World War 1 Silver Borgel Cased Trench Watch

A World War 1 silver Borgel cased trench watch.

The watch has a Swiss hand-winding movement which is working nicely.

The watch measures 33mm diameter excluding the winding crown and the fixed wire lugs. The case is silver and there are hallmarks inside the case back for London (import mark), 1915 with an importer’s mark for George Stockwell - from 1 June 1907, Stockwells acted as assay agents, facilitating the import into Britain of foreign gold and silver items, which had to be assayed and hallmarked in a UK assay office before being released for retail.

The inside of the case back also has the mark for François Borgel. He was a very successful inventor and business man, and his company became one of the most important watch case manufacturers of its time. He advertised his screw watch case, such as this example, as "imperméable", which means that he considered his screw case to be waterproof . Early adopters of the Borgel screw case included Longines and IWC. After François Borgel’s death in 1912, the business was carried on by his daughter Louisa. As with any vintage watch, however, we would not recommend that it is treated as still being waterproof or even water protected.

The dial is in good condition. Originally the hands would have had infill but this has come out over the years.

A later black leather strap has been fitted.

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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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