Hello Deniz,
Thank you for sending in this pocket watch to mearto.com for an appraisal. I shall try to help you with that today.
TITLE:
Gent’s, 44 mm diameter, gold filled, pendant wound and pendant set, hunting case pocket watch, case made by American Watch Case Company (now part of the Waltham Watch Company), movement made by Zenith, Le Locle, Switzerland circa 1910-1915.
DESCRIPTION:
Case: 44 mm diameter, three leaf, gold-filled case with a finish guaranteed to last a minimum of ten years,
Engine turned back cover with the inside indicating this is the “Fortune” model case made by the old American Watch Case Company (began in NYC in 1893) and later a part of the Waltham Watch Company of Waltham, Massachusetts, and carrying their logo of a “winged gear”. There is a suppressed fluted ball pendant and oval bow paced at the twelve-position relative to the dial. The case number is also present but partially blurred and not fully legible.
Dial: Round white enameled dial with black Arabic hours, closed bar minute track, sunken subsidiary seconds dial @6, steel spade hands (correct length) and the upper dial marked “Zenith”.
Movement: This is a split three-quarter plate and single small finger bridge movement, the Zenith caliber 18.5''', pendant wound and pendant set with subsidiary seconds, movement diameter 41.3 mm, made with 15 jewels, vibrating @18000 beats/hour with a power reserve of 28 hours on a single winding. This is an
open face calibre with bimetallic screw balance wheel, Breguet hairspring with cam disc and click regulator.
The design of the regulator is covered by Swiss patent 27541 filed 01-19-1903 by Hermann Roost, St-Imier, Switzerland. The movement is signed Zenith, 15 jewels, Swiss.
Condition: Case – Good to very good with small patchy areas of oxidation noted on the outside of the back cover. Dial: Quite good with a darkened patina on the dial and some mild wear to the numerals.
Movement – In very good condition, considered original, genuine and assumed fully functional.
COMPARABLES/PRICING:
One has to wonder how this Zenith movement gets into a gold-filled Waltham watch case, when one is used to seeing Zenith pocket watches in Swiss made cases. The answer lies in the jewelry business where a jeweler in America combines an early American Watch Case Company case with a fine Zenith movement.
As to pricing one need only look at the sale of three watches, one being a Zenith like yours in a gold-filled Swiss case. The three sell as a single lot for $325. See:
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/8842355_2138-pocket-watches-and-a-fob . . . . . .
~https://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/77798226_zenith-superior-canadian-railroad-pocket-watch (this is a 21 jewel gold filled pocket watch by Zenith with 24 hour dial and triple sunk dial. It sold for $275 Canadian
in 2019). . . . .
The fair market value of your pocket watch would range from $125- $175 today.
I hope that helps you to better understand how and when this watch came into being. The gold-filled case lowers the price substantially.
Thank you for using mearto.com
My best,
David