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Very Old Watch- "Echappement A Ancre", "13 Rubis" on the case

coreymsnow
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coreymsnow Member

coreymsnow

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Hi friends! My mother got a bunch of old watches from a horologist who was retiring, and he subsequently passed away. It's been in her studio for years, and she showed it to me today and I just fell in love with it.

Sadly, I don't know a darn thing about it yet. It's quite old, or at least seems to be. It has two winding arbors, but the key is missing. The crystal appears to be some kind of yellowed plastic, which is odd- I think it was replaced at some point to possibly protect it or something. If I had to guess, it's from the mid-19th century, given that it has no keyless works and that it says "Anchor Escapement" in French. It looks to be about 18 ligne, and the case fob is positioned in the upper right corner.

The face is missing the dial, the hands, and a couple of the wheels that drive the hands- I think. But the movement itself seems to be in excellent shape. The serial number on the movement matches the number on the case- it's stamped on the movement and on the case in two places.

I haven't started any disassembly yet, but I'm wondering if anyone can give me some idea of what kind of movement it is, and where I might look to see what parts are missing from the face. i may even have a dial that would fit it. It's in good enough shape that I think I could get it running, assuming I could find the missing parts.

Any insights are vastly appreciated and thank you!

unknown_2_front.jpg

unknown_2_front_open.jpg

unknown_2_rear_engraving.jpg

unknown_2_rear_open_windingposts.jpg

unknown_2_open_windingposts2.jpg

unknown_2_rear_caseinterior.jpg

unknown_2_movement.jpg

Addendum: The inside of the case has some *very* tiny scratched numbers and letters in it, but I am having an extremely hard time seeing what they are. Like "N 99" and "No192X",

They were clearly done with some kind of sharp stylus and maybe they mean when it was serviced or by who?

Addendum the second: At least one of the scratches seems to say "N1921X" or maybe "W1921X". Serviced in 1921?

And the inside lid of the case has the letters R H with a star between them, and a very tiny mark that says "ARGENT" in a u-shape.

Edited by coreymsnow
Typo in subject line
  • coreymsnow changed the title to Very Old Watch- "Echappement A Ancre", "13 Rubis" on the case

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