Hello Joselynne,
Thank you for sending in this pocket watch to meato.com for an appraisal.
TITLE:
Ladies, Art Nouveau era, jewel size-0, pendant wound and pendant set, hunting case pocket watch, Sovereign model case made by P.W. Ellis of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the Grade 100, Model 1900, S/N 17389586, made by the American Waltham Watch company, Waltham, Ma. USA circa 1908.
Possible case and movement together by association.
DESCRIPTION
CASE: 0-size (jewel) in diameter, this appears to be gold filled “sovereign” pocket watch with two outer covers and a full fluted gilt ball crown and oval bow placed at the twelve-position relative to the dial. The outer covers are both very similar in that they are both engine turned in an intertwined circular guilloche design and they are both engraved similarly with what appears to be a picket fence at the bottom and a garden full of foliage (typical of the 1880-1910 art Nouveau era in North America) in gold filled metal. The gold finish was guaranteed to last 20 years indicating it was 14k gold filled. The interior of one of the covers has the name Sovereign with a maple leaf containing the letter ‘E’.
DIAL: White round enameled dial with black upright Arabic hours, open bar minute track with red Arabic markers placed every five minutes around the periphery of the dial. There is a subsidiary sunken second’s dial @6, Breguet steel hands, and the name Waltham is seen in the upper dial.
Movement: This is a brass split three quarter plate movement held in with two newer screws. It is the Grade 100, model 1900 movement made by the American Waltham Watch Company of Waltham, Massachusetts with Serial Number 17389586 indicating the year of production as 1908 when it was made during a run of 6000 such movements. It was specifically made for open face pocket watch cases and here we find it in a hunting case, perhaps explaining the larger and newer screws holding in the movement or simply that it came into the hands of the P.W. Ellis Watch Company in Toronto where they cased the Waltham movement, a quite common procedure.
CONDITION:
Finding this movement inside a hunting case may simply be explained that it was handled by the large watch firm of PW Ellis in Toronto who simply added their sovereign Maple leaf quality case, the maple leaf with an “E” embedded signified a 20-year duration of the gold case finish. Th case is in very good condition with no major damaged properly marked and numbered.
The dial is in excellent condition and the movement is clean, genuine and likely functional. Overall, in very good condition.
HISTORY OF PW ELLIS WATCH COMPANY:
P.W. Ellis & Co., Toronto, Ont., Canada was a major jobber as well as a manufacturer of pocket watch cases and chains. P.W. Ellis & Co. was established in 1872 (Men of Canada, Vol. 1, Bradley, Garretson & Co.) by Philip Wm. Ellis and his twin brother, M.C. Ellis (who went on to become the president of the Canadian Association of Dealers in American Watches and Cases by 1891). The firm was located at 4 Toronto St, Toronto in 1877, moving to 31 King St East, Toronto in 1880 (History of Toronto and County of York, Ontario, Vol. 1, C. Blackett Robinson). Besides the usual lines that would be expected of a jewelry jobber, the firm carried Omega, Waltham, Hamilton, Illinois and other, lesser, lines of watches. In addition to this, Ellis was a manufacturing jeweler. The company made an assortment of jewelry and cut-glass items including, of special interest here, pocket watch cases and chains, using the same trade names on all, to indicate the quality (material) of the grades (see list, below). The company was still in operation under the P.W. Ellis name in 1915, but according to Doug Sinclair's November 210 Message Board post "Ellis later merged with Ryrie, and then the firm Ellis & Ryrie was bought out by Henry Birks & Sons Jewelers, likely circa the late 1920s."
The Ellis Line of Cases
The key trade mark used on the Ellis line of solid gold (and silver) and filled cases was a maple leaf containing the letter 'E' sometimes used along with the notation that the case was made in Canada. It is not clear if these appeared on the base metal Ellis cases (nickel & gun metal).
CASE GRADE CASE MATERIAL
18K Solid Gold - May be set with diamonds.
Regal 14K Solid Gold - May be set with diamonds.
**Sovereign 14K Gold-Filled - FINISH SHOULD LAST 25-YearS
Banner Gold-Filled
Dominion Gold-Filled
Alpha Gold-Filled
Regal Sterling Silver
Nickel
Gun Metal

HISTORY OF WALTHAM:
This American company was the first to produce watches by the machined use of interchangeable parts. This was the vision of the founders of the company; Aaron Dennison, David Davis and Edward Howard. The initial company was located at Roxbury, Mass. in 1851, and was called the Warren Manufacturing Company. The business moved to Waltham, Ma in 1854 and the name had just been changed to the Boston Watch Company. That business failed in 1857 and was sold at a sheriff's sale, reorganized and called Appleton, Tracy and Company. In 1859 the Waltham Improvement Company merged with Appleton, Tracy to form the American Watch Company. Between 1859 and 1885 the firm operated under that corporate name. These early watches were key wound. Stem winding was introduced in 1870. The last key wound watches were produced in 1919. In 1885 the name was changed to the American Waltham Watch Company. In 1906 it became the Waltham Watch Company and in 1923 the Waltham Watch and Clock Company. Production ceased in 1950.
PRICING:
This is a watch that falls into the low to mid-range of pocket watches with a lower end Waltham 7 jewel movement and a Canadian watch case. Searching the various auctions for this type of Waltham in any case is difficult and the pocket watch database gives me the impression that when the case is given a condition of fine (top 5% of examples) the fair market value still falls into the $100-$120 range, especially with a Canadian made case, although they were a very reputable company for many years in Toronto. So, looking at this combination of a Canadian case and an American Waltham dial and movement (made to be in an open face case by Waltham), a handsome looking little jewel size pocket watch, I think the fair market price will generally fall into the area of $110-$130 range.
Thank you for choosing mearto.com for your appraisal and thank you for the extra photo, it was quite key to making the correct diagnosis here.
My best,
David