Hello Jeffrey,
Thank you for sending your wristwatch into mearto.com for an appraisal. I will try to help you today.
TITLE:
Gent's, Stainless steel, manually wound, center seconds, Presentation wristwatch with flexible mid-20th century steel bracelet (made by Schaeffer), Presented by "Pittsburgh Motor Club To L.W. McIntyre 1944", case no. 9220, made Sylvan Kocher & Co. (ESKA), made in Selzach, Switzerland, circa 1944.
(Eska came out with an automatic winding movement in 1949, and I therefore have marked this example as a manual wound one.)
DESCRIPTION:
Case: Round steel watch case with circular bezel and curved lugs, fluted crown and steel back cover marked for "Pittsburgh Motor Club To L.W. McIntyre 1944, case no. 9220, Steel Back". Integrated with a flexible Schaeffer mid-20th century steel bracelet . . . .
Dial: Silvered metal dial with luminous Arabic hours, bar minutes/seconds divided into fifths of a second, luminous 'fan' or 'paddle' hands with a red center seconds pointer. Upper dial is signed ESKA. . .
Movement: Not shown but likely the ETA caliber 900 series, e.g. the caliber 901 movement made for Eska in the circa 1950 era. These manually wound watches were made is two sizes, 10.5''' and 11.5'''. They were half plate with exposed barrel and ratchet wheels, center finger bridge movement using 15-17 jewels, vibrating at 18,000 beats/hour with a power reserve of 41 hours. Plates were marked Eska watch Co. with bimetallic balance wheel and typical Swiss index regulator. . .
Condition: the dial appears to have darkened from oxidation but is in very nice condition still. The front of the metal watch case may be chrome plated and has some irregularities. The back is steel and is scratched moderately. I assume the watch remains functional. . . Eska was a brand and a model name for Sylvan Kocher & Company of Switzerland. Eska was first imported by Walter Kocher in 1924 in NYC. They developed a military style automatic watch in 1949 and exhibited it at Basle. Their military watch was developed by them and made by them with an automatic bumper type (they claimed in 1953 that they had made it for the past twenty years. However, I can find no good evidence of this. Eska was listed in 1974 as a maker and importer of watches located in Baltimore, Maryland.
It was my pleasure to be of service to you today.
My fair market appraisal is based on actual recent past comparable sales recorded at auctions of similar Eska, Royce and other S. Kocher watches The fair market value would range from $150-$200 at auction today. Retail "asking prices" can, of course, be significantly higher and vary.
Best regards,
David