A Gents Silver Iwc Trench Watch, 1916

A gents silver IWC trench watch.

The watch has a calibre 64 hand-winding movement which is working nicely. The movement is signed with the S&Co for Stauffer and also the Peerless name. Stauffer & Co bought in movements from various companies including IWC.

All early IWC wrist watches either had the calibre 63 Lépine or calibre 64 Savonnette movement. They first appeared in the IWC movement and parts catalogue in around 1891-92. This particular movement is the calibre 64 and it has the Stauffer mark and also the Peerless name, together with the serial number 677769 which dates it back to 1916.

The watch itself measures 32mm diameter excluding the fixed wire lugs and the winding crown. The case is silver and there are hallmarks inside the case back for London (import mark), 1918 with a sponsor’s mark for Charles Nicolet… Stauffer was taken over by Charles Nicolet in 1874.

There is also a mark for the case maker 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 case has the odd mark but overall is very acceptable for such an early piece.

The lens is in good condition.

The white enamel dial is in lovely condition. The numbers would originally have had painted infill but this has been removed over the years.

The watch has a vintage brown leather strap.

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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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