Antique Silver Rotherhams Hunter Pocket Watch for D Glasgow

Rotherham & Sons silver full hunter pocket watch for David Glasgow.

The watch has a stem-winding movement made Coventry watch manufacturer Rotherhams for the jeweller, silversmith, watch maker and optician, David Glasgow of London.

Rotherhams evolved from S Vale who were established in 1747. To begin with, the company bought in ebauché (or blank movements) but in the latter part of the 19th Century they began to manufacture their own movements. By the late 1880s, they were considered to be an important Coventry watch manufacturer producing 100 units a week.

The company continued to grow, and it is estimated that they manufactured some 600,000 movements between 1880 and 1930. While not as prolific as some of the big Swiss and American factories, such as Waltham who produced 26 million in the same period, they were still considered to be among the best English “volume” maker.

Rotherhams later diversified into cycle and automobile parts and watch manufacturing ceased in the 1930s.

The movement is signed D Glasgow, 20 Myddelton Square, London. David Glasgow, who served as vice president of the British Horological Institute, was a controversial character had very strong views regarding foreign watches, especially American models, he considered them to be of poor quality and thought their success would be short lived. He wrote articles in the Horological Journal and was so scathing of the American Watch Company that they took legal action, accusing him of libel.

The movement in this watch 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 all three covers for Birmingham 1894, with the JR mark for Rotherhams. The case has ornate initials to the front, beautifully detailed but difficult to make out. The case is in lovely condition.

The winding crown pushes in to open the front cover.

Inside, there is an acrylic lens which is in good condition.

The dial is in lovely condition with pin-set blued steel hands, a subsidiary seconds dial and outer minute markers.

The watch comes in a new presentation box.

Where we have specified a year of manufacture, this is based on hallmarks or serial numbers with published databases. The 'date of manufacture' given by SellingAntiques will vary slightly as the website only works to decades, not specific years.

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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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