to mark watches made in Coventry, whereas the London assay office would be a more natural choice for watches imported from Switzerland, which would presumably have come in through the port of London, and a large proportion would then be retailed in London after assaying. |
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I have also seen some Swiss watch movements marked R&S. Cutmore in "Watches 1850-1980" states that British Industry Fair reports show that in 1920 and 1921 they showed at trade exhibitions cases for movements made in their own factory in Switzerland. Cutmore suggests that this could possibly be the Rode Watch Company of La Chaux de Fonds, whose watches they marketed, but I have seen no evidence to back up this suggestion. |
The following information was very kindly provided to me by Eleni Bide from the Library of the Goldsmiths' Company: Culme also provides some useful details pertaining to the mark sent with your last email. He illustrates several very similar marks which could be a match to the one on your watch case. All were registered to Rotherham & Sons Ltd, gold and silver watch case makers and importers (John Culme, The Directory of Gold & Silversmiths, Jewellers & Allied Traders 1838-1914, Woodbridge, Antique Collector's Club, 1987, 2v., v.1, page 260-261, nos.12598, 12657-12668). In the second volume of his work Culme describes the firm of Rotherham and Sons in some detail, including their role as a watchmaker and importer, and the colourful lives of some members of the Rotherham family (ibid, v. 2, page 394).
SFC Schwob Frères et Cie
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Schwob Frères et Cie retailed watches manufactured by Tavannes / Cyma, who Schwob Frères either owned or had a part in setting up. |
LW
There are two very similar marks:
Louis Wengi 1881 (registered Jan 1880) Watch case maker
Louis Weill 1909 (registered Jan 1907) Imported watch case Holborn Circus, London
The one in my watch case is almost certainly Louis Weill because he was an importer rather than a maker.
Combined Marks
The sponsor's mark and the case makers mark are often seen together. For instance, below left is a picture of a case with the AGR sponsor's mark, and also the FB mark for the case maker François Borgel, and below right is a case with the GS sponsor's mark and the FB mark.
If you like what you see, or have any comments, requests or suggestions, then please feel free to email me at You don't need to copy the email address, just click on it. I look forward to hearing from you!
Regards - David
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