Great Grandfathers gold pocket watch

[rocketaroo]

I cant recommend anyone, but suggest you look for an older jewellery shop.

 

[Dignit]

The moving parts, gears and the like, sit in jewels, often rubies. The jewels are hard wearing and provide long term lack of wear allowing long term precision in keeping accurate time. If you look closely you'll most likely see little red rubies where parts move. The more jewels the better the quality. The number of jewels is normally inscribed on the movement. Being 18 Karat gold I'd expect a high quality movement. If you let me know the brand name on the movement I could probably tell you more about the quality. I love old picket watches. Cheers

 

[RM Outback]

Perhaps not much use to you Billy but I know of an old clock maker in Canterbury Vic. Had my Grandparents old clock restored by him nearly 20 years ago now, a true craftsman with out a doubt. When I was a little tracker around 4 I tried to scale mums treasure cabinet needless to say it toppled over and smashed the lot :N:. To my surprise I was given the clock in about 100 or so bits :lol: today it still functions and looks a million bucks. If you like I can chase up their details and forward if you want.

 

[Mr Magoo]

Slightly derailing. But I remember going through this exact same thing about trying to find out a bit about my Grandfathers old pocket watch. I had no info from him and not much chance of getting any as he had died.
Anyway all I had to go by a name of a London watchmaker (the watch is in storage so name escapes me), hall marks of a Swiss silver chain IIRC. And what I thought was one of the makers on the face 'Alb Kapteyn Engineer' - You can see it about 12' oclock.

Every now and then I'd Google to find out a bit more about it and perhaps a value. Literally years of on, off, off,on futile research until one day I came across this. https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...m,-31-gracechurch-st.,-londo-702-c-be24498a58 - select main image

Alb Kapteyn Engineer wasn't a makers name after all. It's the name of the owner who commissioned it. I now knew more about this watch or at least an owner than I could of ever dreamed of. He even has a page on the net http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn2/kapteijnap.

Although his brother is way more famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_Kapteyn Obviously he up graded from the silver one I had to a nice flash gold one. But hey now the watch I have now has a history. Yes there could be two Alb Kapteyn Engineer, but I doubt it. Figuring out how it came to be in my grandfathers hands I doubt I'll will ever find out.

My apologies for derailing the thread a bit but I just wanted to show what sort of interesting tales can be gleaned from just a bit of r\Googling and an old watch.

 

[Billy]

The moving parts, gears and the like, sit in jewels, often rubies. The jewels are hard wearing and provide long term lack of wear allowing long term precision in keeping accurate time. If you look closely you'll most likely see little red rubies where parts move. The more jewels the better the quality. The number of jewels is normally inscribed on the movement. Being 18 Karat gold I'd expect a high quality movement. If you let me know the brand name on the movement I could probably tell you more about the quality. I love old picket watches. Cheers

Thanks for that explanation Dig.
I won't have a chance to have a look until the weekend but will definitely let you know and see what you reckon.
Cheers,
Billy.

 

[Billy]

Perhaps not much use to you Billy but I know of an old clock maker in Canterbury Vic. Had my Grandparents old clock restored by him nearly 20 years ago now, a true craftsman with out a doubt. When I was a little tracker around 4 I tried to scale mums treasure cabinet needless to say it toppled over and smashed the lot :N:. To my surprise I was given the clock in about 100 or so bits :lol: today it still functions and looks a million bucks. If you like I can chase up their details and forward if you want.

Haha that's brilliant mate and I bet you got into a bit of trouble after that! 8.(
I really appreciate the offer but will see if I can find someone in NSW and if not I may have to take my first trip to Vic
Thanks again RM.
Cheers,
Billy.

 

[Billy]

Slightly derailing. But I remember going through this exact same thing about trying to find out a bit about my Grandfathers old pocket watch. I had no info from him and not much chance of getting any as he had died.
Anyway all I had to go by a name of a London watchmaker (the watch is in storage so name escapes me), hall marks of a Swiss silver chain IIRC. And what I thought was one of the makers on the face 'Alb Kapteyn Engineer' - You can see it about 12' oclock.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3008/1510570409_watch.jpg

Every now and then I'd Google to find out a bit more about it and perhaps a value. Literally years of on, off, off,on futile research until one day I came across this. https://www.invaluable.com/auction-...m,-31-gracechurch-st.,-londo-702-c-be24498a58 - select main image

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3008/1510571159_gold_watch.jpg

Alb Kapteyn Engineer wasn't a makers name after all. It's the name of the owner who commissioned it. I now knew more about this watch or at least an owner than I could of ever dreamed of. He even has a page on the net http://resources.huygens.knaw.nl/bwn1880-2000/lemmata/bwn2/kapteijnap.

https://www.prospectingaustralia.com/forum/img/member-images/3008/1510570718_alb.jpg

Although his brother is way more famous https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobus_Kapteyn Obviously he up graded from the silver one I had to a nice flash gold one. But hey now the watch I have now has a history. Yes there could be two Alb Kapteyn Engineer, but I doubt it. Figuring out how it came to be in my grandfathers hands I doubt I'll will ever find out.

My apologies for derailing the thread a bit but I just wanted to show what sort of interesting tales can be gleaned from just a bit of r\Googling and an old watch.

Mr Magoo, that's an awesome story and you certainly didn't derail anything
Thanks for those links as well, I had a bit of a look and it's amazing whats out there.
Cheers,
Billy.

 

[jethro]

have a talk with these people. http://cogandhand.com.au/ they have a good reputation in my area.

 

[Billy]

have a talk with these people. http://cogandhand.com.au/ they have a good reputation in my area.

Thanks for the link jethro and might give them a call once I open it up and see if I can find the maker.
Cheers,
Billy.