Hello Dakota,
Thank you for sending in this pocket watch to mearto.com for an appraisal. I shall try to help you with that today.
TITLE:
Art Deco, Gent’s, 17 lignes size, manually wound and manually set, open face pocket watch, Case no. 1066194, S/N 993232, Lepine caliber 97, made by the International Watch Company, Schaffhausen, Switzerland, circa 1938.
DESCRIPTION:
Case: Traditional Art Deco (1920-1945) style, this is a 38.5mm diameter, 17’’’(lignes) size, three leaf, 14k yellow gold, open face pocket watch with a back cover having a vertically striped guilloche pattern along with two bands of vertical ‘rippled’ guilloche (engine turned) with a square cameo for the owner’s initials, “J.H.”. There is a small coin edged crown with keystone shaped, open, 14K gold bow placed at the twelve position. The interior of the rear cover has a case number of 1066194 with the mark,”14k, 0.585”, the percentage of gold in 14k gold (14/24ths). The Swiss ‘squirrel’ hallmark for 14k gold is present, as is the poinçon de maître of the ‘head of a hammer’ with the numeral ‘143’. The poinçon de maître is an outside Swiss watch company, in this case Classicor, S.A., which has separately certified the back cover as truly being solid 14k gold. (Classicor was in the watch business from circa 1934 to 1994.) This is in contrast to the interior of the cuvette (movement cover) which carries the same case number bur is gilt base metal, not gold.
Dial: A bicolor gilt dial with applied gold Arabic hour chapter ring with closed bar minute track to the outside, subsidiary gilt guilloche seconds dial @6, gilt ‘Feuille’ (French for leaf) hands, and the light gilt dial center signed in script, ‘International Watch Company, Schaffhausen’.
Movement: 17’’’ size movement with damascened, nickel, split half-plate and finger bridge, Lepine type Swiss movement with a curved center wheel bridge, the IWC calibre 97 movement, and marked as such C97. The barrel wheel bridge is marked in gold lettering, ‘International Watch Company, Schaffhausen’. The ratchet wheel bridge carries the logo of the company, a circle marked “IWC, Probus Scafusia”. {IWC's motto is "Probus Scafusia", meaning "Good, Solid Craftsmanship from Schaffhausen" and was established in 1903 as the ‘Official Motto’ of this watch company.} The calibre 97 was made with 19 jewels, some in gold chatons or gold settings as can be seen on the two small finger bridges and the larger curved center wheel bridge. There is a bimetallic balance wheel which compensates for changes in temperature to continue the accurate running of the movement. (See History of the calibre 97, below)
CONDITION:
Case – Excellent
Dial – Excellent
Movement - Original to this case, genuine and functional. Excellent. Condition.
Overall in Excellent condition.
HISTORY:
In 1930, IWC apparently replaced the movements with new designs, which again were 17 lignes in diameter and remarkably thin at 4 mm in height. Calibre 97, the Lepine style movement, had 19 jewels -two more than most fine movements of the times. The corresponding Savonette style Calibre 98 was introduced in 1936. Production of both movements was quite small –2000 Calibre 97s apparently were produced and only 1200 Calibre 98s. The distinguished quality of the thin Cal. 98 was reflected by the fact that the IWC owned by Winston Churchill –given to him by Zurich physicians– had this movement. The Calibre 97 and 98 movements evolved to the movements used in the Portofino Pocket-Style and Jubilee Portugueser model watches. The 9521 used in the Portofino apparently is a gilded version, and the 9828 used in the Portugueser was the Cal. 98 apparently with shock resistance added (as the Cal. 982) and with special anniversary engravings (as the Cal. 9828).
IWC’s total production of pocket watch movements was less than 40,000.
As mentioned, both movements are full bridge movements, with 6 bridges, if one counts the balance bridge {technically, the movement has two bridges and four brackets (each with a single support while bridges use two supports), since the transmission wheel, fourth, escape, and balance all use brackets instead of bridges –that is, the plates are attached at only one end}. This was considered an improvement over 19th century full plate and ¾ plate movements, allowing easier adjustment and repair. Since each wheel usually had its own bridge, replacement could be done separately. The use of so many bridges, however, required significantly more finishing.
COMPARABLES:
**https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/88493249_iwc-schaffhausen-gold-pocket-watch (Sold in 2020 for $800)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/89501104_deco-14k-gold-iwc-tiffany-pocket-international-watch-co (made for Tiffany and sold in 2020 for $3900. Tiffany marked watch bring twice the value of a watch without the tiffany name on it.)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/85052297_iwc-lapine-pocket-watch (Sold in 2020 for $550.)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/85052298_iwc-lapine-chronometer-pocket-watch (sold in 2020 for $900)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/85658561_iwc-14k-yellow-gold-open-face-pocket-watch-calibre-73 (sold for 670 Euros in 2020)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/82205776_iwc-14k-yellow-gold-open-face-pocket-watch (sold for 560 Euros in 2020 or about $660)
https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/77987367_iwc-14k-yellow-gold-open-face-pocket-watch (Sold for 950 Euros in 2020)
PRICING:
It appears that the 14K gold Art Deco era pocket watches made by IWC are fairly consistent in the above range. However, in today’s market, condition is THE name of the game, and the condition of your example is superb, at least in my opinion. A classic Art deco IWC pocket watch. The fair market value in today’s watch market would be in the range of $1100-$1300.
I hope that this helps you with understanding the “who, what and where” of your fine gold Art Deco era pocket watch. (The “Provenance” means the past history of the timepiece, if known, i.e. a family heirloom, bought in a jewelry store, at an auction, etc.)
Thank you again for choosing mearto.com.
My best,
David