Amongst collectors of IWC pocket watches and those in the know, there is a
general consensus that one of the most appealing vintage movements
manufactured by IWC, are the legendary Cal. 77.
Some years ago and as a complete novice in the wonderful world of IWC vintage
collecting - I embarked on a mission to secure for myself a nice example of a
Cal. 77 pocket watch, to add to my collection. This was easier said than done.
Soon I found myself becoming very frustrated as whilst I was able to find
sporadically some very nice and elaborate pocket watches, somehow they all
appeared to be located in the USA, meaning I would have high import taxes to
Europe and for some reason were all marriages - meaning someone, somewhere had
re-cased those genuine IWC movements in a non IWC cases. At the time this then
meant to me that the specific watch then, effectively had little collector's
value - after all it was no longer a "genuine IWC".
The First Twin
One day an uncased Cal. 77 movement in relatively good condition turned up -
albeit with what I then thought to be a real botch job of a dial replacement
(and missing one hand).
The movement side was more pleasing to the eye and I secured this uncased
movement. I figured since it was in the USA, that I might as well leave it in
the USA at my watchmaker in Pennsylvania so that he could service it. So I had
it shipped to him.
Here 's the movement, with serial # 726380 which would date it to about 1919
And there it stayed in the USA, awaiting my instructions.
In the interim I continued my search for a complete and genuine IWC Cal. 77
based pocket watch. However, these were simply not popping up in the market!
What gives here? Clearly, more research and understanding was needed on my
part. Soon, thanks to this forum and knowledge share by the "Group of Wise
Men" (our own vintage experts) I learnt much.
I learnt why they were all in the USA, as I found that MF wrote: " ….almost
all Cal. 77 watches have Cresarrow cases, and were cased in the U.S. rather
than the factory as in this example, Back then, IWC didn 't make cases --the
watch industry was a cottage one, with many suppliers." However, I also
learnt that there were a few Cal. 77's cased in genuine IWC cases.
So I changed the mission. Let's try and find an IWC case for the movement I
have. I had already noted on MF's site, that the IWC was cased in a 19 ligne
size case where, the Cal. 77 is 17 ligne movement. It took a long time - but
this hobby is all about time, and Bingo !!!!! finaly I managed to secure a
suitable IWC case which hopefully would meet with MF and other collectors
approval, as it met the criteria of having a fanciful case decoration. In
fact, it's handsomely engraved, and similar to MF's own sample of an IWC cased
Cal. 77.
I knew it was right, as MF had written, quote; " ...if you see an IWC pocket
watch with intricate case engravings you might be able to make a bet as to its
decade and its movement. Sometimes the dials, too, use fanciful Art Deco style
numerals -another clue ". Also most important of all this case would fit for
sure, as it had the setting ring to mount the 17 ligne movement in the 19
ligne case.
(serial number removed for obvious reasons).
Thanks to the one of our esteemed forum members who was stopping by in
Amsterdam for a GTG recently, I was able to get my movement safely here and so
a few weeks ago with the movement in hand I went off to the watchmaker to ask
him to service the movement and to see if one of my spare IWC enamel dials
would fit the movement/large case (I was confident I had a dial that fitted).
Standing at my jeweler's workbench, I hand him the movement and ask him to
remove the hand and non IWC dial. He looks up to me and says " you sure this
is a Cal. 77 ".
I respond yes. After all, I've used the Date Your IWC utility, and it listed
the movement as follows: The movement is a Lepine calibre 77, dating from
the
year 1919.
He says " … … so how come all the Cal. 77 's I know as well as all the
dials
you brought along here have a seconds sub dial at 6…. and this movement does
not have a seconds hand?"
What the heck? Good question - I'm perplexed! OK, so someone had removed the
seconds pinion and mounted this rather poor redial plate (no legs) over the
movement - right? But then my watchmaker and I stand there and look at the now
removed dial, and it's silver, and it's pressed - meaning it snaps on over the
movement and has no dial legs, as is typical with most IWC pocket watch dials.
We also look for the mounting holes where the dial legs (3x) would be in the
base plate. The holes are there - however all the holes miss the dial leg
clamp spring! Part #7399 (see below).
Clearly, this movement was modified specifically to allow for this specific
dial.
Luckily, the movement, fits perfectly in the IWC case using the existing
mounting ring, and so all I need to do according to my watchmaker is find a
replacement winding stem, as he says the one on the movement is broken off.
When he shows me where it's broken off, I say I had not noticed it before and
he says that's because the dial was turned 180 degrees on the movement, and
that the crown was at the 6 position! Strange.
Took a week or two, but I managed to find a replacement winding stem via eBay.
That was the "easy" part - but now I still needed to find a dial. Come to
think of it, I don't really recall seeing any vintage IWC Cal. 77 enamel dials
without a sub seconds dial.
Let me look at the original dial again. I'm thinking I might need to have one
made up from scratch.
Here's the original silver snap on non IWC dial .
So I start looking to see what an original 19 ligne IWC dial with no seconds
sub dial might look like and do so at the best place on the web to look for
IWC information. This very forum. Unbelievable but true - look what I found -
this 11 year old post from Ralph Ehrismann - Nice Case....and an other
up-side-down pendant
watch-
And guess what? Here (now no longer visible) was this picture of a Pendant
Watch.
A perfect match to my dial and single hand. The movement I have was most
definitely originally cased as a pendant watch, as in the example depicted in
Ralph's post.
I am / was not aware of these IWC Pendant watches, and wrote off to the
Heritage Club in Schaffhausen, to inquire as to this movement of mine. The
reply that I received, read: " The movement was shipped to American
wholesaler Henry Blank in New Jersey (14. May. 1920). It was the movement
only, without the dial and case. The engravings "International Watch Co.
Swiss - 19 Jewels, 6 Adjustments" was made in Schaffhausen
Now, I simply needed to know more! Who was Henry Blank...that name sounds so
familiar.
The Titanic
Indeed Mr. Henry Blank was a very well know person - in fact he was one of a
very few that survived the sinking of the titanic. You can read all about that
here:
[Titanic Survivor - One of only 7 male passengers to Survive
Here we read that Mr. Blank was a Jeweler, and that in the Spring of 1912, he
traveled to Europe to conduct the customary dealings with watch movement
manufacturers in Switzerland and stone dealers in Paris, Belgium and
Amsterdam. No doubt he also visited Schaffhausen, and set up the initial
ground work to later import IWC movements into the USA.
Why is this important - because, thanks to work by Greg Steer we today know
that Mr. Blanks Jewellery Business shared the same address as the later
Cresarrow Case Company.
The book American Jewelry Manufacturers lists the company as follows:
- Whiteside & Blank. Newark, New Jersey JC (indicates Jeweler's circular listing) 1896 N.E. Whiteside & Co. JC 1904 & 1915 Whiteside and Blank
- Succeeded by Henry Blank & Company (q.v.) in 1917
- Products: jewelry Mark: C with arrow through it
But where does the dizygotice twin come into this tale? Please see part # 2 of
A tale of dizygotic twins, the Titanic and a brotherhood of friends for
the answer to that.
I will post part # 2 tomorrow...
[Part # 2](/t/a-tale-of-dizygotic-twins-the-titanic-and-a -brotherhood-of-
friends-part-2/3111/post/234637/)
