VIRTUAL POCKET WATCH MUSEUM DAY 38, cal 52T

Another really interesting post by Tonny today. Not only the the fact that the
case of dial flaunted a name other then IWC / or alongside that of IWC of the
then owners, but that the dial also carried a 3rd party name. Mostly, the
pocket watches left Schaffhuasen with an International Watch Co. / IWC logo
or a blank dial, and as Tonny 's example shows, a comnbintation of IWC and
the
3rd Party.

Sometimes, they were just 3rd party names on the dial as in the example I
showed earlier.

Or in the case of Tonny's C.52 based watch above, its sister movement the C.53
based Savonette timepiece which also bears the UHRENFABRIK VON J.
RAUSCHENBACH name - this time on the dial too.

The Watch

The watch I want to share with you today to complement Tonny's Cal.52T is a
calibre 52 as well - however a pin set version, as opposed to the Stem Set
that Tonny shows.

It's a handsome timepiece, and as you see in the photo above the blue steeled
hands are trully magnificent. The dial carries the International Watch Company
script logo.

The similarites with the C.52T calibre in Tonny's watch are clear when
compared to this C.52

Now, there are two intersting things about this watch :

1) This watch is younger than Tonny's C.52T and left the Schaffhausen
manufactory on the 22nd February 1927 destined for the wholesaler Novotony in
Prague - so in fact three years later! The question for our experts then
arrises; _why was IWC selling again pocket watches with pin set movements
years after they had improved the design of the C.52 to be stem set ? _

2) The Case. Unlike Tonny's elaborate engraved inner case back (dust cover)
this watch has NOT A SINGLE ENGRAVING on the outside of the dust lid, neither
other than the case serial number, does it have any hallmarks or metal purity
stamp. No, 0.800 or 0.900 that one would expect on the inner case back of a
silver watch.

Was this even a genuine IWC case? This needed more research.

All That Glistens Is Not Gold

So here's the thing. This watch is NOT SILVER !

An inspection of the sales ledgers in Schaffhausen, required one to have a
decent understanding of the French Language (see Adrians post below -
regarding watchmakers from the Jura Valley the French speaking part of
Switzerland).

David Seyffer was able to find back the the following :

[above courtesy of IWC Museum & Archives]

Here one sees the words "Metal Blanc" - meaning White Metal. In this case
the explantion of the lack of hallmarks, given the white metal here is Nickel
and not being a precious metal, requires no hallmark.

It sure is shiny.... glistens like gold, shines like a mirror below.

As I said, all that glistens is not gold!

Lovely Watch Tonny. I am really fond of Cal 52 :o)

Nearly during a century IWC was owned and headed by two Swiss families
Rauschenbach and Homberger. During the darkest days of IWC's existence, the
Schaffhauser manufacturer of agriculture machines, Johannes Rauschenbach
senior bought IWC, after the second failure when F.A.Jones and F.F.Seeland had
left Schaffhausen. Without any doubt Rauschenbach senior can be called the
savior of IWC. Unfortunately Rauschenbach senior was only in charge for a
short period and after he had died, his son ( also Johannes) took over. Father
and son were exellent entrepreneurs and although they had no experience in the
watch manufacture and although they were completely isolated from the jura
valley where the complete watch business had been settled, they managed to
bring IWC among the best watch producers of Switzerland. All of this was done
by a complete Swiss staff and watchmakers. They had to hire experts from the
Jura region and succeeded to find and keep the best of them. By marriage the
Rauschenbachs were linked on the Homberger family and here again first father
Ernst-Jakob and later Hans-Ernst followed the same path for almost 75 years.

Regards,

Adrian,

(alwaysiwc)

" It sure is shiny.... glistens like gold, shines like a mirror below. As
I said, all that glistens is not gold!"

What a lovely nickel piece MarkL

Here is another special Lepine 52 T, built 1940 for the British army: Lep.
c.52 T H6 S.C., a B´watch or better known as deck watch.

The four digits on the enamel dial are the last four digits of the case and
the movement number. On the back it is signed with H.S. 3 with an arrow
between S. and 3. The whole numbers are 1014929. This watch has a "borgel"
case, probably that was usual (like the c.71 S.C.)

1400 watches of this were built in
1940.
were built in 1940

Magnificent :o)

The story of the "T"-movements of IWC is quite complicated.

IWC stated always the T is an unnecessary option. The danger to change the
time unwillingly is too big with the tirette.

The push button and the targette to set the time would be the correct 2 hand
operation.

Except few small series "T"- Models where not available for Pocket Watches.

The start of wrist watches (an other "unusable" watch in the eyes of IWC in
the early 19xx's) was done at IWC in the beginning with c.64 movements (with
push button!).

The first "real" wrist watch movement was the c.75/c.76, produced only with
tirette, but not marked as "T".

The lepine version c.75 was used for wristwatches without small seconds (I
have never seen it in a pocket watch) an procuced only 3'300 times (between
1915 and 1918).

Of the Savonette version c.76 used in wristwatches with (or without) small
seconds was produced totaly 19'200 pieces (between 1915 and 1929).

Later there was also "T" version of the c.64, produced between 1917 and 1931
about 12'000
times.

Of the c.64 existe an early serie "a Tir." of only 300 pieces built 1906.
(most
probably used in pocket watches)

The pocket watch movements c.52 T was produce between (1924 and 1930) 6'600
times; and then 1940 as "military" movement 1940 (1200 Pieces with center
seconds, some for the BigFlieger ~1000 pieces with "Hack" seconds, the rest
for the british navy without "hack"seconds).

There is also a lot of the c.53T (only 300 pieces built 1927).

Also the c.65 was built in a T versio (2400 pieces between 1927 and 1930)

And the c.57 was built approx. 12'000 als T version between 1926 and 1930)

There are no c.66 and c.58 als "T". Also the c.71/72 was never build as T, so
the British Navy has IWC Deck watches with push button (c.71.S.C.) and without
push botton
version (c.52T.S.C).

An other funny thing you can find in the c.73/74.

The first approx. 3 series c73 (< 620'000) where produced as push button. Then
the "A" or "B" version and also without indication (all > 620'000) are T
-movements.

For the c74 the targette was probably used longer. I think > 700'000 (there is
one serie marked as "A" 735'701 ...) are "T" versions.

then finally all PW c.67, c.95, c.97, c.98 and all wrist watch movements had
the tirette but were never marked as "'T.

The c.97 replaced the c.52 and c.57.

Here a picture of the "pair" c.73/74 without "T" (out of the first serie of
this movement)

P.S.

I was inacurate... checking my pictures I found an other serie c.53T. An early
one 1907, probyly for the US-market, where the "T" time setting was standard
quite early.

Thanks for this additionl information Ralph.

Cal IWC, the predecessor of cal 52, or so I've been told. It's a cal 52 after
all. I was told wrong.

How did an IWC PW sold to Sweden in 1885 end up with a dial with the images of
the German Kaiser Wilhelm and the Austrian Emperor Joseph?

Never seen anything like that Antonio.

Certainly, a very interesting watch.

Fits here as well.