Silver Gilt William Ehrhardt Pocket Watch & Chain

Antique silver gilt William Ehrhardt pocket watch & chain.

The watch has an English stem-winding movement by William Ehrhardt which is working nicely. The movement has a safety pinion, a feature usually seen on American watches, which basically means that if the mainspring breaks, the movement is protected from damage.

The movement is protected by an inner cover which has some unevenness.

The watch measures 50mm diameter excluding the winding crown and the loop. Unusually, the case is silver gilt. There are silver hallmarks inside both of the case backs for Birmingham 1911, with a maker’s mark for William Ehrhardt. The case has some unevenness in places but not too detrimental.

German born Ehrhardt emigrated to England in 1851, at first living in London and subsequently settling in Birmingham. He went on to become one of the pioneers of watchmaking by machinery in England.

The glass lens is in good condition, just a short light scratch to the edge, quite difficult to see with the naked eye.

The dial is signed Bravingtons, King’s & Ludgate Hill. The King’s relates to Kings Cross, hence the unusual red cross. This particular style of cross is called a cross pattée which is associated with the Knights Templar, a medieval Christian religious and military order, established in the 12th century in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, and also freemasonry.

Thomas Bravington established his business in the 1860s, initially trading as a pawn broker and then venturing into retail, selling watches under the Bravingtons name. The watches were made by various watch manufacturers, William Ehrhardt being just one of them.

The dial is in lovely condition with blued steel hands. If viewed through a jeweller’s loupe, there is a very faint hairline on the subsidiary seconds dial.

The watch comes on a later silver gilt chain, 30cm long including the T-bar and the clasp. The chain has silver hallmarks on the loop by the clasp, it is difficult to read the date letters but the chain appears to be later in date than the watch.

The watch and chain come in a new presentation box.

ALL PRICES INCLUDE UK POSTAGE (because of GPSR legislation, we no longer post items less than 100 years old to Europe, including Northern Ireland).

Please contact us regarding international shipping.

All of our watches are checked over before listing, and are also checked for accuracy which is usually within around +/- two to three minutes over 24 hours (unless otherwise stated), which is considered respectable for a vintage watch.

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