Project Pocket Watch completed!

I own meanwhile a number of IWCs, and am super happy with them. However, I felt there was still something missing in my collection. Is an IWC collection anyway to be be complete without an IWC pocket watch, I was thinking?
On the other hand I am not a PW guy. I love to wear all of my IWCs in turn, and how many occasions would I have to be dressed in a way to wear a pocket watch?

So it needed to be a pocket watch which somehow fits to me. So the research
started. It became quite fast clear that the PW needed to be an RM ... I am italian, working for a company which has its main offices in Turin. Therefore a Rete Mediterranea would be the ideal fit.

With the help (or shall I better say the brute force) of master enabler Mark, I was able to secure this beautiful piece:

What a beautiful piece. It was sold to RM in March 1899. But look at the dial:

That is a beautiful dial, but not the dial it was sold with back in 1899. Can I live with that? Certainly not! So the project continued, now searching the right dial.
And again, who else than Mark would be able to help bringing this project to an happy end? To be honest, I have no clue how he managed, but here it is, the watch in its original status. Project completed.

I am so happy with this beauty.

Mark is a master enabler but even better at getting the details right. I wouldn't have the patience but you went to the right guy. It's really cool.
Ok Mark, how did you do it?

Congratulations Gio. I kink of followed along with Mark as he was doing the enabling and searching. The finished project is perfect. You guys are a team working on each other.

Very nice PW and congratulations on the purchase and succesful project. I like the dial, can you name it a 24 hours dial ??

Great end result, Giovanni! I now hope Mark can make his magic, and find a part I need for an old PW- Mark, are you listening? - your sorcery is needed again!

Nelson

Fantastic PW Giovanni and well done Mark for finding the correct dial. An IWC pocket watch is really special and a rail grade watch even more so! Nicely done Gentlemen :-)

@ Klonk - no that is not a 24hr dial. A 24hr dial has The full 24-hour scale shown on the dial. The day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This watch, like many railroad watches show both the 12hr and 24hr time scales.

The following article from "The Jewelers' Circular and Horological Review" from June 1897 states that Italian railroads adopted 24 hour time notation "a few years ago"

Does anyone know if the watches IWC delivered prior (as early as December 1891, page 64 Watch International 1/2003) had normal dials and it was only after the adoption of 24 hour notation that watches with those dials were delivered?

Also an exact date of the adoption of 24 hour time notation by the Italian railroads might help.

Cheers from the cellar

Bravo Giovanni. Well done indeed. Bringing the truth to a vintage IWC is always a worthy project.

It is a beautiful watch, Giovanni! The finished "project" was well worth your patience. Congratulations!

Lovely watch and well worth the effort.
Enjoy it.

Giovanni my man, what a watch AND with a 24-hour dial!

Fantastic acquisition and great that your friend Mark was able to 'recreate' the ideal PW (as it should be).

Wear it in good health!

Kind regards,

B.

another wonderful story of the great camaraderie created from the iwc forum...

mark - the true MASTER enabler!

regards,
thang

Congrats Giovanni, wonderful project and end result!

Now, don't push this to much on the Forum - you have already planted some thoughts in my brain - I have stayed out of the pocket watch segment so far, but who knows what's now gonna happen ;-)

Best
/Anders

Very interesting "save" project here - restoring something to it's original state. But the real beauty lies indeed in the fact that this is one of the first batch of in total 300 watches that IWC eventually sold to the RM company in Turin officially known as (Società per le Strade Ferrate del Mediterraneo).

Dr. Seyffer originally believed it had a different dial - but today concurs that this is the "RM Watch" dial.

Congratulations, Giovanni. A good story and a very fine watch.

Congrats Giovanni! That's a terrific project seen through to completion; wonderfully enabled and supported by Mark too.

Ottima!

True beauty! Big congratulations for this project. Well done and deserved!

Wow, what a great pocket watch and story! Mark is indeed a great enabler, he's very hard to resist!

Kind regards,

Clemens

Excellent Giovanni! Very cool PW and a nice story. I heard a lot of the details from Mark yesterday. Some of them quite funny! And I have just had a similar experience which I will post about soon. Very nice!

Thanks Mark and Cellar, so 24H notation it is !

A true 24 hour dial

It is great to see we have here many other people caring about pocket watches. MANY THANKS !

Concerning the 24 h dials:
In the International Watch Co sales book this dials were officially called
"cadr 24h 2tours" meaning 24h dial in 2 rounds"
So it is officially a 24 h dial.

But it is correct: There where also rare (true?) 24 h dials in 1 round (As shown in the picture)

kind regards

Ralph

Beautiful 24H dial Clepsydra, there is certainly a difference !
A true 24 hour dial
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