Passions Watch Exchange

About This Watch

Vintage. No box/papers & a Passions pouch will be given.

Now a lot of you would have an IWC watch but a pocket watch from the pre-War era, not that many especially one of this calibre in solid gold. This IWC was acquired from our American client. It is a large open face pocket watch measuring a generous 55mm across and presents very well with it's 14 carat polished Rose Gold case which is solid, heavy & has tight hinges.

It has triple hinged covers sandwiching the mid-case with the bezel, back cover & inner dust-cover folding up like a clamshell. The round "Probus Scafusia IWC", IWC factory sign is stamped on the inside of the back cover while the surface of the polished gold dust cover is engraved with International watch Co Schaffhausen. The case band has a couple of dents at 9 & 10 o'clock but nothing major while there is a visible dent mark on the edge of the inner dust cover near 8 o'clock and a faint dent near 1 o'clock. All covers close tight and opens well with a knife so the dents are negligible. This is an open-face pocket watch so there is no protective cover that springs open with a push on the crown and that would be known as a Hunter-case.

The beautiful white enamel-porcelain dial is in excellent condition while the factory name is gracefully signed in full using fancy script font and many early IWC watches were not signed on the dials. There are some fine hairline fractures on the edge between 9-10 & 2-3 o'clock but they are very faint and obscured when the cover is closed. Most importantly, there are no major fault lines across the dial.

The bow (ring) is stamped with multiple gold hallmarks including the Squirrel for 14 karat and the crown looks original with matching colour and fit. The frosted brass movement is again stamped with the round "Probus IWC Scafusia" factory signature on the main bridge. The serial numbers on the movement & case traces this watch back to circa 1912.

Overall, this is a very beautiful IWC pocket watch in solid gold and the movement is in mint condition which is the most important feature for pocket watch collectors.

It takes twenty rounds on the crown to fully wind up the watch. We have just cleaned, lubricated and adjusted the movement so it is doing +/-15 secs per day now which is quite remarkable for a century old movement. For less than S$5000, you can own this in-house manufacture watch with a heavy gold case and enamel dial.