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Hello,

I would be grateful for any clues as to decifering this gold mark. It is on a Longines pocket watch from the year 1912. Assembled in Lviv (Lwów), which at the time was in the Austrian Empire. I was told by a watchmaker that in those days Longines and other Swiss companies sent theh finished watch mechanism and other parts to selected watchmakers in other countries to be assembled there and thereby avoiding the horrendous import duties levied on completed Swiss watches. This particular Longines was a assembled by Jan Seltenreich.

The hallmark on the stem below the stem-winder is too small to photograph properly. Here is a drawing of what I can make out with a strong magnifying glass. To the right of the AV inversion there might be part of a letter or sign that wasn't fully stamped on to the watch. The smaller A with a 1 under it is much fainter and simpler than the main AV mark.





Click on the photos for a larger view.

Thanks in advance for any ideas.

Hi,

Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867-1922; an import mark was struck on an item to show that an import duty or tax had been paid to the state and that the item was now legal for trade. The import marks used from 1867 until 1922 were designed with conjoined letters AV, Auslandsverkehr, and meaning foreign goods. Your mark, although not in a circle but according to your drawing in a rectangle, perhaps for watch cases could stand for; gold used from 1872-1902, incorporated assay office letter in the mark; A for Wien/Vienna and numeral 1 could be for first standard, being 920 fineness or 22K gold.

Oel.

Source; World Hallmarks volume I

I greatly appreciate your thorough answer and knowing its source.

I hope to someday be of help to you or others in this forum.

S

Hello!
A1 was the assay office in Wiener Neustadt. This mark doesn't show the fineness.
Regards!
Krisztián

Thanks Krisztián

That is news to me that A1 is Wiener Neustadt and not Vienna and 22 ct. Especially with gold one would expect a finesse mark.

Hello SwissSilverBuff!
Sorry for disapponting you with my news.
Herer are the import marks for Austria-Hungary 1867-1937.:

As you can see, it doesn't refer the fineness.
Here is a part of the list of the assay offices:

including the Wiener Neustadt assay office:

This assay office's code appeard all the hungarian assay marks, include the import marks.
Some different (for gold and silver) examples for import marks:


As you can see, now I don't have the same mark, that you have, but I think, my examples shows, how this offices worked. And you can see a silver import mark from Wiener Neustadt, 1902-1937.
I hope, this helps!
Yours Sincerelly
Krisztián