Antique Silver Trench Watch, 1918

Antique silver trench watch, 1918.

The watch has a Swiss 15-jewel hand-winding movement, possibly by Adolf Michel SA of Grenchen, Switzerland, which is working nicely.

The watch measures 34.5mm diameter excluding the later winding crown and the wire lugs. The case is silver and it is hallmarked inside the screw-on case back for London (import mark), 1918 with a sponsor’s mark for Arthur Rendell.

In 1907, an act came into force which meant that all imported watches had to be assayed in a UK assay office and marked with British import hallmarks. For this, a sponsor's mark was required. In this particular case, Arthur Rendell was an employee, and probably in charge, of the department that handled imported watches at a company called Pringles, the UK's largest wholesalers of jewellery, silverware, clocks and watches, so it was deemed relevant to use his initials.

The inside of the case back also has the brevet (patent) number 71602 which relates a 1916 patent for the construction of a dustproof case.

The bezel is also screw fitting.

The case is in good condition for such an early piece, just some unevenness to the case back but not too detrimental.

The acrylic lens has light scratching.

The dial has quite a few hairlines but they are faint.

A new leather strap has been fitted.

The watch comes in a new presentation box.

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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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