Hi Jeff,
Welcome back. Thank you for sending in this lady’s gold watch to mearto.com for an appraisal. I shall try to help you with that today.
TITLE:
Ladies vintage 14k yellow gold, manually wound, wristwatch with 14k yellow gold engine turned link bracelet with fold over clasp and safety chain, Swiss made and retailed by Moviga Marvin Hime (see #1,3) Jewelers, Beverly Hills, California, circa late 1960’s to early 1970s.
DESCRIPTION:
Case – This is a solid 14k yellow gold tonneau shaped wristwatch case with the gold back cover, hinged and marked on the exterior 14k gold, and on the interior 000346 with repair date in 1980s. The broad engine turned round textured bezel, fluted winding crown and block gold lugs integrate seamlessly with similarly textured block gold links with a hallmarked 14K gold (.585%) fold over clasp and safety chain. The case has no evidence of poincon de maitre mark (see #3 below).
Dial – A silvered white rectilinear dial with rounded corners has applied gilt batons at the quarters and gilt dots at the balance of the hours with baton hands and the dial marked, “Moviga” above and “Swiss” at the base.
Movement – A gilt Swiss made three quarter plate movement with a bimetallic balance wheel (adjusts for temperature) and Swiss style index regulator, exposed crown and ratchet wheels. The plates are marked, 17 jewels, adjusted for temperature, Swiss, Moviga Marvin Hime & Co.” There is also a three-letter mark ZYO, an import which the Swiss required since the movement was made there, and most likely belonging to Marvin Hime himself as the importer.
CONDITION:
Case – In very good condition, both the watch and the accompanying matching bracelet. Although vintage it is still a visually appealing integration of watch and bracelet.
Dial – Fair with mostly yellowed oil stains and perhaps some spotty growth of mold. Looks like it would clean up nicely however.
Movement – Original, genuine and functional.
Client comments: “The dial appears soiled or worn. The rest of the watch is in good condition with a few minor scratches and does have spots on the side of the case that a local jeweler described as solder repair marks.”
HISTORICAL INFORMATION:
#1 - MARVIN HIME JEWELERS:
The owner of the longest-established jewelry shop in Beverly Hills was 69 when he dies in 1989. Over the years had designed and sold jewelry to such celebrities. Hime belonged to the prestigious Diamond International Academy and was a four-time winner of the Diamond International Design Awards, while his designs have been the focal point of museum displays. He started his relatively modest-appearing shop in 1948 shortly after service in the Air Force.
“I started looking through the Yellow Pages trying to find a business to get into. Between janitor and junk, I found jewelry. It cost me $1,700 to open a showroom and with the $300 I had left I invested in novelty jewelry. Hime managed $24,000 worth of business his first year, doubled that his second and doubled that again his third. He had opened his shop originally in downtown Los Angeles but with his new-found success moved to Beverly Hills. In the 1960s, he began sharing his expertise with law enforcement, teaching officers and customs agents how to evaluate stolen property, to see if a stone being brought into the country at a “declared” $10,000 might be worth 10 times that, or if a victim had paid $5,000 for a piece of glass.
#2 - POINCONS DE MAITRE RESPONSIBILITY MARKS:::::
The system of Poinçons de Maître used different pictographic symbols to represent the different case making regions of Switzerland, principally Geneva and the Neuchâtel and Jura regions. The marks are called “collective responsibility” marks because each one was used by more than one member of the association. However, so that the individual members could be identified, each was allocated a registration number which they stamped in the mark. This gave traceability back to the specific manufacturer of a watch case as was required by law.
#3 - MOVIGA::::
Moviga used the Swiss Poinçons de Maître of No 49 within a hammerhead with no handle. Swiss Poinçons de Maître was organized in 1934 and each symbol and number represented a swiss watch Manufacturing firm. It was reorganized again in 1966 and the hammerhead marked no 49 was missing. There were many missing numbers in 1966 and they represented Swiss watch firms that no longer existed, so that we know they went out of business in Switzerland, and in this case, we know that Marvin Hime purchased the rights to use the name on his own designer watches in his jewelry store.
GOLD VALUE: Approximate price of the gold if you sell it to a retailer with his 15% commission at todays price of gold ($1710) would be about $670 to you as the seller. (I reduced the weight of the watch by 10% for the dial and movement. I converted the 14k to 24k pure gold. I included the retail commission.) However, I have priced your bracelet wristwatch on the watch market and not on the gold market.
COMPARABLES:
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/84490129_lady-s-vintage-watch-benrus (SOLD FOR 380 IN 2020)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/84086548_lady-s-hamilton-14k-diamond-wristwatch (SOLD IN 2020 FOR $325)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/82206005_glashutte-14k-yellow-gold-ladies-wristwatch (SOLD IN 2020 FOR 230 EUROS)
PRICING:
Accounting for the condition of the dial I would price this bracelet watch if sold today on the watch auction market in the $275-$325 range. If the dial cleans up well that may add another $100-$150 to the watch. The gold value is going to be fairly close to what I mentioned above but would destroy the watch. I hope this helps you to fully understand what you bought at that estate sale and the knowledge should be clear to you and represents another learning experience for this appraiser.
Thank you for choosing mearto.com for this appraisal.
My best,
David