Antique Silver Borgel Cased Trench Watch, 1915

Antique silver Borgel cased trench watch, 1915.

The watch has a hand-winding movement from Fabrique d'Horlogerie de Fontainemelon. Established in 1793, the company was set up with the aim of manufacturing Swiss ébauches (blank movements) to the Swiss watch industry and they became hugely successful. This particular movement is working nicely and keeping good time to within around five minutes over 24 hours.

The watch measures 34mm diameter excluding the winding crown and the fixed wire lugs. The case is silver and there are hallmarks inside the case back for Glasgow (import mark), 1915 together with 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, it should be kept away from water and treated as being not waterproof or water protected.

The case is in good condition, just a little marking and a couple of small “dings” to the back but nothing too serious at all for the age.

The lens has a couple of short scratches but they are not very noticeable to the naked eye.

The dial is in lovely condition. Most of the painted detail has been removed from the numbers and the pin set hands.

The watch has a vintage leather strap with a silver buckle, quite possibly the original. There is some wear to the strap, mainly to the inside. If required, we can fit a replacement new strap and send the existing strap and buckle separately in the parcel.

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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