Trying to help a customer ID this old PW. His grandfather acquired it in London years ago. Inscribed detached lever..10 holes and 3 levers.
Jeweled. KW and KS. Engraved TF Cooper...London I know that cooper cased swiss watches in the mid 1800's, and that most were not hi grade, but I can find no marks on the movement to trace its maker.Bar movement with side lever escapement.The watch winds sets and runs. Any help would be greatly appreciated...Steve Hobbs

Hey Steve, welcome on Board the 185 Special....I noticed this is your first post....we hope many more are to come....

Any chance of getting photos of this watch, sounds pretty interesting....maybe one of our experts on European watches can help, but photos help a great deal....

Regards,
Jerry

Steve

In Loomes 21st Cen. Edition it has;
Cooper, Thomas Frederick. London (Calthorpe Street, Gray's Inn Road) 1820-75 & perhaps later. Watches for the American market.

Tom

Thank You both, I have been a silent observer for a while. I tried to post some pics but it says they are too large..what is the secret?

Steve: Most of us use Picassa to edit our photos. Once pacassoized, they slip into IHC nicely. Here is a link you can access Picassa. The download is free.

Picassa download

all of my photos exceed the max which is set at about 223kb. even after picasso, they are denied.

Steve,

If you set your camera to the 640 X 480 size images they should load. If they appear to small on the post go the next size up or use picassa.

Steve

Im gonna try this again, thanks for all the help.

another pic

and another

if any other pics would help...

Steve, you got it!

Nice watch, good photos

just one question: are there any hallmarks on the inner side of the back cover and if, could you photo them. If there they would give us the exact date.

More informations later

Gerald

nothing like Im used to seeing

and this

and this, nothing else

Steve

Thank you for the additional photos. They show no date marks but K18 so 18K solid gold.

Beautiful piece of time !!

movement: typical (west)swiss made about 1870 with some remarkable details. Rich and hi quality engravings on bridges and movement plate. 13j KW KS, Swiss escapement , rectangular lever, balanced lever, counterwight in form of a bishop's staff. The movement seems untouched and is still working. The balance has the form of a ship's steering wheel. Great !
dial: silver beautiful engraved with a pictural scene at the center (seldom found) attached numbers, aged but good.
hands seem to be original.
TF Cooper.. London was the trader. See the arrow on the inner back cover: special hint to wind clockwise and not couterclockwise as the fusee movements of that time.

These are the watches we are waiting to come(and i think these watches are waiting to find us).

Steve thanks for showing !

Regards Gerald

Thank You Gerald, that is certainly more than I expected to find out. After hearing this Im certain he will want to know the value, and then he will probably ask what I will offer him..there is no market here for this piece, but I would hate to let a piece like this be sold somewhere as scrap. Any idea as to the true value?

Steve
I don't want to tell you something out of the blue and this watches are not so often to buy here too.
I try to checkup some past auctions for similiar pieces. May last one or two days.

Gerald

Thank You Gerald, I hope I can be of some assistance to you in the future...Steve

Steve

Here is picture of a watch which has been sold at 450$. This one is near to yours the movement is more simple and not engraved it may be 20 years earlier and has a dial(here golden) showing more 'swiss style'.
Consider that your watch is on the 'wrong side' of the globe the price maybe lower at the american market. It is hard to give a value to a watch you don't hold in your hand. I think if you may offer the price you would pay for a mid range golden american watch it would be ok!

Regards Gerald