As some of you know, I am collecting pocketwatches, IWC only.
Far from saying that my collection is a museum collection but I am proud to
have found some nice and rare pieces over time.
Some of the pocketwatches are common, easy to find on the market, sometimes in
better condition than mine, but some I have are gems.
So in these crazy times, as the museum in Schaffhausen is closed, why not open
one here on the forum.
As long as the museum is closed, I will post here daily a pocketwatch from my
collection.
I hope I don't run out of pieces before the virus is beaten. Fingers crossed
for all of us.
I will post them in a random order, with some comments, feel free to join.
Keep safe all.
DAY 51, cal 97, black dial
Today a simple but beautiful 18K gold watch, very pure in design and with a
black dial.
As written before, black dials in IWC pocketwatches are greatly outnumberd by
white, silver or gold dials.
It has a cal 97 inside, much like the cal 95 but the cal 97 is 4.2mm high, the
cal 95 3.2mm. My watch is from 1938.
In an older post Ralph Ehrismann writes : "
The C97 was built between 1930 and 1964 in totally 16200 pieces, but most of
them were built between 1930 and 1946, only 2400 pieces was built later (600
1955; 600 1961 and 1200 1964)
Later (1967) the movement got an INCA shock protection, 2 jewels on the barrel
and a new name C972 of which till 1973 3600 pieces was built. I have no
numbers on the production after 1974; but with a gold coating instead of
nickel it got once the new name c9720.
The movement c9720 was also used as base for other complicated watches as
full calendar c9721 or
moonphase in the center c9722
day of the year out of the center c9723 and others!"
So not a big story, just loving the beauty of the movement and the watch
design.
Inside the case there is a little stamp with the number 149. No idea what this
means, maybe others have a clue ?
