English Pocketwatch around 1900

[romy]

Dear all,

quite recently I bought an antique English silver pocketwatch which is presumed to be made by F.Reed & Son in Cambridge (according to the inscription within the casing) around 1900. I bought the object because I personnaly thought it to be quite a nice artefact but now I find that the thing has made me quite curious and I would very much like to know more about it. A quicke google search didn't provide me with any leads on the watch's maker nor its silver marking. I hope that someone on this forum can help me to learn more about my watch. Therefore I added three pictures, respectively of the watch's front, of its back and one of its silver marking inside the casing.

I will be very gratefull with any reply.

With kind regards,

[jcmurp]

Hi,
Well I can't exactly help but, I have the same mark (see my post "fine silver on pocket watch") Only thing I have found is that supposably fine silver is anything greater then 925 (ie 935) but mine also has a S stamped in it. Hope you get some info.

[romy]

In words of terminology I actually found out the same, that suposedly fine silver is 99.9999 percent pure while stirling silver is an alloy which contains 7,5% copper or a similar replacement. However I also found out that this copper is needed to provide silver objects with sufficient strength for normal use and that fine silver is actually to soft to be used to craft an object such as a pocket watch. Therefore I think the object is silver plated instead of made out of a silver alloy. But off course I could be wrong.

By the way, i think we both have the same or a very similar model of pocket watch in our possession. As this is the third time now that I find the same model of watch I do not believe that I have ran into something extraordinary valuable or something, but I am still curious. So any help is still welcome!!

Thank you in advance!

[jcmurp]

Actually, as classified in a book I have,925 or 0,925 or 92.5% is classified as sterling. Fine as anything 93.5 or higher. 800 as coin

[romy]

Thank you for your contribution jcmurp.

I took a look around at the forum and next to mine and jcmurp's postings I found a third post by cmg201 which also concerns a pocket watch with the "fine silver" mark. The watch of jcmurp seems to be quite similar to mine but judging only from the front of the watch I can't tell whether there is a true difference. The watch of cmg201 looks very similar as well but the engravings on the back of his watch are different from the engravings on the back of my watch.

As there are now three people looking for any leads on this mark and their watch without any replies, I really hope that someone is able to tell us more. Any lead will be highly appreciated!

many thanks!

R

Hi everyone,
I found this old key wind/set pocketwatch in some of my grandfathers stuff. I am curious about age,origin etc. It has a crown and fine silver. The only other mark is a S. any ideas?
thanks in advance

Hi
I have a watch case marked "FINE SILVER" with a Crown, and an 'elongated' hexagon with (I think, as it's hard to see) the word "ARGENT" written above it. Does this mean that the case is plated in fine silver, or is it silver? I can't see any other identifying marks (city, year etc.).