Hello Jakes,
Thank you for your prompt response and thank you again for sending your family pocket watch into Mearto.com for an appraisal. I shall try to help you with that today.
TITLE:
Gent’s 14size, Sterling silver, pendant wound and pendant set, savonette, hunting case pocket watch, Grade ‘Bond Street’, made by the American Waltham Watch Company, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, circa 1896.
PROVENANCE:
From Client: “Passed down through generations and ended up in a shoebox along with other items in South Africa.”
DESCRIPTION: Case: This is a size 14, four leaf, Sterling silver, hunting case pocket watch with the outer covers engine turned in an interlocking circular pattern and one cover with a central shield shaped cameo with the owner’s initials engrave, ‘J.T.W.’. There is a fluted gilt silver ball pendant placed at the three position (savonette) opposite the case hinge. The pendant bow is absent and the stem of the pendant is marked with the English hallmarks for sterling silver (the lion passant) and the lower case x (indicating 1897 in the Birmingham Assay Office Date Letter marks). On the inside of the covers there is a complete set of English hallmarks: The Birmingham Assay Office mark (the anchor inside a shield shaped cameo), The Standard Mark of sterling Silver (the Lion Passant), the Date Letter mark of a lower case ‘x’ indicating 18970 and the makers mark of ‘A.B’ inside a rectilinear cameo with rounded corners indicating that Albert Bedford, the manager of the Waltham offices in London was responsible for this case. The actual craftsman who made the case is indicated by the letter ‘F’ inside of one of the covers. The letter ‘F’ indicates the worker who pinned the joints of this watch case was E.A. Furneaux, a man who had worked for the famous Dennison Watch Case Company in Birmingham, England. The Dennison Company has a long history in the late 19th century of working with Waltham in both the USA and in London where they established an office and workshop as early as 1875.
Dial: Round white enameled dial with roman hours, closed minute track, sunken subsidiary seconds dial @6, steel continental type Spade hands and the upper dial marked, “A.W.W.Co. Waltham, Mass.” (The last word is illegible in the photo and may be Mass or USA).
Movement: A size 14, gilt three quarter plate movement, Bond Street grade, model 1895, made by the American Waltham Watch Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, serial number 7573799, made in 1896 in a production run of 3000 such movements, each with seven jewels, meant for hunting cases, pendant set and pendant wound, bimetallic balance wheel for temperature change compensation, Breguet hairspring and engraved index regulator with no adjustments for position and not of railway grade.
CONDITION:
Case – severe oxidation of the outer case which has turned black, but would polish up to be beautiful. The purist collector would leave it as is. Scratches on the inside of the covers.
Dial – In this one blurry photo it appears to be in good condition but cannot evaluate it properly.
Movement – a medium grade movement using only 7 jewels.
Overall – A fully marked Waltham pocket watch, the movement made in the USA, shipped to London where the Waltham factory at Holborn Circus, London made the case for the English public.
HISTORY OF THE Waltham Watch Company: 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.
COMPARABLES:
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/87385479_victorian-sterling-silver-pocket-watch (sold in 2020 for 200 Australian Dollars)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/84112482_silver-american-watch-co-pocket-watch (sterling silver sold in 2020 for $475)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/79612106_1907-waltham-sterling-silver-sidewinder-hunter-ladies (sold for $80 in 2019)
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/79118135_waltham-hunting-case-sterling-silver (sold for $110 in 2019)
PRICING:
I do like the FACT THAT THIS POCKET WATCH CAN TELL ITS OWN STORY FROM DIAL to COVER to MOVEMENT. It leaves no doubt as to 'when where and how', and pinpoints the era spot on. It does not have very high value despite the silver case. It has much more value as a family heirloom, at least, that is how I view it. I think in today’s auction market your pocket watch would have a fair market value in the $150-$200 range. It really is a little slice of Anglo-American watch history, in how the two countries were linked in the watch and watch case business, the essence of what this little watch signifies. If it were my own watch and I was not a collector, I would polish this case up really fine and put it out on display. To a purist collector it may decrease the value of the watch but polished as if new again, it would be worthy of displaying in one’s home rather than put back to sleep within the family shoebox.
Thank you again for your prompt response to my request and for choosing mearto.com for the appraisal.
My best,
David

Dear Jakes,
Thank you for contacting Mearto with your appraisal inquiry. So that I may best assist you, can you please upload images of the English hallmarks inside the case and perhaps even the one on the stem of the fluted ball shaped winder?
Thanks,
David