here is a interesting watch that came in for repair last week..These are cool.

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Samie,

They are a piece of Americana.

I forgot the whole story but the main facts were that the Shell marketing people filled these with a new type of Shell motor oil and gave the watches to most of their dealers and then did poster ads to push the oil.

If the watch would run with Golden Shell Motor Oil motor oil it must be great stuff! Right!

After a few months the watches stopped and had to be cleaned and live on.

Jim i have heard pretty much the same story on these..I belive this one must have had some Shell oil still inside ,,it was very drity and gummed up and missing the winding stem and crown,may try and buy this one i like it.

Somewhere around here I have an ad from Shell Oil showing this watch, but (if I remember correctly), the case wasn't filled with Shell Oil - the pivots were lubricated with it (does anyone actually think the balance would turn at all if it was pushing motor oil around?)

These were an advertising gimick, and I believe they were given to the Shell dealers.

What Harvey said has always been my understanding as well.

This fascinating subject and these very interesting watches came up some time ago...

"Girard-Perregaux Shell Pocket Watch"

Oiled with motor oil perhaps, but actually filled or even partially filled sounds very unlikely as that would stop the watch.

Like I mentioned in the previous topic I doubt the case design could have retained liquid.

Has anyone tried to do such a thing with a pocket watch?

These would not run filled with oil and with snap on bezels it would be hard to keep out dust if packed ever day ,let alone keeping oil inside ..

There is some syntethic motor oil made today that might be good enough to work on the pivots of a watch ..

I don't think Jim meant the case was full of oil but was lubricated with Shell oil.
I have one of these watches and they are a good collectable watch.
Brian C.

I have dealt with these watches before and they are of course signed "Girard-Perregaux" but were, as far as I can determine, made by Unitas and are a direct predecessor or lower jeweled version of the UT 6497 movment. Many of the parts are interchangeable with the modern movement that is so ubiquitous today.

Best,

Frank "407" Kusumoto

Frank,

In the 2005 Shugart Price Guide on page 493 it says of these...

"Girard-Perregaux used a ebauche by A. Shield calibre 1052"

Perhaps A. Shield and Unitas are related in some manner.

Lindell

Lin,

Yep, just did some research and "in-hand" comparison and the GP movement is an AS 1052. I suspect some relation between AS and Unitas because of the compatibility of some parts, but that's another ball of wax! I do love the way the plates are made in these "Shell" watches. GP also had their own branded version of pocketwatch and as far as I know it is the only watch movement that truly embodies the "Art Deco" style in a watch movement. Would be interested if others exist that I haven't seen or forgotten about.

Best,

Frank "407" Kusumoto

Here is the cover from the April 1940 Shell Oil Company magazine "Shell Progress". I will try to scan and post the inside article about the watch and sales promotion later this weekend.

I once attended a workshop on watch cleaning at the Dearborn Regional given by Col. George Townsend. It was interesting in that he was using a small jewelry ultrasonic bath and baby food jars filled with the cleaning and rinse solutions.

He took down a watch during the workshop, cleaned and oiled it. He insisted that the best and least expensive oil to use was Pennzoil 30 grade. He cautioned against using multigrade oil.

Since there's so much interest in this thingy, I went out to the "barn" and dug up my copy of the ad. It's pretty straight-forward advertising verbiage, with a picture of the watch and a little blurb under it as follows:

"Shell had 30,000 of these jeweled wonders made by Switzerland's famous watchmakers, Girard-Perregaux. All the 30,000 are lubricated, not with $16 per quart watch oil, but with tough-bodied 25 cent per quart Golden Shell Motor Oil. Any Shell dealer will be glad to let you see one."

(The only change i've made it this quote is the use of the word 'cent' where the original had a cent symbol that I don't have on my keyboard, and am too lazy to look up).

That wording should pretty much close the book on the idea that the watch was 'filled" with motor oil. And, hey - wouldn't you like to find some of that $16 per quart watch oil available in some supply store (I think the prices have gone up just a little bit ).

The ad was originally printed in the Saturday Evening Post (I don't have the facing sheet which would have had the date, and I'm too lazy to take it out of the frame to look at the other side ). I'd scan it, but it's too big to fit on my platen (10.5" X 13"). I found it, complete with frame, in an Antique Mall a few years ago on my way to the show in Orlando .

Harvey 16.00 a quart would be great,,i just paid 21.00 for 2ml of Moebius 941 escapement oil..their synt-hp 1000 synthetic watch oil is 82.00 for 20ml..wonder what the price would be for a quart..

The price would have been 19,781.25 USD for the quart of Moebius 941, wow, almost 20,000 dollars!

Jerry,
Can't wait to see the inside article. Thanks for posting.
Brian C.

I am afraid that readable images of the article are too large to post on this screen, so I am including links here to the images posted on my Flickr account.
COVER
INSIDE SPREAD
LAST COLUMN

Thanks Jerry,
Brian C.

I'm bringing this old thread back to the front to show something I haven't seen before. I've had a few of these watches in the past (I'm a sucker for skeleton watches anyway) but until I found this example at the Dearborn show last week I'd never seen the enameled fob that goes with it:

I'd heard about the fob but never seen a pic before. The Shell watch was one of the very first I ever staffed (and I hope nobody here ends up with that one ).
-Cort