I picked this watch up today. It is Swiss, Siver case, and not running. Does anyone know what it is and is it worth restoring?

This was posted on "Pocketwatch Discussions", but since it is Swiss I thought I'd ask that it be in "European Pocket Watches" as well. See the photos below. Any help would be appreciated.

It has some dirt and fuzz in it.

The case is neatly engraved, hallmarked siver,(Shiled with chevrons, Argent, would be .800 silver content) and in good shape with bow and stem/crown missing

Someone etched out the name on the inside. I don't know how well this will show.

Mike

A nice watch and not so often found.

It is a PW with calendar function. The sub dials show the days of the week (mon. - sun.) writen in french on the left side and the date (1 - 31) on the right side. On the inner dustcover it reads `quantième' - day of the month.
The manufacturer is anonymous,only a faint hint: the 'ponts martel' is the swiss 'Les Ponts de Martel' in the swiss watchmaking area. The watch dates to 1890 - 1900. The movement is a mid-range quality swiss-lever movement stem-wound, pin-set.
One of the small pins is for setting time the other for setting date. The dial looks dirty but ok. I would give a try to restoring.

Regards,
Gerald

I had a few of these over the years, they are what I personally classify as Swiss novelty watches, you may have seen them with 4 dial calendars, cheap chronographs double sided with date on rear and many other variations, if it running and the function are working both manually and automatically maybe just worth putting some work into, if any of the calendar parts are broken which you often find due to mishandling and meddling, parts are not easy to find event the stem you may have trouble finding if you don’t get lucky with a match on other similar Swiss range watches. It could get expensive fast to fix , if it is was mine I would remove the dial and see how complete from there would be a “fixer upper” once I found another donor to make one good one, or should it have problems store for a parts watch. Can you see the shaft for the second hand?

Thanks Gerald and Chris, Yes Chris. It appears the shaft is there for the second hand, but I cannot tell if it is functional. I can rock the watch and the movement appears to function fine. I can see that at least one, and probably two jewels are broken and need replacing. I'm not able to see how this dial is removed, or how the movement is removed for that matter, but other than dirt, the dial is fine.

I guess I'd like to know an approximate $$ figure if the watch was in good running order, and about what it would cost to repair it. I know the latter is difficult to determine without holding the watch and looking at the damage and availability of parts.

If I don't choose to pursue repairs, then I may offer it for sale as a parts watch, or to someone with actual talent and knowledge to work on.

As this is a lever escapement if it were mine I would take to my watchmaker Vladimir who is much more familiter with these Pinwheel complications for months and days and ask for an estimate.

In discussion with Chris about this watch, I would conclude the following;

In good running condition with Hands and a crystal the present market value of this watch is $200.00 +/- $50

Restoration may be as much as twice that value.

I partially disassembled this watch and did some cleaning. The movement was really dirty and gummy. I cleaned the dial, and it came out really well. Didn't actually soak it, but rather sprayed it with cleaner and rinsed it off. The dial is not perfect, but is in very good condition.
I also took the balance out and cleaned and oiled it, as well as the pallet fork. I really didn't think it would help, but when I reassembled them, it RAN. Now, since it is (as they say on ebay) a strong runner, I need a bow, stem, and hands.
Does anyone know where I might find these parts? I need to have a ballpark as to the cost of installing these parts, as I have never done a stem/bow. I would imagine it would require a different stem from the usual US made 16, or 18 size.

As you can tell, I'm excited about this watch running! I was about to toss it in a scrap bin. BTW I also semi-polished the case, and added a plastic crystal. It's starting to look like a watch. Still don't know if the day and month dials are really functional.

PS It seems I was premature in calling the jewels broken. They were simply FILTHY!

I'll try and post photos of the repaired watch. I don't actually have it, but should get it back within the next two weeks. It is supposed to be repaired and keeping time, after a clean and service.

another

The case

And final photo

Mike,

That is awesome.....I think it is a pretty cool looking watch and you did a good job on it.

Steve

Looks Great Mike,

Always good to see these unusual old watches being rescued.

They're often none too easy to do and as a consequence, get dumped or broken up being often considered not worth the effort!

They're actually quite valuable!

Best regards

John

Thanks Steve, but I didn't do the work. I ended up sending it to Bulgaria for the work to be done. I found a watchmaker there who seems to do a lot of work on Swiss antique watches.

John, Thanks again for your kind offer to help with this one. I hope this guy did a great job. if it looks like nice work, I may talk to Lindell about posting his name and email in the event someone else is looking for that type service on that type watch.

Mike

I have a watch with a movement very similar to yours, that has a movement that is completely unmarked. I did some research and it turned out to be a Moser. The only way I have identified mine as a Moser so far is comparison to a Moser watch with the Moser Stamp. This picture is the Moser with the stamp.

Thanks Wayne. I agree it is very similar to the photo you posted. I'm not sure how to research this, but it will eventually show its origins.

The watchmaker who did the work did not have a specific brand for me, but described it as a high quality movement with 16 jewels, produced around 1900. I am anxiously waiting for its return. Should be within the next two weeks.

I received the watch along with a 1970 Soviet Molina. My Swiss watch is ticking away on my desk as I type. Looks to be a few min slow over 36 hrs. Soviet watch was an ebay buy from same guy in Bulgaria. It doesn't run at the moment. He has been very responsive and I'll post the results of this all in Pitfalls later.

Turned out Wonderful! Congratulations!