new addition: Cal 52 with porcelain dial

I just received my latest addition to my IWC collection. A pocketwatch Cal. 52 from 1910 with a perfect porcelain dial.

I believe it's an enamel dial....

Hi Franz,

To my knowledge, IWC (and almost all other Swiss watch manufacturers in the 18th and 20th centuries) did not use porcelain for dials. Porcelain, which I believe is a form of vitreous china, is too fragile for watch dials.

Instead, they almost all use brass bases that then were enameled, producing the high gloss. By today's standards, enamel dials are uncommon and expensive in contemporary watches, but they were quite common back in 1910 and generally used on pocket watches.

As you may know, Ralph Ehrismann probably owns more cal. 52s than anyone in the world, and they come with many small variations, especially in the regulator. Cal. 52s (and its companion cal. 53 in the Savonette configuration) are "workhorse" movements and almost 500,000 were produced over about 50 years.

Yours in a nice example due to the Breguet numerals. I perosnally like the older watches like these --they seem to have their own sense of history.

Michael

you are right, its an enamel dial....

.. i just used the wrong word.

PW question for MF...

I am surprised that in my watch hunting excursions in the NE that I don't see many IWC PW's. Since Mr. Jones initially had his PW made in CH for his USA business, I thought I would run into more of them on this side of the pond. Maybe the early production numbers were small and the bulk of production came later for European consumption. Or, Maybe I am looking in the wrong places.

Bill

Simple and lovely.

about the US Pocket Watch market...

Hi Bill,

Yes, originally Mr. Jones made his watches primarily for the US market, but those numbers were small (reports exist that about 24,000 Jones were made over 6 or so years). After that, few IWCs were exported to the US until the 1920s, when some Cal. 77s with CresArrow cases were exported (and those numbers were small too). By the 1930s, there was a shift to wristwatches and, of course, production was small --it was the Depression.

During this same period (roughly 1870-1940) there were many millions of really fine US pocket watches, all sold in the US market --names like Elgin, Hamilton, Illinois and many others. And, truth be told, their quality on the whole was much better than all but a handful of Swiss makers like Patek and Vacheron.

You won't find many pocket watches at stores --and, if so, they're usually an heirloom traded in. You will find them on specialty Internet sites and also NAWCC shows in the US. But if you go to a typical NAWCC show --which is 80% pocket watches-- you'll see thousands of Hamiltons. etc. --and maybe 2 or 3 IWCs. (I reported on one or two NAWCC shows in archived posts).

On the other hand, when I went to a show in Zurich (also reported here) there were a good dozen plus IWC pocket watches, and almost no Ameican ones. The same was true when I went to one Basel, and I suspect it's true for the vintage watch shows in Germany.

Regards,
Michael

Looks great, congratulations!

Thanks, Michael, It is much as I suspected

I am a member of the NAWCC, but have not gone to one of the regional shows, but I plan to soon. I have been to the Museum in Columbia, PA where there are many American PW's, some VC's, a beautiful Lange, but no IWC's on display.

Bill