Hello John,
Thank you for sending in this pocket watch to mearto.com for an appraisal. I shall try to do that for you today.
TITLE:
Art Deco era, 14k white gold filled, pendant wound and set, open face pocket watch associated with a leather lanyard, watch made by the Concord watch company, Bienne, Switzerland, circa 1930s.
PROVENANCE:
“Owned by Dr. Maurice A. R. Hennessy, likely around year 1930 Cleveland, Ohio” (There is no paper documentation of this fact. However, Dr. Maurice A. R. Hennessy was a psychiatrist in practice in Ohio and doing research work for and published in the Journal of Psychiatry.)
DESCRIPTION
Case: 43mm in diameter, this is a two leaf, 14k white gold filled, open face pocket watch with a fluted coin shaped winding crown with arched shaped polished steel bow placed at the twelve-position relative to the dial. The back cover is polished gold-filled metal, while the inside of the cover carries the casemakers name, ‘Keystone’ (watch case Company) with their J. Boss logo indicating a 14k gold filled case with case number 7311763. {Keystone had purchased the name and business of early American casemaker, James Boss, who developed the gold filed watch case in America during the 1860s.}
Dial: Silvered round metal dial with enameled Roman hours at the quarters and black batons at the balance of the hours, railway track minute track, subsidiary seconds dial @6 and steel baton hands. The printed name Concord is seen in the upper dial.
Movement: This is a nickel bridge-plate movement, the Concord calibre 178/179 movement, with half plate having exposed ratchet and crown wheels, curved center wheel bridge marked “17 jewels, unadjusted”, two small curved finger bridges, plates marked concord watch company, Swiss and CXC, THE Swiss three letter movement mark for import/exporters. The Swiss made index regulator is marked with both French and English initials for faster and slower.
CONDITION:
Case – Fair to good condition with moderate number of scratches on the back cover. “Hand engraved number 80477 Initials 11-86 MSL Initials VS-2112” are all repairman’s marks using coded letters and numbers.
Dial – Very good to excellent.
Movement – genuine and original to this case and in working order.
COMPARABLES:
~https://www.ebay.com/itm/174726455444?hash=item28ae822094%3Ag%3AXnAAAOSwzk1gcQDi&nma=true&si=8MPeWye2NmNrtFC8Eh0AivSFOrQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 (sold for less than $45 in 2021 on eBay)
~https://www.ebay.com/itm/254878140536?hash=item3b57ebc878%3Ag%3An6gAAOSwIvZgNXB8&nma=true&si=8MPeWye2NmNrtFC8Eh0AivSFOrQ%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 (sold in 2021 for $77 with 7 jewels in gold filled case)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/78785047_an-open-face-pocket-watch-by-concord-gold-plated-case (Sold for 75 GB Pounds in 2019)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/73864817_concord-14k-gold-pocket-watch (solid 14k gold case, this concord watch sold for $250 in 2021)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/49888470_men-s-open-face-pocket-watch (In solid 14k gold case a similar example made by Keystone sold for $300 in 2016)
HISTORY:
~CONCORD WATCH COMPANY:
1908 - Concord was created by five visionary Swiss entrepreneurs Walter Huguenin and Charles Bonny, both gifted. Watchmakers of their time, along with three other partners Messieurs Boillat, Droz and Konz. Founding of the Concord Watch Company SA in Biel, Switzerland, to produce high quality watches, in particular for the American market.
1915 - Production of the first “Private Label” luxury watches using precious metals and gems.
Production of the first wristwatches made from coins.
In 1915, Concord started working with companies like Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co. and Cartier (jeweler) on providing them with high quality watches made out of precious metals and gems.
1942, President Truman gifted Concord watches to Stalin and Churchill during World War II peace talks, solidifying their position as a leading luxury watch.[3]
1946 - Production of the first wristwatches made from coins.
1970 - Gedalio Grinberg takes over the Concord Watch Company SA and integrates it with the North American Watch Corporation, which has its head office in New York.
1979 - The launch of the “Delirium I” the flattest analog watch ever made - a total thickness of less than 2 mm (1.98 mm). This marks the beginning of the global trend for elegant flat watches.
Today Concord Watch Company is a Swiss luxury goods company that is part of the Movado group, which produces and distributes Movado, Ebel, Coach, and Hugo Boss-branded watches.
~KEYSTONE WATCH CASE COMPANY:
In 1853 Randolf & Reese Peters were making watch cases in Philadelphia, employing James Boss in their movement department. In 1859 - J. Boss received a patent for "spinning up" cases made of "gold-filled" type material. That is, material made of a sheet of composition metal (usually brass) sandwiched between two thin sheets of gold. Boss formed cases by rolling sheet metal as opposed to the traditional method involving soldering and cutting. Rolling increased the molecule density of the metal. His patent, No. 23,820 of May 3, 1859, revolutionized the watch case industry by enabling the production of not only less expensive, but considerably stronger cases. ... Unlike gold washed cases, which were made using electroplating, cases produced by means of rolling had much harder gold surfaces and were thus less apt to wear. In 1871 Boss sold patent rights to John Stuckert of Philadelphia. By 1875 - T.B. Hagstoz & Charles N. Thorpe at 618 Chestnut St. Philadelphia purchased the "J. Boss" patent from the estate of John Stuckert. Hagstoz & Thorpe seems to have made only gold-filled cases using the J. Boss patented method. Orders increased so rapidly that larger quarters became necessary immediately. A new plant on Brown Street was erected. In 1877 the E. Tracy case company, a manufacturer of solid gold and silver watch cases, was acquired. In 1880 - the company moved to a six-story building on Nineteenth St., with an equal-size annex on Wylie St. Between 1883 - 1885 - T.B Hagstoz withdrew from the company which became C.N. Thorpe Co. and shortly thereafter it was reorganized as the KEYSTONE WATCH CASE COMPANY. The firm was producing 1,500 cases per day by 1889. By merging with and purchasing other watch case and watch making companies Keystone, by 1911 was the largest watch case company in America.
PRICING:
In today’s marketplace gold filled pocket watches do not bring significant sums. However, this example has such a classic Art deco dial that I would have to rate it above most of the comparables, at least into three figures. I believe the fair market value if placed at auction today would fall into the $125-$150 price range.
Retail prices would be about twice that amount.
Thank you for choosing mearto.com for your appraisal.
My best,
David