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Offered here is an outstanding and elegant WW1 Trench Watch with 'improved' mesh crystal guard, fit for a watch collector, admirer of vintage items, or simply as an everyday watch. Fully serviced. Offered as Buy-it-now, but offers also accepted. A truly authentic trench watch!!
Trench watches emerged in the early twentieth century as an evolution of the pocket watch and 'wristlet', and popularized during World War I for their convenience. The volume of watches needed for the Great War catalyzed a cottage industry of watchmakers in Switzerland to furnish this new miniaturized technology. It is in this environment that we find the founding of many watchmaking companies producing watches with unbranded dials and unbranded movement. However, it is well understood that most watch movements (ebauches) were furnished by 3 companies - A Schild, Fontainemelon, and A Michel. There were many other companies operating at a far smaller scale, and many with very high quality movements, such as Electa / Gallet, Baume, Buren, Cortebert, Tavannes, Beguelin, General Watch Co, Kurth, Langendorf, Longines, Marvin, Movado, Omega, Rebberg, Record, Revue, Roamer, Rode, Rolex, Sonceboz, and Zenith.
Movement: Lovingly brought back to life, this watch features a very high quality 15 jewel movement. The movement is marked Fulton Watch MFY, Swiss, 2 Adjustments, 15 Jewels. The movement appears to be an A. Schild caliber 137, but i honestly can not tell. Fully serviced and keeping superb time! Happy to send a video and more photos upon request.
Dial and Hands: The enamel dial looks beautiful, and amazingly NO HAIRLINE CRACKS! Super rare for a trench watch. All original lume on dial and hands. Metal of the hands is an interesting gold tone rather than black or blued steel. Really phenomenal piece!
Case: The case is just under 34mm diameter w/o crown. The case is completely untouched/unpolished, so retains all of it's darkened silver patina. Case interior is marked Fulton Watch MFY, Swiss, Sterling Silver, 75816C, and 0.925 indicative of sterling silver. The vertical hallmark stamp indicates the case sterling silver content was authenticated in Scotland. Unfortunately there are not date stamps! The crystal guard is i believe an S.J. Levi 'Improved Mesh-Guard'. Note that the patent number stamped on the guard, 105,694, matches the advertisement! The mesh crystal guards are one of the harder styles to find.
Strap: New period-correct leather kitchener strap in black with matching stitching.
Shipping: Free domestic shipping at buy-it-now price, otherwise $15; $39 internationally.
Warranty: 3 month mechanical warranty valid for buy-it-now priced purchases and subject to assessment and approval. Warranty is for mechanical failure only. No cosmetic comments will be honored. Best-offer items do not come with warranty.
Return Policy: Returns accepted upon notification of intent, if item is not as described (IOW, returns not acceptable if you change your mind) and within 3 days of receipt of item, less cost of shipping. Returns not accepted for international orders.
About Us: big.business.time is obsessed with vintage watches. We focus our collection on military watches from WW1, both American brands like Waltham and Elgin, as well as Swiss made trench watches and a special fondness for Borgel cased examples. So great is our love for trench watches, we make our own period correct straps in multiple styles. Please see our other listings. In addition, we love vintage watches from later decades up to the 1960's, tracing the evolution of the wrist watch from a military technology to an everyday accessory. Our emphasis is mainly in no-name brands for everyday wearing, but also include a focus on Gruen and Tissot watches. Lastly, our obsession includes chronographs from the 40's-60's. Our approach to repair is almost exclusively sympathetic, meaning that we will service the movement and leave all of the patina of the dial and cases untouched. We do not polish our cases, or have on very rare occasions. In most cases, the original crystal is retained and if needed only hand polished (plastic crystals only). Our preference is to retain as much of the patina of the watches that we acquire. Cases are cleaned of dirt and grime, crystals are buffed (if possible) and dials are only minimal touched, if at all. For big.business.time, this is the true essence of vintage watches and we hope you share in our enjoyment!
Thank you for looking!