Antique Admiral Pocket Watch and Chain

Henry Sandoz Admiral pocket watch with chain.

Sandoz founded the Tavannes Watch Company in 1891, together with his partners, wealthy fabric merchants. The company was very successful and very soon they were exporting several countries including Canada, Russia, United States, and the Far East.

By 1905, the company was producing 450,000 watches a year and over the next four years, this rose to three quarters of a million watches a year.

Sandoz registered the Admiral trademark in 1904 and it was one of the many trade names used by the Tacy Watch Company (the name Tacy was derived from Ta-vannes and Cy-ma). The style of this particular watch falls in line with this as it strongly suggests early 1900s. The movement is very good quality with 17 jewels, four adjustments and a whiplash regulator. The patterning, or damascening, on the movement is a nice detail which would have been an expensive extra for something that was not often seen.

The watch measures 50mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop. The case is gold filled and was the Fortune model by the American Watch Case Company who were in fact based in Canada. It was commonplace for cases and movements to be imported from different countries. The case is in lovely condition and the screw-on case back with an Art Nouveau inspired design.

The watch glass has minor marks but is very acceptable.

The signed white enamel dial is in good condition and the outer red minute numbers add character.

The watch comes with a single watch chain which measures 29cm long including the T-bar and the clasp.

The watch will be sent 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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With regards to appraisals / valuations, we receive a huge number of information requests each day and unfortunately do not have the manpower to deal with them all individually. Our advice would be to contact a local auctioneer for a full appraisal.