This one was sent to me last week from the midwest.

IT is apparently a very very very early wristwatch..of the type often written about.. where early ladies watches were converted.

Interesting thing about this one is that it is dated 1918 and on the dust cover it has an inscription from a Mrs. McAvoy to a "Nat I Brown, Signal Corps, U.S. Army".

The lugs are clearly added on but the dial, inscription and ack engraving suggest that it was SOLD as a wrist watch. The serial number is for a Longines Tiffany from 1914-1915.

An odd duck and a very very early wrist conversion.

I have tried to find infor on the signal corpsman Brown to no avail.

Any comments?
Jeff Hess

dust cover

pic

front

Jeff,
as you know, very early wristwatches mostly came with wire lugs. I'd expect your watch originally came that way also. I have a solid gold man's watch also dated 1918 and it has wire lugs.

Somewhere along the way, I'd expect in the late 20's, the wire lugs on your watch were replaced with the type of lugs we're more familiar with today.

Yep, that's a really cool watch. I agree with Dave that it likely came with wire lugs originally.

I think you can request a limited amount of military records for an individual soldier from the US government, not sure of the process, but I'm sure you can get the forms on the web somewhere.

It looks to me as if it could have started out as a wristwatch, rather than as a conversion. What are the maker's marks in the case?

If it started as a wrist watch that would be very cool and VERY early...it is signd Tiffany on the cuvette and the back of the case..

I have worked on a few of those Longines movements. They are good watches. Jeff that is one cool watch and it does look like it started life as a wristwatch.