Hi Guys (and gals), firstly let me intoduce myself.
I'm Jon from the Wirral in the UK. I'm not a collector of pocket watches at all, infact I collect Triang model railways. Anyway I found wearing my wristwatch underneath my motorcycle jacket very uncomfortable and decided to buy a pocket watch instead. I thought I may as well buy an older one for much the same price as a new one, something with a bit of a past to it. So I saw on ebay a 1925 South Bend, I've never heared of them so a quick search on the web and I found the serial number look up table. This showed me it was indeed a 1925 watch as described so I bid and won it.
Now, I have since been trawling the internet trying to find out any information about the watch that I can, hence finding this very informative site. What I have is one of these http://library.ihc185.com/SB/1925/87_07.jpg . The said picture is the only information that I have been able to find about "the Jefferson", which makes me think that it may be quite rare, which is no good for me as I want a watch to use daily and its in far too good a condition to be chucking in and out of my pocket.
So does anyone own one of these, for starters I would like to know how to open the case, there are no obvious nicks or buttons and I dont want to end up forcing the thing in the wrong direction. Also how do you set the time?

Cheers ... Jon ...

Hi Jon,

Thanks for sharing your find! There are some amazingly knowledgeable people here, so you've come to the right place!

It would be wonderful if you could post a couple pictures of your watch.

To open the watch:
1) If there are hinges at the bottom of the case near the "6" then you'll probably find a little notch in the case back around the 11.

2) If the case is threaded around the entirety of the case you can remove the back by gently pressing the back of the case and moving your fingers counter-clockwise.

Hopefully one of the above works otherwise it's a bit more complicated.

3) If not you can remove the front bezel by applying slight counter-clockwise motion to the front of the watch where the glass and bezel are.

Then pull up on the pendent. It should click. At this point turn your watch so that the dial is facing down (I recommend at this point you put your hand up close to the dial as it should fall forward revealing the movement).

Hopefully, this gets you there!

Hi Adonya, thanks for the reply. I still cant get the watch open but I'm just paranoid about damaging it. Heres a couple of photos I've just taken.

Another one

And the back

Hi Jon

The watch that you have posted is 12 size South Bend. If you post the serial number we should be able to provide more information. The case is a snap back case, that said to open place the watch dial side into the palm of your hand with the winding stem up. At the 1'clock position there should be a notch in the case (it will be small). Using a finger nail try to pop the back off.

The "The Jefferson" you refer to is the style of case and movement that South Bend marketed.

Regards
Keith

Hi Keith, thanks for that I've managed to remove the back now, needed a very small jewlers screwdriver to do it. Serial is 1099688. Is there any way I can find out how many Jeffersons where made rather than the movement? The lack of information about the Jefferson makes me think it may be quite rare, either that or its so common nobody bothers to mention it.

Cheers ... Jon ...

Hi Jon,

I'm glad you were able to get the case open!

As Keith mentioned this is a size 12 South Bend grade 429.

There's a lot of information already on our boards regarding the grade 429. I would try using our most useful "Find-Or-Search" tab up at the top of this discussion. The keywords: "south bend 429" should bring up some great results. I hope you enjoy what others have contributed on the topic!

I can tell you that the 429 was one of South Bend's most popular/successful watches produced.

It was given a total of 56 runs. Based on the serial number you provided yours is from the 52nd run.

Total production of the South Bend grade 429 was just under 94,000 units.

Hope that helps!

Hi Adonya, thanks for that. From what I have read dosent grade 429 refer to the movement fitted to the watch rather than the watch as a whole? What I would like to find out is more information about the Jefferson watch itself, not just what engine is fitted to it.

Its funny posting on a US forum, I've never had the problem of a time delay before, its 9:30 am here and I've just sat down at my work bench for my 1st cup of coffee of the day.

Cheers ... Jon ...

Hi Jon,

The Grade 429 is a 19j movement of average to slightly above-average quality. A production of 94,000 makes it common.

The quality that makes your watch a "Jefferson" is based on the 1925 SB Catalog. Note at the bottom that there is in an implication that a different dial can be requested with this movement and case combination. Also, look at the inside of the Dealers Price list from 1928 for more clues and a mention of the "Jefferson".

As a rule a watches rarity is judged by the movement first (and there are exceptions to every rule). The 429 movement, representing ~10% of the entire production of the company, with ~94,000 produced, is not rare. The Decagon case does appear to be uncommon and seems to be worth more than other cases, all else being equal. The Decagon (and Octagon, Septagon and Dodecagon) shaped cases for SB are dated between 1923 - 1929. The cases were made by Wadsworth WCCo and Elgin Giant WCCo. Your case should have a serial # around 7 million if it is made by Wadsworth.

There is a premium on these "deco" cases but because the movement associated with the style "Jefferson" is a very common movement, ppl would really not pay much attention if the style was rare because the movement is very easy to find.


Nice watch,

Frank

Best of luck on your auction Jon!

For those of you interested here is Jon's listing:
Jon's ebay auction! Happy bidding.

Hi Guys and gals, I was just coming on to say thanks for your help and to let you know it was now on ebay. Thanks Adonya for beating me to it, to be honest I wasnt sure if an ebay link would be allowed so I'm glad you posted it for me. It would be nice to see it go to a proper collector, its far too upmarket for me.

Once again thanks all ... Jon ...