Antique Private Label Seth Thomas Pocket Watch

An antique private label half hunter pocket watch by Seth Thomas, circa 1890, made for Lever Brothers Ltd of New York.

Between 1884 and 1915 Seth Thomas manufactured a line of jewelled pocket watches. Most of the tooling for the watch factory was built using the production facilities of the Seth Thomas antique clock factory (Seth Thomas was famous for his clock manufacturing corporation which was established in 1853). 

This particular watch has a stem-winding movement which is working nicely. The movement is fully signed Lever Brothers Ltd, New York and there is also a patent date of Dec 6 ‘87. The movement is protected by an inner hinged cover.

The watch itself measures 54mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop so a little larger than standard pocket watches which are 50mm diameter. The case is marked as ‘14K stiffened’ which is 14ct gold filled, and was probably made by the Ladd Watch Case Company. Overall the case is in good condition, just light surface marks and a “pin prick” dings to the front.

The winding crown pushes to open the front cover. Inside there is an acrylic lens… original glass lenses are often replaced with acrylic if they break as it is much more durable and looks so similar.

The signed white enamel dial has four or five hairline cracks but they are faint. Blued steel hands including the special half hunter hand so that the time can be read through the small lens to the front cover. The hands are lever set which means that instead of pulling the crown out to initially set the time, you pull out a small lever by number 5.

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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