This post is about a century old IWC pocket watches.
Although not entirely IWC. At the start of the 1900, IWC had already behind it the era of the Jones Pocket Watches, The Seeland calibers and the Pallweber "digital" Pocket Watches. The famous cal.52,57 and 65 had begun to conquer the market of Pocket Watches successfully.
The pocket watches of those days were Lepines or Hunters. In the latter, the dial side was covered by a lid that snapped over the the glass. On the back side the movement was protected by one or two lids, fixed to the case by a hinge. Insuch way the movement was protected against dust, moist and touch, but in no way ,it was waterproof.
In 1856, Francois Borgel was born in Geneva. He thought that the classic watch cases could be improved and without stating that his "system" made a pocket watch waterproof, he claimed that his solution protected a movement better than the classic one with hinges.Francois Borgel developed a system where the complete movement, included the dial, hands and crystal, were screwed as one complete unit , into the case(see image). For that the crown had to be pulled out, being the locking system and than the complete movement could be screwed out, anti clockwise. In his patent of 1891 Borgel reports :
"The patented solution was the design of a "one piece" pocket watch case. The movement, completed with dial and hands, is fitted in an outer screw threaded movement holder. The bezel, completed with glass, is a secure press fit onto the top of the movement holder. the movement holder then be screwed into the case, which has a matching inner screwed thread. Fitted to the case is a spring loaded winding button and square section stem assembly, which requires to be partially withdrawn to enable the movement to be fully inserted. A simple locking device stops the movement being screwed in too far and allows for accurate locating of the stem into the movement when released."
The Borgel case was never adopted by IWC. However, IWC made a contract with Stauffer in London in 1897. Stauffer bought large quantities of Swiss pocket watch movements, included IWC's.
Once the movements arrived, Stauffer fitted the IWC movements into a Borgel case. The Borgel case was from 1910 onwards, also used for wrist watches, which started to became popular. Caiber 64, originally a ladies pocket watch, became not only IWC's first wrist watch but also it has been mounted in a Borgel case by Stauffer. Many of the pocket watches issued by Borgel did not have the IWC logo on dial . Even the movements were "different". They were signed as "peerless" but the IWC connaisseurs recognised the 100 % IWC movements immediately by it stamps that were sometimes visible and sometimes hidden under movement parts. Much of the data that I present originate from the late IWC pocket watch collector Friedrich Wagener. Together with him , I wrote an article on his now deleted(unfortunately) IWC website.
Friedrich, this one is for you.
Kind regards,
Adrian.
