Back to the future with F.A. Jones. Nearly everything we know about the early
watches has been elucidated in the book 'F.A. Jones. His Life, Watches and
Legacy by A.Myers, Th.Koenig and D. Seyffer. Among the wealth of data and
facts is a description about how the Jones watches were signed on the
dial.
Alan
Myers reported that the way of how 'International Watch Company' was written
differed over time and per watch group. He further indicated that in fact none
of the logo's is identical, proving that all were painted by hand. A few
American watch importers and wholesalers wanted to have their own logo on the
dial, movement or both. This had to do with advertising and promotion of their
business. A so far unknown watch importer was Samuel
Hammond.
Samuel
Hammond was based nearby Wall street, New York city. For almost 20 years he
was a partner of Samuel Ward Benedict, who was responsible for the turret
clock of Trinity Church. When Jones started to produce watches at IWC
Schaffhausen, the American watch market was nearly saturated with cheap engine
produced watches form large watch factories such as Waltham and Elgin.
S.Hammond offered Swiss and English made watches as they were considered as
high quality timepieces. The watch shown is a savonette pattern 'B' produced
in 1872-1873. IWC and other European brands had no problem of printing the
name of their dealers. They wanted to have access to the American market and
It was done for 25 or 50 cents per piece.
Regards,
Adrian.
