Who really was Florentine Ariosto Jones, the man who founded International Watch Company? I am pleased to share here an article I wrote, which can be accessed by clicking here.
F.A. Jones --The Man and the Mystery
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- last reply by AVDM 7 Sep 2014
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ApprenticeI really enjoyed reading this article ! Thank you mr Friedberg.
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MasterHello Michael,
It's always reassuring to read about the father of the IWC Watch Co. who was a man with passion and a mission to produce fine timepieces to the public.
Your article reaffirms the long time history of IWC spanning over a century which makes the brand all the more more respected and admired. It is satisfying to see that IWC today still traces back its roots to the founder and honors his achievements.
Thank you for sharing your article with readers of the forum.
Best regards,
Jack Freedman -
Thanks. I also should give credit and special thanks to Dr. David Seyffer, Museum curator, who served as editor of the article and provided the images.
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MasterGreat read it is, thanks Michael and David!
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MasterThat was an informative article, Michael. It provided me some data about F.A. Jones post IWC life of which I was unaware. I love these historical pieces that give us a concise account of the company and company principles' backstory!
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MasterVery interesting article. Thanks a lot to sharing it in this forum. It is always exciting to gain deeper knowledge about IWC's history.
Cheers Chris
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Master
Dear Michael,
Together with the "Jones" book by Seyffer, Koenig and Myers, your article provides more knowledge and historical facts on the person F.A. Jones, several of which were unknown to me.
Many thanks,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc). -
MasterWonderful read -and brings the heritage of the company so much closer.
Makes my Jones timepieces "real" too!
Thanks for this article MF.
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MasterFascinating! I appreciate this research, and truly enjoyed reading about the founding father of IWC.
Nelson
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Thanks again. I really enjoyed writing the article. Much of the information also can be found if you really dig into the book by Seyffer, Koenig and Myers on Jones. It is a great work: excellent historical research and fine detail about the Jones movements.
However, I also engaged in my own research --I figured that, since I live in the U.S. I would be able to find some U.S. items, which I did. Like this notice published in an 1871 New York Times page:
I also tried to track done F.A.Jones' gravesite, only to learn that he was cremated (which I found by checking out the cemetery's records). There were lots of little documentation I uncovered en route.
I corresponded with one watch magazine editor, who read the article and commented that F.A.Jones appeared to lead a most ordinary life after his adventure in Schaffhausen. I guess so, but that Masonic connection might be worth exploring (shades of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code!). ;)
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Connoisseur
Thanks for the article. Look forward to the upcoming series, as hinted by your survey.
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Master
Dear Michael,
Could you elaborate a bit more on the text, declaring the failure of F.A. Jones in New York?
As far as I can read the text and understand it, he asked himself to be declared bankcrupt in 1878. At this time he had just returned to the U.S. Was the failure referring to his Swiss adventure or was it related to a new business debacle in New York?
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc). -
Hi Adrian,
The simple answer is that I don't know for sure. However, I suspect the bankruptcy was related to a new venture and not IWC.
In the U.S. the reason for filing a bankruptcy petition is not given. Still, I consulted a bankuptcy lawyer in New York to get the original documents. I then checked online (using my law firm's court password) but records this old for this court were not online.
However, Thomas Koenig gave me a copy of the original 1878 New York Times publication notice, which is
From this I deduce that the creditors were not financiers of his Swiss company, at least to my knowledge. Further, although he spent almost all his adult life in Massachusetts, he must have been a New York resident at the time. Given only two large (for that era) creditors, I suspect they were financing some venture that never made it. Just a guess.It also is noteworthy that, after filing in July 1878, F.A. Jones apparently went to England (I'm unsure how he would have had sufficient money) since he returned according to a ship's log to the U.S. in November 1878.
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MasterJust got a spare 5 minutes to read this. Nice article. As you say, the Masonic connection could be interesting. I have the F.A.Jones book and have been meaning to read it for a while now. This article is the prompt I needed.
Cheers,
Jarrod
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Master
Dear Michael,
A few years ago, before the Jones book by Seyffer, Koenig and Myers, there was little hope to find anything new on the person of F.A. Jones. All investigations seemed to extinct the hope that we could learn anything on his life, once he had returned to the USA after his Schaffhausen period.
Now it appears that new facts have been traced, well documented.
This is very fascinating, at least for me. It also shows how a genius without a firm business talent may stumble more than once in realising his dream. Nothing has changed since than...
Many thanks and kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc). -
MasterGreat and very interesting article Michael. Thanks so much.
I really enjoyed reading it -
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great research Michael, just started to read the book on F.A. Jones and this article is a great addition to it.
MF as Hercule Poirot, finding facts nobody knew before. -
Connoisseur
Thanks for that Michael, I rarely stray from the vintage forum and so missed this. I obviously need to get out more.
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Connoisseur
Hallo Michael
I am pretty sure that the main creditor named in the NY Times publication, i.e. H.B. Stokar, is Hans Blattman-Stokar of Schaffhausen. He had granted F.A. Jones a loan of 50,000 Swiss Francs and had signed some sureties for other debts of Jones. His claims are listed in the files of Jones personal Swiss bankruptcy procedure. Afterwards he enforced the procedure against Jones to transfer the withold patents to the new company. So he was used to enforce claims in the US.
In that case Jones' bankruptcy in the US was the last act of his failure in Schaffhausen.
Best regards
Thomas Koenig
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ApprenticeThanks for the post, Michael. great read!
take care and cheers,
Nicholas -
Master
The explanation from Thomas Koenig makes a lot of sense to me.
F.A.Jones had just returned to the USA. He barely had he time to set up a new business and than fail for a second time. So this must have been a nasty consequence from his Schaffhausen adventure.
Kind regards,
Adrian
(alwaysiwc).
p.s. MF discovered that F.A.Jones had been cremated after his death. For Europe this was a way of burial that hardly existed, a century ago. Was this different for the US or had Jones (or his family) a special reason for that?