Hi All,

Dug out this wristwatch recently, does anyone know anything about the make model or casemaker?

Movement is Swiss, engraved 'Muralt', name also on the dial. The screw on case back was made in the USA.
The actual case is solid silver with a threaded steel insert for the back and movement housing.
It did have steel wire strap bars which were too bad to re-use, so spring bars have been substituted temporarily.
Any info appreciated.

Best regards
John Woolsey

Inside screw on case back, threaded brass insert installed.

Swiss movement.

I believe his name is Paul Muralt and he is listed with Georges A Racine and Marc A Dubois on a search. Not much, what I found - below.
I will post the URLs soon.

G.A. Racine, P. Muralt, M.-A. Dubois, Flexural-standing-waves elastic force motor
using ZnO and PZT thin film on micromachined silicon membranes for wristwatch
applications, Smart Materials Structures 7 (1998) 404-416

There is also a lot of these watches linked to the name Crow however I have no info on them other than an auction on them.

Also The I.D. Watch Case Co Inc. was in NY from 1930-1942.

The above could be wrong, however I did find out that the owner died. This is what else I found.

Muralt Watch, in Obergerlafingen, production of and trade with clocks and products of clock. Private firm.The company expired due to death of the owner. The Gesch? one does not continue.

The address:
Muralt Watch
Hauptstrasse 55, Obergerlafingen, SO, Switzerland

I have seen these on ebay too.

This watch was made for the American market.It has an importers code on the balance bridge.It looks like COB to me,but it is fuzzy on my screen.Whatever it is I can't find a listing for Muralt.
I think the codes would come and go as importers went in and out of business.In some deep dark office somewhere,I guess, there is a filing cabinet with all these codes in a master list.Oh,to know where that cabinet is!!!
Till then, you have to check the lists you can find.
Hope this helps.
Good Luck,
J Smith

If this watch has a code, you can find them on page 635 of the Complete Watch Guide. I don't see COB, However, there are many that start with C. If you don't have the book, let me know, and I will look it up for you.

Hi Sheila & Julian,

Many thanks for the info on the watch, really appreciated.
The code on the bridge is COB, but no idea to what it refers.
The movement looks better quality than the usual 'run of the mill' watches.

The watch looks 30's-40's styling and wondered if it found its way back to the UK by a serviceman maybe.
I thought it was just another Swiss watch 'till I found the American case manufacturer's stamp in the case back.

At the moment, although the balance swings freely and winds/sets smothly, it's a non runner due to a broken mainspring, so it's 'in dock' awaiting attention.

The watch was in a really sad condition when I dug it out of my collection of orphans, thought it was just a really scruffy worn out old dog, so was well surprised to find it was silver when I got the grot off the case.

The case is cleaned up some now, but needs more work to polish out the scuffs etc.
I quite like it, a real period piece.

John.

Hi John,
One thing I forgot to mention, It's a very nice LOOKING watch too!

I hope you find a mainspring for it, and get that baby running again, after all, it's been waiting a long time for you to "see" it's worth.
Good luck!

Thanks Sheila,
I have loads of mainsprings for Swiss WW's, so pretty sure I'll have one to suit it.
Problem is, I have so many 'cripples' stripped awaiting attention at the moment, I daren't pull it apart just yet.
It's 'tucked away' safely with all my other 'favourites' for now.

I've posted the photo below to give an idea of what a mess it looked before the case got dunked and the crystal swapped!

John.

Good Night! That's a huge difference.

I really enjoy seeing the before and afters.
Thank you!