Silver Baume & Co Pocket Watch for Sir John Bennett

Silver Baume & Co pocket watch for Sir John Bennett.

The watch has a seven jewel stem-winding movement which is working nicely. The movement is an FHF movement, supplied by and signed with the logo of Baume & Co. Baume & Co manufactured some of their movements and also imported Swiss movements such as this one, they were also the UK importer for Longines watches. The movement is protected by an inner hinged cover.

The watch measures 50mm diameter excluding the winding stem and the loop. The case is silver and there are hallmarks inside the case back for London 1926 together with a maker's mark for Arthur Baume of Baume & Co. The case back has a small pin-prick “ding”and light surface marks but overall very acceptable.

The watch glass has minor marking, again very acceptable.

The dial is signed, albeit faintly, with the name Sir John Bennett, London. John Bennett (1814 – 1897) was one of the most controversial characters in British horology and, in many aspects one of the most advanced. He greatly advocated the Swiss methods of manufacture where parts were interchangeable rather than being made for each individual watch. This put him in conflict with many of his colleagues. It was even said that the establishment of the British Horological Institute was designed to protect decent watchmakers from “new brooms” like Bennett.

As well as manufacturing, he also retailed from a rather grand shop in Cheapside, London, which is where this particular watch would originally have come from.

The dial has a couple of faint hairlines towards the edge, mostly covered by the bezel. Ornate blued-steel hands, a subsidiary seconds dial and an outer minute track.

The watch comes in a new presentation box.

ALL PRICES INCLUDE UK POSTAGE (because of GPSR legislation, we no longer post items less than 100 years old to Europe, including Northern Ireland).

Please contact us regarding international shipping.

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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