My husband bought me this pocket watch about 20 years ago from an antique shop in Devon, England for £8. It has '414' stamped on the inside of the covers and one also has 'UH44' scratched in tiny writing. The embossed pictures are signed 'Adr H' and 'Adr Huuless' or 'Huyless', I'm not sure which. I'd especially like to know who this is and any other information anyone could give about the watch.

We would need a picture of the movement or works of the watch, to be able to find out about the watch. Can you post one in here? I don't see the one that is supposed to be in here.

Sheila

Welcome Aboard Collette!

Perhaps a tutorial we have in our might help in posting images...

CLICK: "HELP IN POSTING IMAGES FOR HOSTING ON OUR DISCUSSION SITE"

Hi Collette,

If you're unable to get your photo's uploaded, Email them to me via the link above, and I'll upload them for you if it helps!

Best regards

John

Hopefully you can see the pictures now. Thanks for the advice on uploading the photos.

Photo 1: Watch Face

Here's picture 2.

Watch mechanism.

Photo 3.

Back of watch.

Photo 4.

Inside cover.

Photo 5.

Stamped mark.

Photo 6.

Side of watch.

Hi Collette,

I think what you have here is a Nun's watch. I'm not Catholic and my Latin is rusty but here goes!

Bezel is inscribed, "Hail Mary, full of grace". Dust cover is inscribed, "Pray for us, now, and in the hour of our death"

Both the above are verses from the 'Hail Mary".

Back is inscribed, "Fair as the Moon, clear as the Sun". This is a verse taken from the "Song of Solomon".

There appears to be a lot of stylistic imagery in the modelling that, with a little research, should confirm to which order the original owner belonged. Maybe your local priest could help?

Can't find anything on Huuless/Huyless but he/she was probably the modeller of the reliefs. I'm a comparative newcomer to the world of watches but the movement looks like a standard, nail set, cylinder type to me.

As always, I stand to be corrected!

All the best,

Dick

Dick

Thanks very much for the information you provided and for taking the time to help me find out more about the watch.

Collette

The pin set Swiss movement has a cylinder escapement. This type of movement was common in inexspensive Swiss watches until the late 1930's. After 1940, even cheap watches tended to have lever movements and the cylinder fell out of favor.

I would guess your watch was made around 1910 to 1930.

Nice pictures, by the way.

Best regards,
Greg

Thank you Greg

Collette

Thanks for posting the photo's of the watch collette, I think the work on those covers is absolutely wonderful.

I think Dick pretty well nailed the translations for you, and I too have been unable to find anything on Huuluss/Huyless either.
The reliefs appear to be 'repoussé' work, and will be so if the image is mirrored in reverse on the other side of the panels.
The dial is probably a stylistic interpretation of the 'North Star'.

The case may be silver too, looking at the way it's tarnished. If it is, it will probably be 0.800 grade Continental silver.
It could be Nickel though!
A jeweller will be able to do a quick test for you and confirm either way.

It's almost certainly of European origin rather than English.
It would also be interesting to know the town where your Husband bought the watch, as there are many convents in the county - although it would depend to a degree where the dealer acquired his stock.

I've always been a bit mystified by the term 'Nunn's watch' though because, of the vows taken by Nunns, one is that of poverty, so it always seemed unlikely to me, that a Nunn would be allowed to 'own' a watch unless she was a Mother Superior maybe.

I remember some decades ago, a cousin of mine entered a convent as a novice, eventually taking her vows, and it caused more than a tad of consternation in the family (All Catholic) when she gave all her personal stuff to charities.
Sadly, she died some years ago, and there's no one left of the family except my Mother to ask.

I'll send my Mother some photo's of your watch if I may though, and maybe she can ask her Priest if he can shed any more information on it for you as regards a likely order etc.

I think I'd go a bit further with the age of the watch though, as it says 'late 1800's' to me, and into maybe the first decade of 1900.

Whatever you do, please take care of it, it's a beauty and must have been revered almost as an icon by its original owner!

Best regards

John

Hello Collette, I have a similar watch, and I think the name you see on the watch is Adr. Huybers. (Adrien Huybers) I've tried to find information about him, and all I could come up with was that he was from Brussels and was an artist and watchmaker in the early 1900s. He also made a watch for King George,with King George's likeness on it. The watch I have is a little different than yours in that it also has a picture of Jesus on it. I was told that when a priest was promoted to a bishop the vatican would present him with this watch. This information could be wrong, but is all I could come up with. Hope it helps. John Howell