To make a long story short: I wanted an IWC pocket watch for many years already but didn't follow that goal too intensely. My main reasons to go for an IWC PW:
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[]IWC pocket watches bear a long technically and historically most interesting history. They represent the beginnings of the company and are a living part of the history until today where again a beautiful pocket watch is in production with the Jubilee Pallweber.
[]You get a lot of pure mechanical watch for very reasonable prices.
[]The haptical feature: You take it out of your pocket with your hands. You can feel and hear its slow beat ticking: just awesome.
[]The optical feature: They're so beautifully made and look awesome.
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What was I looking for:
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[]I'm not into rarities and the most collectable piece ever made. I wanted a watch that's beautifully designed, not all are equally nice in my eyes
[]Probably silver or steel
[]At a moderate price point
[]In good running condition
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So when I was browsing the web I came to a silver pocket watch that caught my eyes:
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[]Silver case
[]beautiful Breguet hands and dial
[]Reasonable price
[]Almost 10 good qualitiy pictures, looked like a serious offer
[]Case and crown looked quite well used
[]Nice enamel dial and movement in very good condition - thoroughly looked after
[]The case has an emblem "SW" on the back side
[]case diameter 52 mm
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So what to do when you don't have a real clue about pocket watches and all the faking and frauding out there?
Ask a real expert, good friend and master in hunting and securing IWC historical timepieces for your pocket: Mr. Mark Levinsohn from this forum.
Quick as he is he replied immediately that the watch looked good. He will check the relevant numbers from case and movement if the watch really is what it's said to be. It was offered as a ca. 63 and the case number was 7 years later than the movement both slightly more than 100 years old. It looked normal size but the ca. 63 is a movement for ladies' pocket watches - 12 lignes - very small. There seemed to be something wrong here.
The movement number said it's a cal. 63. from 1911 as the case number is from 1918. There was World War I in between so that could explain some delay too.
On the other side it had a Swiss patent number on the inside and stamped 0.900 silver where most of the sterling silver watches are 0.800.
The movement has a beautiful swan neck regulation which I personally like very much:
As the case size was told to be 52mm, what it really looked like and the cal. 63. movement is 27mm something wasn't really matching here. Mark even did a comparison shot with the different sizes
and as my first IWC pocket watch I didn't want a ladies' size.
I was thinking from the look of the movement it could be a cal. 52 or 53 but as already stated: I don't really have a clue about pocket watches.
Mark had in mind that sometimes the archive can be wrong too.
And then Mark had a genius sort of inspiration telling him:
What if the movement number (see the above picture) which was told to be 513,402 was wrongly read and in fact is: 613,402?
Everything changed and perfectly made sense now:
The sales ledgers said, the watch is a cal. 52 and was sold to a Swedish wholesaler in 1917 which definitely made it older than 100 years and absolutely made sense that it now popped up in Riga / Latvia which is just a hop over the Baltic sea from Sweden.
Mr. magic pocket watch Mark Levinsohn was even able to negotiate a very good price for me and we ordered the watch to be sent directly to the very great guy, friend and skilled and now even IWC certified watchmaker Jeroen Blonk from the Netherlands to have a review and if necessary service what it takes to make the watch almost like new after 100 years of service on duty.
I met Jeroen in Schaffhausen recently.
To make a long story even longer, I was worried about the transfer as well because I don't trust anybody on the web selling something (which seems to be my personal problem), and Jeroen was on a well deserved family holiday, yesterday he confirmed he had picked up the watch at the supermarket (hahaha - that's where the postal service depositted it) he confirmed everything is in best order and he will have a thorough look at it.
Even the issue with the movement number now turned out to be what Mark already had supposed it was: it's really 613,402 not 513,402:
I don't have it in my hands yet but I'm happy to present you officially my first IWC pocket watch, a cal. 52 with Swan Neck Regulation Lepine in 0.900 silver manufactured in Schaffhausen and delivered in 1917 to Sweden which makes me a genuine IWC pocket watch collector (hahaha).
And by the way if you don't like to read all the long story, please just have a look at the pics I got so far:
Thank you so much Mark for you wonderful help! As I said: I'm a happy IWC PW owner but the friendship and fun to tackle it down and see how Mark put together all the relevant information in methodical proceeding and with such a passion was already worth the effort and the price.
Most probably the BUG has bitten me again now and won't let me go again. ;-)
Hope you enjoyed a bit.
